Favorite songs to listen to in the hallway 

PHS Takes: Favorite songs to listen to in the hallway 

ump-backed  candidates  in  four  other  swing  states  (a  number  that  may  rise  to  five  if  Raphael  Warnock  wins   the   Georgian   runoff   in   early   December),   Democrats  have  managed  to  keep  control  of  the  Senate,   despite   both   inflation   and   Biden’s   low   approval rate being stacked against them, and the fact that  the  incumbent  party  historically  fares  terribly  in  these  elections.  The  anticipated  “red  wave”  didn’t  show  up  during  this  year’s  midterms  —  voters  were  wary  of  Republican  candidates’  lies  about  election  fraud  and  the  broadly  unpopular  reversal  of  Roe  v.  Wade,  among  other  reasons.  More  interesting,  however, are what the results of the election actually mean,  especially  in  the  context  of  our  high  school.Although plenty of students at PHS were keeping an eye on the midterm results, or at least vaguely rooting for one party to win, this support is often purely based on disliking the political party they want to see lose, or “liking” the political party they want to see win, instead of  focusing  on  the  actual  legislative  and  political  implications of the midterm results. Still, the fact that the  Democrats  won  the  Senate  this  year  will  affect  every PHS student, no matter whether they consider themselves    Republican,    Democratic,    or    neither.Let’s  start  with  the  political  implications  of  the  midterms. For PHS students who consider themselves Republican,  the  clear  shift  in  the  electorate  away  from  Trump-backed  candidates  (the  majority  of  the  candidates  for  the  US  Senate  in  swing  states  that  he  endorsed  lost)  and  the  massive,  20-point  victory  of  Ron  Desantis  (who  is  considered  a  major  rival  to  Trump  for  the  2024  candidacy)  in  the  Florida  gubernatorial   race   means   that   their   party   is   on   rocky  footing.  The  night  after  the  Senate  went  to  the   Democrats,   Republican   senators   from   many   states  that  voted  solidly  for  Trump  in  2020  sought  to  distance  their  party  from  the  former  president.  The   reason   Trump-backed   candidates   lost   in   battleground  states  is  the  same  reason  that  it’s  good  for  everyone  at  PHS  that  they  did  —  they  parroted  the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and planned to  restrict  free  elections  in  their  own  states.  The  Republican   party   has   been   spreading   autocratic   rhetoric  since  Trump  lost  in  2020,  culminating  in  the insurrection on January 6 last year and the rise of political violence across the board, such as the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Democratic Speaker  of  the  House.  In  order  for  our  democracy  to   function,   which   any   student   at   PHS   would   agree  is  important  (look  to  Russia  for  an  example  of   what   happens   when   it   doesn’t),   Republicans   needed  a  clear  refutation  of  their  election  lies  at  the  ballot  box,  and  the  midterms  gave  them  just  that.From  a  policy  standpoint  too,  the  midterms  are  consequential  at  PHS.  Even  though  the  Republicans  narrowly took the House, a Democratic majority in the Senate means three things for President Biden. First, he can block Republican legislation that could’ve been passed if the GOP took both the House and the Senate. That’s important because Republicans would’ve tried to both overturn some of Biden’s previous legislation.This includes his groundbreaking climate legislation, which  will  help  to  ensure  that  everyone  at  PHS  inherits  a  world  that’s  not  too  hot  to  support  life,  as  well  as  bills  like  the  Inflation  Reduction  Act,  which  caps the price for medicines that many students need, and the biggest gun violence reduction act in 30 years, a  topic  that’s  unfortunately  on  many  high  schooler’s  minds.  Additionally,  Republicans  could  have  passed  their  own  legislation  with  control  of  both  chambers  of  Congress,  with  potentially  disastrous  results  for  students   at   PHS.   Republican   states   have   passed   policies  that  restricted  rights  for  LGBT  students,  restricted   voting   access   for   eligible   seniors,   and,   most  importantly,  censured  teachers  from  talking  about  important  issues  like  gender  identity  or  race.But    perhaps    the    most    important    impact    of    Democrats  winning  the  Senate  is  one  that  is  lesser  known.  Senate  Minority  Leader  Mitch  McConnell  warned  that  if  Republicans  took  the  Senate,  they  would  block  Democratic  judges  from  confirmation.  Already,   during   Biden’s   first   two   years   in   office,   Democrats  confirmed  84  federal  judges,  and  since  they   still   control   the   Senate   after   the   midterms,   that  momentum  is  unlikely  to  stop.  Biden’s  judges  are  much  more  racially  and  ideologically  diverse  than   Trump’s,   which   is   significant   because   they   serve   for   life,   ruling   on   our   nation’s   laws   for   generations.  That  means  that  students  at  PHS  will  benefit  from  rulings  favoring  climate  bills,  social  security  nets,  and  the  bodily  autonomy  of  women.  Politics can be dismal and outright scary. However, the state of affairs in our country is something for PHS students  to  research  and  reckon  with,  not  shy  away  from. Hopefully, this article has made the complicated world of politics a bit more digestible. But we should all put in the effort to learn about the implications that elections  have  on  our  everyday  lives,  because  when  people care about the politics that surround them, they are able to make decisions both at the ballot box and in their everyday lives that benefit those around them.

A guide to the midterms at PHS

It’s 12:30 a.m., and you have a lab report and an essay due tomorrow morning. Or is it this morning? Your brain is too tired and caffeine-charged to know—the only thing you are sure about is that your teachers are out to get you. It can sometimes feel like PHS is a big diabolical machine, the days populated by robotic teachers handing out assignment after assignment, the nights overrun by the task of completing the arduous paperwork that was handed out in the classroom. This, of course, is not the case. The vast majority of their teachers are kind, dedicated human beings, and above all, they want you to succeed. Yes, some of them could do better, but believe it or not, they are not completely to blame for all of your headaches. 
   For one, students should be aware of the time and effort that is required from advanced or AP classes before enrolling in five of them. They should ask themselves questions like: can I take AP English if I have soccer practice three days a week? If a student has to stay up until the twilight hours of the morning working on assignments, it is almost always that they have either overloaded themselves, or have waited until the last minute to complete them. 
   Unfortunately, many of the avenues that teachers try to construct to help students find success in their classes are highly underutilized. Office hours, for example, are one of the best ways that students can make sure they fully understand the skills and concepts that were covered in class, since they can ask any questions they might have directly to the teacher. With a resource that powerful, it seems like every single student would want to go to as many of these office hour sessions as possible, but instead, only a select few regularly attend. Because the office hours are so helpful, and demonstrate commitment to the class at hand, these students are almost unanimously the ones who get the highest grades on assessments. This creates almost a paradox—only the students who are already doing well continue to go to office hours, whereas the students who could benefit the most from them don’t. Students should try to attend teachers’ office hours regularly, even if they don’t have any burning questions—though they should make sure that they know what they wish to discuss beforehand. Speaking from personal experience, Dr. Corell, who teaches AP Chemistry, regularly encourages students to come to his room during lunch to work through homework and practice problems. After all, the single best place to do your chemistry homework is right beside your chemistry teacher.
   There are also plenty of other avenues for getting in touch with a teacher about the subject matter other than office hours, like emailing them with questions or asking about anything that seems confusing during class time. PHS teachers don't want to make their content unnecessarily hard, and even though it can feel like some concepts are intentionally confusing, these are the very problems students should ask about. If a teacher realizes that the entire class is stuck on one problem, they’re likely to go over it again for everyone. No teacher wants their students to feel lost.
   Teachers don’t want their students to miss a homework assignment either! Although it’s pretty common for students to say that they “didn’t know there was homework” if they miss an English reading or a math worksheet, many teachers already have systems to solve this problem. Pretty much every teacher at PHS has a schedule where students can find the homework assignments that are due every week embedded on their Canvas page. Whether it comes in a slide show, a Google Doc, or even an expansive spreadsheet that covers homework assignments for the entire year, these schedules can help make sure that students never have to turn in homework late just because they forgot it existed. It’s just like the textbooks that teachers send home at the beginning of the year, or the tutoring sessions that take place at the Ideas Center — the tools students need to succeed have already been handed to them, and the only thing stopping many students from scoring well on tests is that they haven’t started to use them yet.
   There are many more specific problems that students might have in their classes, like feeling as though the readings are too dense, or wanting to redo a problem on the test because you never learned one of the earlier math concepts that it included, that these methods might not directly address. Still, if students go into their classrooms remembering who teachers really are (humans who are passionate about helping their students succeed and sharing knowledge) instead of thinking of them as machines they have to “bypass” in order to get an A, it’s hard to imagine a world in which they wouldn’t see an increase in their grades as well, and, perhaps even more importantly, an increase in the amount that they’re enjoying their classes.


How not to fail

PHS Takes: How do we like to use our free periods?

 Most people tend to stick to friend groups where all the participants share similar political beliefs. It’s much easier to be friends with someone if you’re able to bring up politics without immediately wanting to yell at each other, but unfortunately, what’s easy isn’t always what’s best for our high school community. Fostering discourse with people who have different political opinions than you is vital because politics becomes highly sectionalized and extremist when open lines of communication don’t exist where Democrats, Republicans, and third-party supporters can all share their views. The Asper Institute supports this idea, explaining in 2018 that when you talk to people outside of your usual political spectrum, you both begin to care about each other more despite your political differences, a key first step in rebuilding our seemingly derelict American democracy.
   Of course, you’re probably heard this spiel before, but if you’re like most Americans, you’re still a little unsure of how to actually discuss political issues with people that you’re sure you could never agree with. Thankfully, the process is pretty simple. All you have to do is find someone with different political beliefs than you, which shouldn’t be too hard, as it’s extremely unlikely that someone agrees with you about everything. Even at PHS, where it can seem like most of the school leans liberal, you can find students who don’t share your policy priorities by joining a new club, or sitting with a new group of kids at lunch. Then, once you’ve found a new friend (or an old one who you want to start discussing politics with), talk to them! Your conversation doesn't have to be about politics at first (and probably shouldn’t be, because you don’t want to appear confrontational), but if you take the brave first steps towards shifting the conversation to that domain, there are a few things to keep in mind.
   First of all, frame the talk you two are going to have as a discussion, rather than as an argument,, and don’t go into that discussion hoping to “win”. Every time two people have a conversation, they create a discursive space. Imagine that your space (which you can leave at any time) is valuable, and worth maintaining and protecting, and it’s both of your jobs to make sure that sharing information and listening to each other's opinions is valued over just trampling over each other’s viewpoints. You shouldn’t prepare clever comebacks, or damning one-liners — as long as that discursive space is one where you can listen to your friend, and where both of you can take each others insights and use them for the better, it’s a space worth being in.
   It’s also important to remember that your friend isn’t wholly responsible for the political issue you two are discussing. It’s important not to immediately jump to anger, even though almost every issue you two will discuss probably has real world implications that could end up hurting people both of you care about. You two are not the arbiters of which policies are actually passed, but by communicating calmly about the policies that are up for discussion, you can have a productive conversation that makes it more likely a solution you can both agree upon can come into being. 
   There are times where it’s better for you to unceremoniously exit a conversation, rather than trying to keep it going against your better judgment. If your friend says something blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, or simmilarly problematic, it’s okay to step out of the discussion. You shouldn’t feel like you have to bear deeply hurtful comments just to have a conversation with a classmate, and it might be smart to get a teacher or administrator involved. Additionally, if either of you get heated enough over a political issue to just start throwing personal attacks at each other, you can and should just leave the conversation.
   You should treat the conversation you two will have as an almost academic one. Recognize that your friend, no matter how outlandish their opinion may seem to be, probably has plenty of valid and important pieces of information to share with you. Actively listen to what they say, instead of nodding along while secretly preparing for a witty retort. If you are not familiar with a topic, then say so! If you have nothing to really share about something, it’s probably not a topic worth spending time on. Move on, find where your opinions clash, and discuss that issue together.
   It’s likely that neither of you will have changed each other's opinions by the end of your conversation. That’s okay. What you will have done is created a space where you can understand and communicate with each other better, both during the conversation and in the future. That is the single most important first step towards rebuilding connections within our fractured political sector, and it is something that we should all strive towards, if American democracy is really something we value.





How to talk to friends with different political beliefs 

APs and random cold days are no more — summer is here! When the school year comes to a close on June 20, the next few months should be filled with respite and relaxation. Unfortunately, for many students at PHS, the opposite is true. Even though the school year has ended, their work is just beginning.
   Many students choose to spend their summers taking PHS classes in order to get ahead of the rest of their grade level. By taking classes like Accelerated Chemistry or Accelerated Geometry over the summer, students hope to be able to take more rigorous and advanced courses during the actual school year. Even more alluring is the potential opportunity to take a class at Princeton University in junior or senior year, which is made available if students exhaust the courses at PHS. The opportunity cost of simply relaxing over summer break is often too much for students (and their parents). But choosing to take summer courses comes with a cost of its own: these courses are incredibly intense. They pack nine months’ worth of content into six weeks, and not only do the grades end up on the student’s final transcript, which means that they are just as stress-inducing as normal classes, but the classes are incredibly long. Participants endure six consecutive hours of sitting in a classroom from Monday through Thursday, all the way from June 27 to August 1. That’s two-thirds of the entire summer. 
   Then, after kids have spent weeks and weeks stressing over nine months worth of tests, and paid $1500 for the course in the first place, there’s one last test they must take, which is a final exam that has questions about everything that the summer class has covered. In the case of the summer math program, if a student’s grade in the course up to that point is less than 88 percent, they cannot take the test in the first place, and their summer has been effectively wasted. If they do qualify, the test can only be taken once, and the stakes are incredibly high — if a student scores lower than 90 percent, again, their entire summer has been completely wasted, as they are no longer eligible to advance past that class, and must retake it during the regular school year. 
   It’s not much of a secret that for the most part, students attend these rigorous summer programs — course advancement programs, debate camp, SAT prep camp — to better their academic track record more than to pursue a passion. Many high schoolers, often rising freshmen and sophomores, are dragged into these intense courses before they know whether or not they are passionate about the subject. If anything, the cut and dry nature of these somewhat surface-level summer courses may put students off. Summer is a time for high schoolers to dip their toes into a variety of fields, and to develop genuine interests through their own small projects. Yes, students should pursue their interests to the fullest, but first, they need to know what those interests are. 
   Moreover, PHS students should be using summer as a time to connect with friends and family. During the school year, high schoolers often get home from school or from practice and go straight to their room to finish their homework. Family time is rare, and summer should be used for some much needed catch up. 
   Laying in bed and reading for hours at a time, enjoying ice cream at Community Park Pool, buying popcorn at Communiversity — in elementary school, summer break was heaven. It was a time to take a deep breath, lay back, and enjoy the company of our friends and family to the fullest. In high school, as we’ve seen, it’s a different story. Summer is now just another opportunity to overtax ourselves with work to prove to colleges that we are better than everyone else. 
   Although PHS students should be spending their precious summers pursuing things that interest them, this should come in the form of a low-stress online course, or camps where, over the duration of just one or two weeks, they can meet new people without any of the academic stress that summer courses bring. Every school year at PHS is insanely stressful, and in order to actually do well in the classes students are interested in, they must use their summers effectively — by relaxing and getting away from the strenuous environment of high school. Worrying about grades and colleges all the time is exhausting; summer is a chance to take a step away from all of that worry.


The case for using summer break as a break

On Thursday, April 21, hundreds of New Jersey citizens woke up early, some at three or four a.m., and stood in a line for hours on end, yawning and slowly inching closer and closer towards their destination. What could prompt so many people to wake up at such an early hour? As it turns out, they were waiting for the opening of New Jersey’s first marijuana dispensaries.

Under the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Act, weed can now be sold to anyone over the age of 21 from dozens of authorized dispensaries scattered across the state. Many New Jersey residents are excited about the change, including Governor Phil Murphy, who called the law a “historic step in our work to create a new cannabis industry.” In many towns and precincts though, there has been significant pushback. Princeton is one of those towns.

In November of 2021, an astounding 75 percent of Princeton voters cast their ballots in favor of legalizing marijuana. Statewide, only 67 percent of New Jersey residents voted the same way. Now that marijuana establishments actually seem to be making their way to Princeton, though, a new wave of anti-weed sentiment has spread through the town. In response to a Town Council proposal to open dispensaries in Princeton, an army of residents voiced their disapproval at a council meeting that ran for several hours. However, these opponents are mistaken. We know a lot about what setting up weed dispensaries would do to Princeton, because we’ve seen what setting up weed dispensaries did in other towns, and practically every result was positive.

Let’s talk about the health risks of smoking marijuana. Many people who are against weed dispensaries defend their stance by citing the adverse and understudied effects of recreational marijuana. At first glance, that argument makes sense — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains that weed can be addictive, and over time, users start to have problems with memory loss and critical thinking. Many Princetonians have taken this to heart: it’s not uncommon to see bright yellow signs adorning lawns, featuring red blocky letters spelling out the slogan of the campaign: “too many unknowns.”

What this argument fails to take into account, though, is that marijuana that comes from federally approved dispensaries is less harmful than marijuana from the black market. The Trulieve Institute writes in a 2020 article that much of the marijuana bought off the street isn’t pure, and doesn’t follow the regulations and safety checks that dispensaries must. That’s why the National Institute on Drug Abuse writes that street marijuana has volatile, unpredictable effects that can be deadly. Jean-Gabriel Fernandez writes in 2019 that “teenagers and young adults – are disproportionately at risk of being harmed by predatory dealers and low-quality products.” For all Americans, weed coming from a dispensary is safer than the alternative, and leads to less of the harmful side effects of smoking pot that critics are worried about.

Of course, an easy retort to this is that creating dispensaries makes the drug more accessible, which entices more high schoolers to do weed and overshadows the benefits of safer marijuana. However, Amy Morin writes for the mental health organization Verywell Mind in 2022 that practically every single high schooler that wants weed can already get it, which is why a third of high schoolers have tried the drug, and 75 percent of seniors are confident that they could get their hands on it if they wanted to. Establishing dispensaries in Princeton wouldn’t normalize weed – it is already normalized. It would still be illegal for teens to use the drug when dispensaries are established in Princeton, so students would still have to use the black market to make purchases. In fact, a study conducted by the CDC just last year found that among high schoolers, legalizing marijuana actually led to a small decrease in the number of adolescents who smoke weed. That’s because by shrinking the black market, dispensaries decrease teens’ access to the substance.

Moreover, weed dispensaries will help our town achieve social justice. Udi Ofer writes just last month in Planet Princeton that our town suffers from the over-policing of marijuana among adults, which systematically discriminates against Black residents. From 2000-2013, 50 percent of Princeton marijuana arrests locked up or fined Black people, even though Princeton is only six percent Black. Anyone arrested on a cannabis charge can be fired from their job, face up to half a year in jail, and even lose their public housing or immigration status. By putting legal dispensaries in our town, we can reaffirm the statewide decision legalizing marijuana, and make sure nobody in Princeton gets unjustly locked up for purchasing or selling weed illegally.

Considering all of this, the anti-dispensary hysteria in Princeton is unfounded. Dispensaries will ensure safer marijuana for Princeton residents, help to end the racialized policing that’s plagued Princeton for decades, and may even decrease weed usage within our school. Although us students won’t be the ones lining up at three in the morning, waiting for our Princeton weed outlet to open, we’re excited for the day when other residents will have that opportunity.

Princeton’s marijuana scare

Re-entering school last year felt slightly eerie for almost every PHS student. It was undoubtedly strange to experience all of the quirks that in-person education brings — picking up lunch in the cafeteria, rushing to get to our classes on time, and, of course, listening to the Pledge of Allegiance every morning.

When PHS Building Monitor Scott Goldsmith comes on the loudspeaker every morning with the Pledge, a peculiar mix of reactions can be seen among students in the hallway. Some stand still, desperately glancing around for the nearest American flag to salute, and some try to ignore the Pledge altogether, walking through the halls briskly, gazes fixated on the floor beneath them. The pledge had once been so deeply ingrained in students’ minds that no one stopped to think about the meaning of the words being recited. But when students heard the Pledge ringing in their ears for the first time in almost two years this September, many of them began to question it. The Pledge, many students realized, is deeply problematic.

The Pledge’s roots are fairly innocuous — its original prose, “I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” was written in August 1892 by a minister named Francis Bellamy. In 1932, the words “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. Finally, and most worryingly, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower added the words “under God” to the Pledge in 1954, in order to counter a growing “Communist threat.” This addition undeniably associates religion with patriotism, which is dangerous. One of Eisenhower’s close friends, Reverend George Docherty, advocated strongly for the addition of the phrase, proclaiming in a sermon Eisenhower attended that “if you deny the Christian ethic, you fall short of the American ideal of life” . This sentiment is problematic, especially when it’s so integral to a pledge that every public school in New Jersey has to recite. Being patriotic should not be tied to one single religion. Even though the Pledge never directly mentions the Christian God (although it’s heavily implied), the phrasing “under God” excludes people who follow polytheistic faiths, as well as those who simply aren’t religious. By claiming that “liberty” and “justice” are ideals that can only be achieved under the watchful eye of God, the pledge tells non-religious students that these ideals are inaccessible to them.

By forcing students to listen to the Pledge of Allegiance, New Jersey’s legislation is in violation of one of the pillars that our country is built on: the separation of church and state. Even the daughter of Francis Bellamy, the minister who wrote the initial pledge, was unhappy about the injection of God into his original sentence.

The Pledge of Allegiance is also a representation of the unnecessary amount of nationalism that surrounds the U.S. educational system as a whole. Section 18A:36–3 of New Jersey’s 2013 Revised Statutes requires U.S. flags in every classroom and auditorium in the state. This can lead many students to equivocate our flag with freedom and justice, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The United States is a nation built on the backs of enslaved peoples, a nation whose ex-president called Putin’s moves in Ukraine “genius,” and a nation where imperialism and needless proxy wars have often dominated our foreign policy. Often, our country’s messaging to the public is anything but free and just. During the Second Red Scare, when the United States was hysterical about the influx of communism across the globe, we published huge amounts of political propaganda and investigated innocent citizens that were suspected of being communists. Since America fails to hold up to traditionally “American” ideals, the flag does not represent them. By pledging allegiance to the flag, instead of promising to uphold freedom and justice, one is promising to uphold the United States’ superiority to other countries. Propaganda does not belong in our school.

PHS is better off without nationalism. The Pledge of Allegiance, where we praise America for being a country of liberty thanks to us being “under God,” is archaic and doesn’t belong in our school district. But, the state of New Jersey mandates that we recite the pledge every morning. It may seem that PHS students and staff are powerless against this infringement upon our rights. But, there can only be hope for change if we raise our voices to condemn the mandate. If we take meaningful action against this fundamentally flawed practice, it has the power to make the beginning of our school days a little less uncomfortable.

Our school would be better off without propaganda

Scheduling season at PHS is always hectic. Students scramble to sign up for the most rigorous classes the school has to offer. Many students hope to construct transcripts that only serve to impress colleges, sometimes by taking six or more Advanced Placement classes in a single year. At PHS, it’s no secret that grade anxiety, unbearable workloads, and chronic stress are commonplace. In a school where the students’ merit is often linked to the number of AP courses in their schedule, passions and hobbies can take a back seat. Still, many students who have incorporated the arts into their schedules have found the decision to be a good one. Whether it be the shedding of stress, the opportunity to make new friends, or the discovery of new passions, signing up for a visual & performing arts course can be one of the most worthwhile things one will do in high school.

Arts classes can provide a refuge from the stress and monotony of an average school day. During weeks filled with tests or other nerve-wracking assignments, arts classes are a time to relax and do something stress-free and enjoyable.. Instead of sitting behind a desk all day listening to a seemingly unending string of mind-numbing lectures, you could be helping create an orchestral symphony or painting beautiful landscapes. Through arts classes, you have an hour every day to sit back and forget about academics.

The workload that many PHS students wrestle with can also hinder their social lives. Arts courses can help alleviate this issue — they are a great space for meeting new people. Visual and performing arts classes provide an opportunity to meet other students who share your interests and passions and to craft meaningful, lasting friendships. Joe Bongiovi, an instrumental music teacher at PHS, often says that “band is like a family.” In band, students spend hours rehearsing together in and out of school. Whether that be in the band room at Tiger Time or at someone’s house on the weekends, students always find a way to rehearse, jam, and bond. Many students stay in arts classes such as visual arts, Drama, band, and orchestra for multiple years in high school, allowing for deeper bonds to form between students and teachers. In visual arts classes, students are often left to their own devices, and small talk serves as the perfect backdrop for the making of an art piece. In the performing arts, friendships are further solidified by the performances that the programs hold, which can form long-lasting memories. Twenty years from now, it’ll be the memories of the band trip or your solo in the school musical that you’ll cherish the most, not the final exam that you took for your AP Calculus class.

Arts classes are less stressful than almost every other course at PHS. Generally, it is not hard to earn a good grade in an arts class, but that’s not to say that these classes don’t require students to work hard. Learning an instrument, for example, takes months of consistent practice. So does learning to paint, to sing, or to act on stage. Still, this is a virtue — unlike regular classes, where it is common for students to cram for tests the day before and forget the content quickly, arts courses show students how to work towards long-term goals. By way of slow, gradual improvement, lifelong passions are born. Students learn how to find motivation and continue working even without the constant threat of an upcoming test or a bad grade. Maybe you have a natural talent for dance which has been unknown to you, or a love for music which you’ve never been able to fully explore. There are classes at PHS that can help you gain the skills needed to explore those passions. Genuine enjoyment, instead of good grades, is what should drive you in these classes.

Putting an arts class into your schedule is an easy way to provide respite from the day-to-day pressures of school. Students in arts classes often look forward to them all day and don’t want them to end — a sharp contrast to many AP courses, which can be a source of dread. Your schedule should not be curated solely to please a third party, like a college or parent. It should be built not only to fulfill your academic ambitions, but also to make you happy and set you up to enjoy your high school experience. Signing up for a visual & performing arts class takes a big step towards this goal, and is something everyone at PHS should consider.

The arts: our escape

THE PROS:

Following winter break, PHS students found themselves in a school wildly different from the one they had left. Students discovered that they had only half the number of classes each day and a school day which ended almost an hour earlier than before. Also, students had enough time for their assignments, extracurriculars, and friends. Teachers could exercise their creativity to plan engaging lessons. For many students and teachers, this new block schedule was a breath of fresh air, vastly improving student and faculty life at PHS.

Before the block schedule, there were usually daily assignments from each class. With the block schedule, on the other hand, assignments were similar in size, but less frequent. Consequently, there was less homework and grading. Moreover, a buffer of at least two days was provided between assignments, meaning that even if one day was especially busy due to extracurriculars or other assignments, a student always had the cushion of a second day to complete an assignment. Thanks to the block schedule, PHS students became less stressed.

Students and teachers also found that they had more time to finish their homework. With this extra time, teachers were able to catch up on grading past assignments, and students were able to catch up on missed assignments. Teachers were also able to use this time to create lessons that were effective and enjoyable. Though the 77-minute period may have seemed intimidating at first, teachers at PHS succeeded in making it engaging. A longer period allowed for more project-based and student-centered activities. There was enough time for longer class discussions, which were seen throughout many English and World Language classrooms. This method of “self-teaching” has been shown to greatly enhance student comprehension. In science classes, the schedule allowed learning to be more easily geared towards hands-on labs. Now that students could work together with their peers, they found themselves more immersed in their classes. Before the block schedule, Gym Classes could be dull because students only got to do one activity throughout the entire period. During the block schedule, students were able to participate in volleyball, floor hockey, and the fitness center all within one period. The block schedule reinvigorated students’ academics, and made classes more enjoyable.

Perhaps the most cherished part of the block schedule, however, was that Tiger Time was built into every single day, instead of just two days a week. Students used this time to meet up with friends and hang out. Friends that that both play instruments would often jam out together in the band room. Any socialization that was lost due to the altered lunch schedule was more than made up for in Tiger Time. Of course, having this period off every day was also a test in students’ time management. Thankfully, students made good use of the it. Clubs had more frequent meetings and enjoyed better engagement from members, and Students who were struggling or confused in their classes used the time to seek the help they needed. The block schedule was a godsend for students and teachers alike. It was introduced as a preventative measure against COVID-19, but was even more effective as a remedy for stress and boredom, in and out of school. If the school wishes to reduce stress and increase student productivity, it should return to the block schedule. Students and faculty will welcome it with open arms.

THE CONS:

During the few weeks that the block schedule was implemented, my lunch break was a consistent source of stress. Everyday, the bell would ring, and I would make my way to where I ate lunch. I was forced to take careful steps so as to not step on someone’s hand or smush a neatly wrapped sandwich. This was the norm in the crowded 190s hallway — the place I ate lunch while the block schedule was in effect. This scenario was mirrored all over the school. The block schedule, just retired by PHS, was harmful for a number of reasons: It created crowded lunch spaces, separated friends, decreased class time, and resulted in a loss of focus.

You’d think that with only a third of the school eating at once, these three lunch periods would be less concentrated. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There was a very limited amount of spaces where eating lunch was permitted. Consequently, large, maskless groups congregated in small, highly populated areas. Furthermore, because friend groups were often split into different lunch periods, students were eating with people that they had never eaten with prior to the block schedule, increasing the number of possible exposures to COVID-19. Instead of minimizing the problems COVID-19 has created at our school, the block schedule only worsened them. With the return of the normal lunch schedule, this issue will likely become less of a concern as students return to their normal eating places and lunch groups.

Socialization is a very important part of high school, and because many of us are already overburdened with both schoolwork and extracurriculars, spending time with friends is more important than ever. Unfortunately, the block schedule interrupted many students’ social lives. Students were often left in the hallways alone because their friends had different lunch schedules — something I certainly don’t miss now that lunch periods are back to normal.

At first glance, the block schedule might seem to increase overall class time because individual block periods are longer. But this is misleading: Classes end almost 50 minutes earlier than in the normal schedule, which creates an overall decrease in synchronous learning time. Even with longer periods, less learning happens every day.

These excessively long class periods aren’t doing any good for our personal or academic self-improvement, either. It’s pretty obvious that the attention span of teenagers is not long. Spending 77 minutes focusing on one single subject is difficult for many PHS students, myself included. At a certain point, staying productive becomes almost impossible. Taking a mental break from work and difficult tasks is incredibly helpful, in regard to both our well-being and our work ethic. In addition to the strain the block schedule places on students, an even heavier burden is placed on teachers. Teachers are struggling to maintain student engagement during these block periods but are still forced to cover content at a breakneck speed due to reduced instructional time.

Although there are some students and staff who did enjoy the block schedule, it ended up hurting our school in a lot more ways than it helped. The block schedule is counterproductive to the school’s efforts to curb the pandemic, prevents socialization, and places pressures on students and teachers. The termination of the block schedule is for the best, and for the sake of our collective mental and physical health, it should not return.

PHS Takes: The block schedule



Taking advantage of looser COVID-19 regulations, thousands have attended music festivals nationwide, finally re-entering the world of live entertainment. However, this shift back to normalcy gives no excuse to concert attendees to behave maniacally and threaten the lives of others; this behavior was exactly what was displayed during Travis Scott’s performance at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas on November 5. Many of us have likely heard about this tragedy, which ended nine innocent lives and injured hundreds more. Social media tributes and news features have flooded our phones and captured our attention. But merely scrolling through Instagram and feeling angry is not enough. In order to cultivate a healthier fan culture, we should hold celebrities accountable and learn from this incident, making active efforts to ensure that this tragedy won’t happen again. To a generation that tends to idolize celebrities, the thought of seeing a favorite musician perform is exhilarating. This fanaticism prompts some young people to pay hundreds of dollars to see artists play packed stadiums filled with intense lights, loud music, and dizzying conditions.

But when fans rush to the stage and trample those in front of them to death, blinded by this obsessive fanaticism, we can clearly see that this unhealthy admiration for celebrities has gone too far. The desperate desire to get close to Travis Scott, to see him up close in-person and breathe the same air as him, cost the lives of nine people. The same booming music that was a source of joy for fans at the festival soon turned into a deafening source of fear for those being suffocated in the crowd. 50,000 people attended Astroworld, despite the pandemic and public health officials still advising against large gatherings. Many of these attendees weren’t supposed to be there in the first place; they didn’t purchase tickets and snuck in illegally. And Travis Scott himself didn’t have an issue with this. Prior to the concert, he posted a tweet that encouraged fans to sneak in, and thousands of young people flooded the venue as a result. The problem was exacerbated when the ticketing company sold more spots than the venue could take.

The situation worsened when Scott yelled at security to “get the f*** back,” starting a chant of “We want rage!” to incite the concert-goers. The people at the front of the crowd, being closest to the stage, feared for their lives with nowhere to escape. Organizers who had authority did nothing to control the havoc. People were literally stepping on each other, injuring hundreds as they danced to the music.

Travis Scott’s response was to continue performing, only briefly pausing for a moment to look into the crowd for a fan who had fainted, even as people were being carried out of the pit on stretchers. After footage of the calamity blew up on social media, Scott issued a hasty apology that seemed insincere, not addressing his role in encouraging fans. As a result, just as they rushed to the stage, avid fans surged to defend him under fire. Many made excuses such as claiming Scott couldn’t see those who were injured or saying that fans could have just left, ignoring or downplaying the fact that lives were unnecessarily lost.

Toxic fan culture prevents celebrities from being held accountable for their shortcomings, however severe. Protecting a public figure at any cost, even elevating them to a god-like status, is the equally toxic polar opposite of “canceling” individuals. Especially since they have impressionable minds receptive to all kinds of information, American youth often fall victim to this type of celebrity fandom. T

ravis Scott’s concert is just one example of the harm celebrity idolization can cause to our age group. When “stanning” celebrities evolves from a hobby into an obsession, it can hinder one’s ability to behave rationally. Think of PHS students who admire someone so much they aim to emulate their idol in almost every way, from the way they dress to the way they speak.

Maybe this doesn’t affect other people, but the behavior becomes significantly more concerning when that student is spending hours learning about the celebrity or thinking of them. This kind of high schooler is the exact type of person that would jump to the first line of defense when their role model is criticized. It’s not our job to tell anyone whom to follow online or whether or not they should attend a concert, but PHS students should be much more aware of the dangers that come with fawning over celebrities.

Happiness is an undeniably important part of people’s lives, and many may find it in the works of celebrities. As more and more people start going to in-person forms of entertainment like concerts, they’ve slowly begun to feel a sense of normalcy at last: Made In America, Governors Ball, Harry Styles’ Love on Tour, and more have been huge, exciting events attended recently. But, we need to consider our morals, values, and responsibilities as human beings when thinking about these events, not only about the content but about the idols who we admire. When showing your appreciation for some

The Astroworld fallout

Our town has a trash problem. Masks litter the streets, household trash bins are stuffed with bubble wrap from deliveries, and single-use lunch containers are dished out to hundreds of students per day at PHS. Unfortunately, our school barely recycles. The garbage bins that line the halls are practically bursting with trash by the end of break each day.

But, as it turns out, Princeton isn’t alone. The world is in the middle of a global trash crisis. Waste centers are over-flowing with masks, aprons, gloves, face shields, and other medical waste. Single-use plastic production has been in-centivized during the pandemic by the increased demand for take-out, grocery deliveries, and more. One 2021 study by Benson et al. estimates that the world has been generating plastic waste at a rate of 1.6 million tonnes per day. Trash management centers, many of which closed due to COVID-19, have been completely overwhelmed. Conse-quently, improper methods of disposal have become more common. According to a September 2021 New York Times article by Mike Ives, incineration of both recyclable and non-recyclable waste has increased these past few months. Our current situation has made the urgency of sustainability undeniable. Despite that, many local governments and businesses have recently delayed or reversed policies promoting sustainability, according to a 2021 article by Chemical and Engineering News. Princeton must be different. Our town has to help the world move towards a cleaner future by changing our habits and making our voice heard. If Princeton, a privileged community with great resources, brain-power, and creativity, cannot find the motivation to change in the midst of a global trash crisis, we cannot expect the rest of the world to change, now or ever.

First, the PHS administration should reinvigorate its recycling campaign. Right now, even just fitting our trash into the overstuffed garbage bins is a struggle. The recycling bins, meanwhile, remain mostly empty. The administration should be actively encouraging students to recycle. Additionally, the school should switch from using plastic containers to using reusable or paper trays at lunch.

As residents of Princeton, we can do a lot more than just recycling to relieve the waste processing system and to contribute to sustainable progress. For one, we should be contacting local representatives to voice our concerns. Lawmakers need to know that we care, because even small voices can have a large impact. For example, when 120 towns and cities in New Jersey banned single-use plastic bags, the governor was convinced of the efficacy of this policy and signed a statewide ban, which will come into effect next year.

Making small changes in your daily life can also help. Some grocery stores, including McCaffrey’s and ShopRite, accept shopping bags that can’t go in your normal recycling bin at their store recycling center. People can collect plastic shopping bags at home and bring them to one of these locations to be reused. You can order less takeout and cook food more often, but if you have to order takeout, you can reuse containers to store leftovers and return unused plastic utensils included in the packaging. No act is too insignificant or too small — the only commitment that is required of us is to take action

There’s one problem masks can’t cover up


Whether you’ve been laughing or crying over those viral videos of adults angrily reacting to mask mandates, I’m here to tell you that your reaction is warranted. There is absolutely no reason why mask mandates shouldn’t be implemented, especially in our school district.

Anti-maskers argue that it’s their right to make their own risk-benefit decisions. But to fulfill their responsibility of protecting community members, governing bodies must keep people from harming other people and themselves, which can happen when one refuses to wear a mask. Drunk driving, for example, is illegal because even if one is willing to risk death, such a decision negligently risks their lives and those of others. By allowing people to hurt themselves and others, a government would fail to manage its duty.

An individual’s choice not to wear a mask affects his or her friends, family, coworkers, teachers, and, by extension, the rest of his or her community. Thus, the decision as to whether a person should wear a mask in a public space does not belong to that person but rather to the community and its elected officials. Furthermore, the choice of a community should be based on the opinions of experts, not on the com-plaints of a few misled individuals. For the past 16 months, experts have been saying, endlessly, that masks prevent the spread of COVID-19. The amount of evidence supporting the conclusion that face masks prevent the spread of CO-VID-19 is absolutely monumental. A recent example is a study in 2021 conducted on 340,000 adults by Jason Abaluck et. al, reinforces that masks are highly effective.

Then why are so many people still skeptical of something so simple as wearing a piece of cloth? Part of the answer lies in the perceived conflicting information from the government. In the early months of the pandemic, there was an absence of evidence with regard to the effectiveness of masks against the transmission of COVID-19. By April, however, there was enough to conclusively show that masks were effective, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending their usage. Somewhat understand-ably, many were caught off guard when this happened and many still retain this skepticism. But this confusion is unfounded. It is important to understand that the nature of the scientific method requires that the scientific consensus always be evolving as new findings come to light. Following the science can mean federal and local changing recommendations in the middle of a pandemic.

Early in August, Governor Murphy followed the science and signed Executive Order 251, mandating mask inside all school buildings. Princeton Public Schools has been keen to adhere to this mandate this school year, and rightfully so. We go to school in a fairly data-driven, science-believing town. It’s no surprise that our vaccination rate is almost 25 percentage points higher than the national average, according to a letter by Superintendent Dr. Carol L. Kelley in 2021. So, are mask mandates really still necessary in our district? The answer is yes. The Delta variant, the dominant strain of COVID-19 in America, is no joke. According to a 2021 study released by the CDC, the vaccine is now only 66 percent effective against the Delta variant, down from the 90 percent a couple months ago. Even though the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are still among unvaccinated individuals, mild breakthrough cases accelerate the spread of COVID-19. Also this year, in Nature Journal, Nidhi Subbraman shows that a vaccinated person with COVID-19 can spread the virus just as easily as an unvaccinated person. Not to mention, there is still a decent portion of our district’s student body that remains unvaccinated, including all of the elementary school students at Riverside, Littlebrook, John-son Park, and Community Park.

There are some hidden benefits to wearing masks in schools as well. Masks decrease the risk of other airborne illnesses, minimizing the amount of students who catch some other virus and have to spend days staying home and getting tested for COVID-19.As summer break comes to a close, schools nation-wide have been taking many different approaches to reopening. Some approaches have been safer and smarter than others, and it shows. According to a 2021 NBC report, tens of thousands of students in Mississippi, Texas, and Florida are going into quarantine soon attend-ing their first week of in-person school. With this, combined with teachers dying in hospitals, and schools closing within weeks of opening, it’s easy to see why many school districts are reimplementing mask mandates. Furthermore, mask mandates decrease the volatility of our schedules. The complicated, four-cohort, half-hybrid, half-remote schedule from last year will not suffice this year. Having our school district go through cycles of opening and closing due to students and teachers getting sick, like those in the Southeast, will be unacceptable.

Masks are a precaution with virtually no significant drawbacks. There is little evidence that mask-wearing by teachers and students impair learning or social skills. Yes, visual guidance is required for speech development in infants, but elementary school students already know their syllables. Research in 2008 from the Yale Child Study Center also showed that toddlers spend significantly more time staring at the eyes than the mouths of the people they are interacting with. Masks are not a major barrier to communication, and they are better than a black screen.

Truth be told, we are all tired of masks and hand sanitizer and the pandemic as a whole. But comfort is a far second to safety. We need to stay vigilant, and wearing masks is part of that.

The Moral Case for Wearing Masks


On Saturday, February 13, close to 200 protesters gathered outside of Nassau Hall. On banners and picket signs, they wrote their grievances and demands to Princeton University in regard to its lack of aid to residents during the coronavirus pandemic. Undergraduates, graduates, and residents all braved the afternoon cold to call for Princeton University to share its contact-tracing, testing, and vaccination resources with the residents of the larger Princeton area and to demand that the wider community have greater say in the university’s COVID-related decisions. In response to the protest, a Princeton spokesperson told the Daily Princetonian (2021) that “Princeton can — and is — making a difference during this pandemic through its research and teaching, not by becoming a healthcare provider.” Yet the latter is precisely what the university needs to be to help the townspeople in the best manner.

Princeton University is inextricably tied to Princeton. The town has provided restaurants, gathering places, libraries, and grocery stores for college students to use, thus playing a vital role in sculpting the culture and social life of Princeton University. The university has been essential to the town as well. Teens often go to the campus to hang out after school. The student body of the university drives the local economy. Princeton University would not be the institution that it is without Princeton, and vice versa. By providing COVID-related resources to only students and faculty members and excluding the wider town, the university fails to protect its community.

Given that the university is also endowed with tens of billions of dollars and has recently built its own state-of-the-art testing facility, it has an obligation to lend a helping hand to the people of Princeton. It wouldn’t be the first institution to help its neighborhood either; both the University of California, Davis and Tufts University have partnered with their local governments to do so. UC Davis has provided thousands of tests weekly to its community. Graduate students were trained in contact tracing, and free quarantine housing was provided for citizens who were exposed to the virus. Tufts has provided widespread testing resources to the public school systems of multiple surrounding counties. Princeton University must follow suit. The resources provided by Mercer County aren’t enough to keep the people of Princeton or any town completely safe. Backlogs at clinics due to high demands for testing can make the wait for test results as long as a week, preventing people from going to work and increasing the risk of further spreading. Individuals with full work schedules and members of socioeconomically disadvantaged groups may not be able to access available testing locations. For undocumented and underinsured people who have the hardest time accessing public COVID resources, tests and extra vaccines from the university could be especially valuable. Princeton University is one of the wealthiest schools in the country; it should be actively seeking out ways to help the surrounding areas through the worst health crisis seen so far in this century. In doing so, the university would save local businesses, help community school districts reopen safely, and keep people safe.


Graphic by [credit name="Karen Qiu"]
The new testing laboratory built by Princeton University is capable of handling 10,000 samples a week, but instead handles around 2,000 samples weekly. By building a high-capacity testing laboratory, Princeton University has already become a capable healthcare provider. It is only a matter of whom the university decides to protect. Right now, it has decided not to protect the rest of the community, and it must change this by getting a permit to share its testing capacity. A step like that would be the right direction toward helping others and wouldn’t affect the school’s mission.

The spokesperson also said that Princeton University has already done things to help the town such as “storing [vaccines] in [its] specialized cold storage facilities, hosting community clinics on campus… and assisting with the staffing of these clinics.”

Yet its past collaborations with Princeton officials in storing vaccines and staffing clinics don’t prove that the university has done enough for the surrounding community. Instead, they prove that it has the moral and financial capacity to assist the others despite it not being of any relation to teaching and research. If Princeton University has the capacity to lend its facilities and staff to the community, it should also share testing, contact tracing abilities, and vaccines when they arrive.

If the university truly believed in collaborating closely with the wider community on COVID-related issues, it would have acted on the grievances of the Nassau Hall protesters. Residents are very clearly angry with the university’s pandemic policies, and rather than dismissing the discontent, Princeton University should seriously consider their demands.

Princeton University’s responsibility

As summer approaches, the temptation to hit the road is greater than ever, especially after a year of staying indoors. Travel seems like the perfect getaway from the absolute migraine that is COVID-19 era school and work. But given the current circumstances, travel is neither safe nor the only way to blow off steam. 

By every measure, this virus isn’t over. According to a WSBT article published on April 13th, 2021, spring break travel has triggered a spike in hospitalizations in several states. Even worse, highly contagious COVID-19 variants are on the rise across the world, and according to a Forbes article from 2021, with each mutation, they become more resistant against vaccines that can end the crisis. The B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered months ago in the United Kingdom, accounts for tens of thousands of new cases in the United States. This new variant is especially dangerous as it is even more contagious and deadly than previous variants according to a BBC article from May 23, 2021. A study from the University of Exeter, published in 2021, found that the strain had a 64 percent higher death rate than other circulating strains and is already dominant in countries such as Germany, Italy, and France. These deadly variants were brought to the United States from abroad. For these reasons, the CDC strongly advises against non-essential travel. If we don’t want to continue to be in hiding for the next two years, we should refrain from globe-hopping. It isn’t worth risking the lives of you and your loved ones to fly to Orlando to meet Mickey Mouse, nor is it worth getting hospitalized to go get a tan on the beach.

The disease itself won’t be the end of your problems. If you venture out of the United States, you will have to test negative at your destination before flying home. In the case that you test positive, you and your family will probably have to quarantine there for two weeks or more. Quarantine accommodations may not be free or convenient. If the illness is serious, you’ll be hospitalized, and the medical bills probably won’t be covered by health insurance. Additionally, testing negative for COVID-19 doesn’t guarantee that you don’t have the virus. Some tests, according to an article posted on the Harvard Health Blog from 2020, have a false negative rate of more than 20 percent even days after symptoms have begun. This uncertainty is part of the reason COVID-19 variants have managed to spread across the world. What is meant to be a short trip to Bora Bora can quickly turn into quite the nightmare.

Even if these are all risks you are willing to take, you are responsible not only for your family’s health and safety but also for those of others. If you get sick overseas, you may end up using hospital resources originally meant for the residents of that country, contributing to healthcare congestion. You could also be spreading deadlier COVID-19 variants to places in the world which have previously been unaffected by them. 

Instead of disrupting the communities abroad, we should be supporting the community here at home. Businesses have been suffering around the world, and Princeton, for all its wealth, isn’t exempt, with local restaurants, stores, and attractions seeing a heavy decrease in traffic since March of last year.

Yet these places are also what make Princeton such a vibrant town, a mixing pot brimming with cuisines of every kind and a host to some of the best ice cream places around. Businesses have done all they can to adapt to these bizarre circumstances, continuing to offer us their services despite a global pandemic. We should return the favor by staying in town and keeping their doors open. For one of these invaluable places to close would be unaffordable for the community. Rather than pouring savings into a plane ticket, we should give the local economy a booster by enjoying the top tier products offered right here. Be sure to follow guidelines by wearing a mask and social distancing. Adhere to the rules of the businesses you decide to support.

A staycation can be just as rewarding as a trip overseas, especially if you live near Princeton. A beautiful campus, countless trails to travel, and Hoagie Haven: What more can you ask for?

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