New kids on the block
By Daniel Melgar
Well, it’s that time of year again fellow Titans (first and last time I say that, don’t worry)! With the beginning of a new year, we get a new class of freshmen joining us in the building. This is always a cause for either celebration or great depression (over exaggeration, but you get the idea), depending on the type of students that wander into the halls. With this new generation of kids who are here to either pursue their education (not saying they love school, but they at least care) or not do any of their work, then complain when they get a U in a class.
Of course, then there are the juniors and sophomores. It’s no surprise that with any high school, there are going to be the opinions of the upperclassmen looking down (either literally or figuratively, some of you freshmen are eating something) on the incoming freshmen. Now these can either be positive or negative, depending on how you guys act in general, or how you treat them when you interact with them. Let’s start with the sophomores, and then move onto the Junior opinions. I asked somesophomores and juniors for their opinions, to keep things short and simple.
We’ll start with the Sophomores’ positive opinions. To begin, we have Tristan, who said, “I would say that they are nice and fun people. They are a lil extra, but we all came to high school like that and just seem like us last year.”
As for positive opinions, that’s what I got, on the sophomore side at least (Just the way the tower falls). Moving onto the negatives, we had two negatives, but valid points are made.
An anonymous sophomore had this to say. “The freshmen of the new school year have a variety of mixed emotions in my mind. A good few of the freshmen stick to themselves whilst the rotten apples rely on rude remarks to climb the social ladder.
These are the sophomore opinions that I gathered, which means that it’s time for us to move onto the junior opinions.
A positive opinion from the junior side came from Nathan, who said, “I don’t have any problem with them. The ones I met were funny and cool.”
An anonymous source had this to say about the freshmen; “Don’t really have a problem with them, they sorta just there.” A neutral opinion, not positive nor negative, so we’ll just keep that as a positive.
A third junior that I asked had this to say; “The new freshmen aren’t half bad as last year’s but it doesn’t mean they’re any good. [Insert too specific event to mention, but a lot of sarcasm]
Freshman in general are annoying, even when I was a freshman they annoyed me but there’s this freshman boy that I’ve noticed ever since the start of the school year. I wish I knew his name but I don’t. He’s the only freshman I’ve seen hold the door for everyone. I find that adorable honestly. I always thank him when he holds the door. Such a little gentleman. [Insert negative but true opinion here]
Another Sophomore said, “They’re disrespectful, lack of manners.” Quick, but honest.
Then there’s the author of this piece. Me. I’ve been fortunate enough to interact with the cool freshmen. They’ve been chill, and I haven’t had a bad experience with them. The ones I’ve met are definitely funny, and have good qualities. One in particular, he’s chill and fun to annoy be around. Marcos, shoutout to you.
Who is to Blame? U
By Daniel Melgar
This comes around twice a year, and students hate it. What is it?
Could be midterms/finals, but not the answer to this question.
Could also be MAP testing, but again, not the answer to this question.
The answer is; conferences!
Okay, I will admit, that this might not be the most hated thing out of a school year, but it’s there for a lot of students.
Why?
Because of their grades.
Now, everyone’s familiar with the drill, parents sign up to talk to a teacher, and the teacher says really good things about that student…is what happens at a traditional conference.
But now, if you were one of the ⅔ of students that were failing a class, I gotta say, impressive you guys managed to mess that up this badly.
I can already imagine the ecstatic faces of parents receiving those letters letting them know you were failing. The amount of positive screaming that was made that night must’ve been a harmonious thing. Obviously, I’m sure parents were less than ecstatic about hearing their child earning a D or a U in one or more of their classes.
How does something like this even happen? Well, it can really be narrowed down to a few big reasons. I’ll mention two, to save time.
Effort put in by students that is non existent as well as the overall distaste for school all contribute as well.
Let’s begin with the biggest reason that I think all teachers and students would agree is a major contributor to that of which students are failing their classes.
The effort that students put into a class can be a large contributor to the way that their grades are reflected.
A student that is passing a class at the very least is turning in all their assignments and trying to put in some effort. Now a student that doesn’t care at all just shows up to class for the attendance.
They sit in the back of the class on their phones all class (yes, you guys aren’t that slick) or are aimlessly scrolling through whatever site they have found, or just talking up a storm. Now, that’s not to say that students that pass their classes don’t do this.
Let’s all be honest and admit that a lot of us do some of these things too. Now, the difference here is that we find a balance in these things.
Do we talk?
Yes.
Do we sometimes aimlessly scroll through websites endlessly?
Yes.
As we can see, people that don’t and do pass classes do share similar characteristics, but the balance that they find in when and how they do these things can make a big difference between an A or B and a D and a U.
Point number two.
Distaste for school.
Let’s face it. Most of us never wake up to school with a big grin on our face shouting, “I can’t wait to learn about quadratic equations!” or “I can’t wait to code the html in IED!” (I don’t quite know if that’s how it works, but I don’t take IED (thank the Lord) so I wouldn’t know) or something along those lines.
There are a few students that are excited for one class for the subject in particular, or to see their boyfriend or girlfriend, or to just see their friends, but aren’t that much a fan of having to sit in class learning.
One thing that I think can be said about all this is that we can all agree that we don’t exactly see school in the best light. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my favorite thing to do. The attitude that these students have towards school can make their missing assignments and pessimistic grades quite obvious.
They decide to do ‘better’ things with their lives such as smoke, drink alcohol, and drive under the influence and without a license (hey, someone had to say it, I’m just stating what you all do), and do everything except their work, when they don’t finish it in class.
They think that school doesn’t matter and that they can get farther in life with a GED than a high school diploma.
Sometimes, in a few rare cases, that can be the case, but those are few and far between, so it’s not really a safe bet to rely on that to be the way to sustain yourself.
Like I’ve said, it’s not like students have to show up to school frolicking and bringing with them a red apple for their teacher and spend countless hours studying, but just having some sort of change in attitude can be a big difference between getting disciplined at home with the belt, chancla, wooden spoon, or other tool of choice, and having good grades on their report cards.
Overall, while conferences may not be the most hated time of year, it definitely is funny to see the students that are failing classes because they didn’t try at all, scrambling to bring their grades up to passing a week or two before conferences are.
All this stress can be avoided with just giving school some effort.
You only have one high school experience, so make it actually be only one, instead of repeating a year, or spending time in summer school.
It’s not that hard to put forth some effort on your work, so just have enough dignity and respect for yourself and get the work done, on time, with effort put forth on it.
U Sure about that?
By Daemon Knoll
While of course students are responsible for their grades, to blame failing students solely because of their effort, motivation, and distaste for school is a very bold claim. Students have so much to deal with oftentimes with struggles growing on top of one another, and lead incredibly stressful lives with barely having any time to spare.
No student is the same, we all have very different and sometimes difficult lives. Students can have difficult home lives, deal with stressful jobs, and are trying to find themselves and their identity. Especially in high school where students are dealing with what feels like the climax to their education, and the prelude to their adulthood.
Being stressed about conferences is perfectly normal, especially since it feels like parents don’t really try to help out when they find students lackluster grades. “My parents just yell at me” responded Stella Crane when asked if her parents help when finding out bad grades. “My Mom scolds me, and tells me how it’s all my fault” said Amy Ceballos when I asked if her parents try to offer help when dealing with bad grades. “My mom just tells me to fix it but doesn’t really try to discipline me” answered Ash Dominguez. We can be very aware of our grades but sometimes we don’t get the help we need to fix it.
The article mentions how students already have a distaste for school and because of that they don’t put effort into their schoolwork and instead “They decide to do ‘better’ things with their lives such as smoke, drink alcohol, and drive under the influence and without a license…” Well yeah of course some students do this, I think the bathroom situation is clear about that. But so many students really try and they really want to do well! The material can be difficult, they can be dealing with personal tragedy, they may have trouble reaching for help. There are so many reasons that students are struggling, why do you think there’s a homework club? You aren’t forced to be there, students who may be struggling put the effort in to help their grade every week. So saying that the reasons for students’ lackluster grades is a result of their effort is truly baffling.
The Tenor Sentinel 