It was 8 a.m. on a Friday when the question popped up on the smartboard: can Sharia law and democracy coexist? Like every high school student fighting through class, I instantly started to panic. Did I miss Sharia law somewhere in the 14 page reading? I pulled up last night’s article on my laptop and did a quick Command + F for “Sharia law.” There was nothing. Before I could say anything, I was put
In response to this viral photo, hundreds of schools across Ontario took part in a walk-out protest on Friday, September 21. In August, Ontario Premier Doug Ford decided to scrap the 2015 sex education curriculum in favor of a version identical to the one in 1998. As opposed to the 2015 curriculum, there will be no mention of sexting, staying safe online, or scientific names for genitalia. As well, there will be limited teachings about consent,
College students are constantly juggling multiple responsibilities at a time; whether it be classwork, exams, a social life, a job, or finding enough time to sleep. So in this beautiful disaster, there comes a breaking point, an energy crash so potent that we get buried under our responsibilities with the strongest urge to just sleep. As college students, the burnout period of our bodies comes more regularly and with a much stronger force than that
In my opinion, sex-ed is one of the most useful things which should be taught in school since kids reach puberty, and even earlier. But bad sexual education is worse than not receiving it at all; it indoctrinates young people with false, dangerous information that can have disastrous consequences. I had the misfortune of being taught sexual education in a workshop at the Catholic school I attended: it was two days filled with sexism, slut-shaming,
It’s hard to believe the degree of violence innocent people are witnessing every day. The Parkland shooting is only the most recent in a string of school shootings that have occurred in 2018. With 17 deaths, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has quickly surpassed Columbine to become the most devastating high school shooting and falls second only to Sandy Hook in terms of all-time school shootings. Teenagers should be writing term papers, studying for AP tests
In 2015, 64 Asian-American groups filed a complaint against Harvard University for what they claimed to be discrimination in the college admissions process. Some may argue that the groups are simply creating a rationale for getting rejected from the institution, but the numbers don’t lie. Many of the enraged previous Asian-American applicants sported nearly perfect SAT scores, played multiple instruments, were named captains of their sports teams and participated in numerous extracurricular activities. With such a resume, one
If you’re anything like me, your past school experiences are something you’d rather forget. Be it sleazy behavior, the people there or the concept of being forced to memorize textbooks to prove your intelligence, the majority of us have disliked school at one point or another. In the following I will talk about the negative effects school has had on me in the past 18 years. The last time I truly enjoyed attending classes was
This week in my AP Spanish class, we talked about the differences between universities in Spanish-speaking countries versus the ones in North America. For example, campus life in Spanish universities practically doesn’t exist, as opposed to universities in the U.S. When choosing colleges, one of the main focuses for many seniors in high school is the campus. Is it big or small? Is it safe? How’s the social life on campus? In Portugal and all
While in school, how many times do you find yourself asking somebody, “When will I ever use this in life?” When you’re sitting in Algebra and are told to find the slope of an equation in standard form, do you groan and tell your teacher that learning this has no purpose? You’re probably right. Unless you’re going to become an engineer or a computer programmer, odds are you won’t need any math skills beyond basic
I could never remember a specific time when I really began learning about mental illnesses and disabilities. However, I can firmly say that it was never in one of my high school health classes. Unlike pregnancy, a healthy diet and drug effects, mental illness was never something meant to be a topic of discussion. Of course, addiction and eating disorders were mentioned, but they were never really talked about. Never were there any real portrayals