Recently I was given a detention for leaving campus during the academic day. I was not going to do any illegal, frowned upon, or mischievous things, I left campus simply because I had free period and a friend of mine forgot his cleats for lacrosse so we left campus to go to his house and get his cleats. I feel that this rule regarding seniors leaving campus is unfair and needs to be changed. The idea of a senior getting a detention simply because they had to go home to grab something they forgot, or because they wanted to take a quick drive to Dunkin Donuts and grab some breakfast, in my eyes is preposterous. As seniors I feel we have earned the right to leave campus as we please, as long as we are not doing anything destructive. We should be able to take the three minute drive to Dunkin Donuts and buy a coffee without worrying about getting a detention. Many seniors are responsible students, eighteen years of age, who have spent almost four years working extremely hard to expand their minds and become smarter wiser individuals and I feel that this hard work has earned us the right to leave campus without punishment. It’s not like I am asking for an extensive amount of freedom, I just want to, as a senior, have some privileges, the most important being the allowance for seniors to leave campus during the academic day. As long as seniors are not missing classes and behaving inappropriately I see no harm in allowing us to leave during extra help to get a coffee or leave during lunch to go to Regatta and buy some subs. On a different note, this rule is unfair because it negates the fact that we all forget things. We all forget things and I feel that just because someone forgets something does not mean that they should be punished for simply going home and retrieving this forgotten item. Now I understand the other side of this argument, if seniors are allowed to leave campus during the academic day they are going to behave poorly, miss classes, and do a number of other things that are looked down upon. But here is my argument, why just because one student behaves poorly do all other students have to be punished. For those students who take advantage of the rule by missing classes or leaving campus for other bad reasons take their privilege away and for the students who follow the rules and just go to Dunkin Donuts to grab a coffee or for students who forget their cleats and have to go home to get them, allow them the privilege to do so, it is only fair, as seniors I feel we have earned the privilege.

The game of lacrosse is full of creativity, teamwork, and flow.  The game of baseball is full of out of shape, overpaid, loners.  People say baseball has gained its popularity because it has been around for over a century.  “America’s pastime” as it is referred to. On the other hand, lacrosse is the oldest sport in the world.   The Native Americans wandering the Americas playing lacrosse long before Christopher Columbus discovered the west, and certainly before the first pitch was thrown.

Lacrosse was created to give Native American tribes conditioning and strength for war.  They would play on fields miles long to raise their level of endurance.  They used rocks to shoot into the net and used sticks mad of oak to defend their goals.  Baseball was created to give lazy people something to do.  It is something that they can say they are doing while they are actually doing nothing.  I think the kid sitting at home playing on his Xbox gets a better workout than the right fielder on a baseball field.

The personalities of lacrosse players are second to none.  Certainly not second to baseball players.  A lacrosse player has been now referred to as a “Lax Bro.”  There have even been YouTube videos inspired by this personality.  The personality is full of “bro-like” qualities.  Baseball players have never heard of the quote, “You gotta look good to play good.”  Baseball players have no style:

One, their ¾ shirts.  To me it looks like they can’t make up their mind if they are hot or cold.

Two, sunglasses on top of the hat.  They think it looks good to have the shades on the brim of the hat.  Meanwhile, the player supposedly full if swag with his ¾ shirt and his sunglasses on his hat can’t catch the routine fly ball because the sun is in his eyes.  You would think he would have enough common sense to put the sunglasses on his eyes while he is in the field but nope, gotta be full of swag at all times.  How is that working out for the outfielder that loses the fly ball in the sun and then looks like a complete idiot?

Three, Phiten necklaces.  Most baseball players where these necklaces because they are suppose to reduce pain because of the titanium band inside of the necklace.  How does that work for Ken Griffey Jr. who seems to pull his hamstring every game after he gets off the 60-day disabled list?  David Ortiz was on the D.L. forever because of, what was it, an in-grown toenail?  Give me a break.  I’m sorry but some necklaces work and some don’t, and Phiten necklaces certainly don’t.

Speaking of Big Slopi or Big Papi, whatever the slob is referred to.  Here is an idol of a lot of baseball players.  Big Slopi hits .238 with 28 home runs and is suppose to be a power hitter?  For $13,000,000 I should be getting a lot more than the Mendoza line.  Here is a player who, at minimum gets 4 at-bats a game and returns to the dugout.  Usually he gets one hit and runs to first base and gets thrown out because he is to slow to carry his own feet.  Here is the famous DH.  The designated hitter.  You get a few at-bats and call it a day.  What a life $13,000,000 to sit on the bench and watch a baseball game.

Speaking of more slobs in baseball, the great Babe Ruth.  The fat slob would eat hotdogs during the game, as if he didn’t eat enough out of the ballpark.  David Wells was listed at 248 lbs. while he pitched for the Red Sox.  248?  There are linemen in the NFL that weigh less than that.  This enforces the point that baseball players are out of shape people with no swag.

To go watch a professional baseball game you have to mortgage your home to afford nosebleed seats.  The infamous hotdog at a baseball game is $9.50.  Your beer is an even $13.00.  You can enjoy your $22.50 snack sitting next to another out of shape baseball fan while you hold your binoculars to watch the pitches.  At a professional lacrosse game you can enjoy the game with good, cheap food and comfortable seats as you watch a great sport.

Lacrosse and baseball are two different sports with two different personalities.  Baseball players choose to follow Big Slopi and the Babe while lax bros follow the way of people like Brantford Whinstonworth and Floseidon.  To me, you’re a lax bro or a pansy*.

To see more fat baseball players go to the link here.

“Quantity is immaterial- it should be until the student is on firm ground with the material. That’s hard to do when you have a class of 20 students however- if the class was made up of a few students the teacher could set up separate assignments for each student.” Barbara Gould said. Most students would have to agree to disagree. For example, a student at Worcester Academy named Danielle Fournier who is a junior, said, “ I can see where Ms. Gould is coming from but in some aspects I would have to disagree because teachers give so much homework!” Homework is a huge part of the school system especially here at Worcester Academy. Worcester Academy takes homework seriously, if you happen to not turn in a homework assignment or it may be late, your class grade is affected greatly. To a student that is the worst of it. Furthermore, when a student works incredibly hard to keep an A average, but when it comes to homework time, this student has to deal with students activities, outside sports and Worcester Academy athletics and does not have the great time management skills to get it done. Now, this busy student works incredibly hard for the all round class yet gets may be a B-/B+ because of homework? That is just unfair. Evan Hendra who is a senior at Worcester Academy says, “I have a difficult time trying to finish homework after I get home from school at 6:30. I get home at 6:30 because of cross-country. By the time I finish, it is immediately time for me to go to bed and yet I still manage to get like, five hours of sleep.” Five hours of sleep per night?! That is not nearly enough to last through the school day when there are quizzes, tests, and lectures and after schools activities too. Some teachers might not recognize that students have lives or extra curricular activities outside of school. That just adds to the chaos, this is where students need to learn time management. This is very hard for many students. What students do not understand is the purpose of homework. Barbara Gould says,“Potentially it’s a way to help solidify a concept or skill. It also provides an opportunity to think about the application of a skill or concept to real-world situations. Ex: what types of materials are in the foods you ate for lunch-carbs, lipids, protein etc. Evan Hendra would have to disagree, “Most of the stuff, I’ve learned does not help me in real-world situations.” It’s a combination of learning the skill, though it may be “useless” and learning concepts for the purpose of real-world situations. Learning a skill such as, calculus is “useless” for now. But to few students, you may need that concept later in life. For most students though, they will never need that concept or may never use it again. So, if homework is to get a firm understanding of the topic, and the teacher uses class time appropriately, why give students hours and hours of homework to learn a concept they may never use? Why might teachers be inflexible with homework? Students may never understand this. Mr. Baker answers this question; “Teachers might be inflexible because the homework might be the basis of discussion for the next class and because the teachers believe there is value in doing the homework. If there are course expectations students must meet them. The completion of homework demonstrates a student’s commitment to the class. It helps the teachers assess the students‘ understanding.” The concept of homework is pretty controversial; students have busy lives especially in this day of age. It is hard to keep up. Time management skills should be taught first then we can bring on the homework!

Who would have thought that a group of Danish students could steal the show from the Worcester Academy sports teams? Well that is exactly what happened. In a year when the skits for many sports were “nothing special”, the spectacular acrobatics from the Danish students was the biggest hit. “It was unbelievable how good they were,” stated Molly Monroe after watching the activity. Evyn Grimes wanted “more people to be involved in the event. It was too focused on certain people not everyone was incorporated.” When asked what was his favorite skit Evyn said: “besides the soccer team, the girls field hockey skit was the best. Even though it wasn’t that good.” Despite the courageous and moving dance sequence and flips, some people stayed true to the Worcester Academy community and loved the sports skits. Football’s skit was one that received mixed reviews as Andrew Watson-Hogan said, “that was hilarious! Fouad is the man.” On the other hand,some teachers around the campus found some of the skits “a little too negative towards other teams.” For example, Mr. Pye was “disappointed in the organization of the day and thought the performances should have been approved by a faculty member beforehand.” Also, Pye was convinced that the Danish students were “clearly the best performers” and that they “had the idea of what a pep rally should be more than our students.”

Allin all it would appear that Worcester Academy did not really hold a “pepreally” but a “scattered” group of performances by the fall sports teams. In the future, Mr. Pye suggested “cheerleaders to bring out more enthusiasm in the community”. A fundamental part of many high schools, cheerleaders are unable to be found at Worcester Academy. Many people who had been at other schools before found it “different” as they have never seen schools without them before. But still it seems the Worcester Academy community gets by without them. Next year the pep rally could be a little different with all the changes that many thought should be made. Maybe the teams should just take some lessons from the Danish students on how to do some back flips instead.

As the fall season grows dark, only one team survived as an undefeated team, until Wednesday. The Girl’s Volleyball Team put up an unbelievable mark and made it to 13-0 before losing in a tight game with Exeter. The final score of the match was 3 games to 1 for Exeter. Worcester won the first game but afterwards could not get past the Exeter team. While they are a Class A opponent, the Worcester Academy girls put in a fantastic effort, winning the first game against the tough team. Even though the rest of the game did not go quite as planned, the team is adjusting well to the loss. As captain Christina Cervini stated: “We would rather lose now and learn from the loss than experience it for the first time in the playoffs”. Spoken as a true leader of the team, Cervini is a 4-year player who plans to continue on into college. While the loss certainly affected her, she still says volleyball is “awesome” and hopes the team can make it all the way to the championship.
Middle hitter and powerful blocker Molly Munroe was equally upset about the loss as her teammate but found solace in the fact that “ we have already beaten a Class a team and seeing as that was one of our goals, it is a great accomplishment.” Certainly a positive out-look, the team is moving forward at a 13-1 record, moving there way towards the coveted class B championship. The team has a superb chemistry. When asked what her favorite part about volleyball was, Molly Munroe replied with: “ Anna Clifford”, who is her setter and therefore the gateway to her points. The entire team respects each other greatly and finds a way to pick each other up after a tough point or loss. As the team approaches the end of the season, their goal of “ Winning the Class B championship and beating a class a team” is halfway to success. Molly Munroe’s goals are the same as the teams. If they keep up on the pace they are on now they could finish out the season as champions and complete their goals from the beginning of the season.

They may not be doing wind sprints or push-ups at practice. You won’t see them congregating at the gym after school to take the bus to New Balance Fields or walking down Providence Street to Gaskill Fields.  They might not do a warm up lap or circle stretches. Their uniform is in dress code, their equipment is a pencil and calculator, and their meets never get cancelled due to poor field conditions. This is the most underrated team at Worcester Academy. This is the math team.

The Worcester Academy math team is a well- known force in the Massachusetts Math League. Math team travels to different schools to compete in mathematical competition against other high schools, both public and private. The coach, Richard Yanco has been coaching at Worcester Academy since 2003. When asked about his thoughts on this year’s team Yanco said, “We’ll be one of the top teams in each league we compete in.  Our actual standing will depend on how dedicated our students are, and how the other teams are.  If our students commit themselves they can beat anybody.” Mr. Yanco says there are many returning seniors, juniors, and sophomores who are strong in competition and who are ready to work hard. When asked about new upper class mathletes as well as freshmen he replied, “There will be some very good new students.  Every year there is a wealth of new talent at WA.  The only thing that will determine how they do is their effort — so by the end of the year we’ll know who worked hard and who didn’t.”

The math team is looking strong this year with solid returning mathletes such as Chase Cawell. Caswell is a senior interested in pursuing engineering in college. Going on his fourth year as a member of math team, Chase knows how to prepare for meets. “Mr. Yanco gives us practice books and usually we are supposed to complete them. He asks a lot but I think that helps our team become stronger.” Caswell who also participates in cross -country and track tries to shy away from the mathlete stereotyping. When asked about the stereotyping that comes with being on a math team Chase commented, “I don’t know, I think there is a certain rep that goes along with it maybe negative or geeky but I try not to fall into the stereotype. I have friends.” When asked about the upcoming year, Caswell seems positive. Even though a lot of mathletes graduated last year, Chase says, “We have a lot of returning seniors and juniors. We also have a lot of new members who all seem to be very strong.”

One of the new members who seems very promising is Nikki Ge Meng from Beijing. Beginning this year as a freshman the school has already recognized Nikki’s intelligence and allowed her to advance to sophomore year. It is her first year on math team and she has a totally different attitude than Caswell. When asked how she prepared for the first three meets she replied, “I do the practice book and learn new materials online.” Nikki’s strength is geometry, and when asked if she planned on pursuing something math related in college she said, “NO. I hate math.” Although not enthusiastic and interested in math, Nikki has shown great talent regarding the subject.

With a wide range of personalities and methods for practicing, this year’s math team should have an interesting but successful season. The Worcester Academy math team is off to a good season, with great scores at all three meets. In the most recent Worcester County meet, the math team scored its highest in Worcester Academy’s history. This record- breaking meet is surely just a little taste of the capability of this year’s team.

Photo Courtesy of Alaina Stochaj

On Thursday Worcester Academy hosted a school fair for students of all central Massachusetts.  The fair composed of schools such as Worcester Academy, Lawrence Academy, Wilbraham & Monson, The Fey School and Bancroft.  Associate Director of Admissions Elizabeth Habig noted it was the first time the fair had been held at a school.  “In the past we have rented out a neutral location, this year we convinced the other schools to come to Worcester Academy this year instead.”  Having the fair on Worcester’s campus proved to be a huge advantage for WA.  “Students visiting going to the fair got the chance to actually see our campus” said student ambassador Ben Warshaw.

The fair was set up as a way for rising Middle School students to explore the possibility of pursuing an Independent School education.  Ambassador Jessica Scott  liked the idea of an Independent School Fair, “Back when I was looking at schools I had to go visit them all at their locations.  Here you get the opportunity to talk to school representatives and learn more about many schools in the same place”.  Although the turnout may have not been what the schools were hoping for, it only takes a couple students to make it worthwhile.  “As long as we got the message out to a couple families about Worcester Academy I think we can call the college fair a success” said Assistant Director of Admissions Christopher Dow.  With that being the goal the schools certainly got all of their own individual messages out.  Although only twelve students came to the event there were even more parents that attended.  The fair allowed these parents to take school information back to their sons or daughter who were most certainly at home doing schoolwork.  With the Megaron luminously lit and full of a bountiful arrangement of refreshments, Worcester Academy played great hosts.  It is certainly safe to say that Worcester Academy will be called on again to host the next Independent School Fair.