In an era where technology often mediates our interactions with others, Chen’s choice to engage in letters allows her to put more thought into her communication than a simple text.
“I’ve done two pen-pal programs,” she said. “The first one was in eighth grade and I was paired with a girl who lived in the French Alps. We talked for a bit online before we started writing to each other. I wrote to her in French and she wrote to me in English.”
This program was orchestrated by her French teachers and their English teacher friends in France. Although not participating this year because her teacher chose not to, Chen was involved during her eighth grade and freshman year.
Teachers paired students up with someone from their partner class in the other country, and in cases of unequal class sizes, someone may be required to write two letters. From there, students received basic information about their pen pal and gave teachers the letters to mail out — beginning the exchange cycle. Through the program, Chen matched with many students from diverse backgrounds whom she wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise. One example of this enlightenment is her second pen pal — Clemence from Albi, a village in the South of France.
“I exchanged social media with (her), and despite only having one semester to communicate, (found out she was) a very lovely person,” she said. “She’s a tri-athlete and she’s super cool.”
For Chen, every envelope that arrives creates a new and lasting friendship, as well as an opportunity to explore unique experiences. Regular curriculum is taught through an outside perspective with basic grammar and textbooks, while the letters take those skills to a more advanced level. They help improve her understanding of foreign lifestyles and cultures and enhance her knowledge around language use.
“(The pen-pal program) enriches your class experience a lot more because you get to see the culture a lot more and you get to learn first-hand what life is like in the country of the language that you’re speaking,” she said.
Pen-pal programs also opened Chen’s eyes to the cultural differences in other parts of the world andhelped her learn how to adapt to them. Each letter unveiled new perspectives and ideas from France, allowing Chen to experience the country through a mere piece of paper.
“I’ve definitely learned more about French culture, and when I did my exchange program with the Council on International Educational Exchange over the summer, I had my pen-pal programs before that,” she said. “Learning about French culture through someone who was living there actually helped me a lot during my exchange because I got to learn about French customs a lot and adapt there quicker.”
Chen also emphasizes the importance of keeping contact with others around the world as a way to connect, meet new people and expand one’s horizons.
“I think that all language students should do pen-pal programs because you’re able to immerse yourself into the culture a lot better and you’re able to learn the language and cultures a lot better,” she said. “It’ll open your eyes up to the world a lot more.”
]]>“We originally started a pen-pal project because we wanted to bridge the intergenerational gap between the elderly and students here at Gunn,” Krishnan said.
These letters cover a variety of topics, such as hobbies, sports, academics or anything else the students choose to include about themselves. The founders of BuddyBonds created basic prompts intended to promote interesting conversations and encourage those writing to share more about themselves.
“In one of the letters, one of the other people who participated talked about her love for music and how she’s part of the orchestra,” Krishnan said.
Writing these pen-pal letters transcend the benefits of casual correspondence. According to Krishnan, the experience of a senior citizen — someone who is over 60 years old — is incredibly different from that of a high schooler, and writing to them would provide students with a chance to understand unique points of view and learn from their vivid life experiences. Krishnan adopted a newfound sense of understanding towards those who reside at Ivy Livings through her pen-pal letters. The project also left a positive impact on the community at Ivy Living by helping to introduce more social aspects to the seniors’ lives.
“Only one out of the 10 people we interviewed said that they got contact with people outside of the retirement home,” she said. “And after we did the pen pal letters, (we) can safely say that there’s been a difference and that they feel a little bit more connected, specifically to the students that were involved with the pen pal program.”
This pen-pal project has also created a chance for students to meet one of the residents in person — Alison. Alison, who has lived and studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, was one of those individuals. This experience has proven that taking initiative to reach out can lead to potentially life-changing opportunities like these.
Although the project is relatively new, with the first letter being sent out in March, Krishnan recommends this activity to anyone looking for a way to connect with others.
“Reaching out and communicating is definitely a great way to get involved in writing letters,” she said.
The practice of writing letters has become less and less common, vanishing in the age of technology. While less convenient, the authenticity of writing, addressing, stamping and mailing a letter can’t be beat. Despite its decline in popularity, however, the art of pen-palling is still occasionally seen today in initiatives such as BuddyBonds, which are intended to connect people of different ages.
]]>Originating in Europe during the Middle Ages, tipping was a way for the wealthy to pay servants extra money for excellent service. Slowly, however, tipping in London became present in coffeehouses and other establishments. Eventually reaching US in the 1800s through wealthy Americans who had just discovered this custom on a journey to Europe, tipping has become increasingly popular and has firmly rooted itself in almost all establishments in the country.
Tipping has been disliked since its inception. It came with many racial and economical problems, including many white store owners wanting to profit off of black labor by replacing wages with tips. The many issues that came with tipping prompted journalists to describe it as un-American.
Additionally, labor leaders opposed it so much that it was outlawed in different states including Iowa, Tennessee and South Carolina in 1915. This controversy in the United States shows how much of an issue tipping is and has been.
One downside of tipping is that it enables employees to be paid less, preventing them from earning the minimum wage they deserve.
Employers achieve this by paying tipped workers a wage that reaches the federal minimum wage only when
combined with tips. According to the National Restaurant Association, it is estimated that every $1 increase in the federal tipped wage could cause a 6.1% decrease in employment and up to a 5.6% loss in quarterly earnings for employees. The decrease in employment due to the slow transformation of wages into tips has become another issue resulting from modern tipping standards.
Not only has tipping culture negatively affected the pay rates of employees, it has also proven to be a disservice for customers. The custom of gratitude is now a demand rather than a choice within the past decade.
Changes in the economy, such as inflation, have also contributed to why tipping has gotten out of hand. This phenomenon became more apparent during the pandemic, when many businesses began “guilt-tipping” customers to support service industry workers at a time of crisis. According to a poll from Talker Research, the average person tips $37.80 a month and $453.60 a year due to guilt-induced gratuity, with 26% feeling they are always or often forced to tip more than they would like. If someone truly wished to tip, they wouldn’t feel unhappy to do so. Additionally, roughly spending $500 a year on undeserving service shows how excessive tipping culture has gotten. Additionally, many restaurants have turned to “auto-gratuity,” which further eliminates customer decision. With this format, customers are automatically charged an additional 15-20% of their total bill regardless of the quality of service provided. Policies like these contribute to why tipping is losing its definition. It diverges negatively from being a token of appreciation to a method of forcing people to pay extra.
In conjunction with auto-tipping, “tip-inflation” is a term that describes the increase in expected tips due to inflation. Tipping is based on a certain percentage of a total cost of a product or service, and when the price for that product increases, so does the tip amount. According to financial media company Investopedia, digital payment systems with screens that display preset tipping recommendations, often start at 20%. The lowest tip amount being 20% forces someone to pay an amount they may not feel comfortable paying and contributes to extreme tipping rates.
Once a method to express gratitude, tipping has slowly become a way to unfairly profit off of people. Tipping has strayed so far from its original purpose that it has taken on a new form of consumerism, a way for businesses to increase their revenue without charging upfront. An increase in tipping culture due to inflation has caused people to feel obligated to spend their hard-earned money on service they’ve already been charged for. This method of forcing gratitude has reached a tipping point, and therefore needs to end.
]]>Much of the overspending by teenagers stems from a pressure to buy things seen in the environment surrounding them, including classmates and social media. This increased consumerism drives students to spend a substantial amount of money to fit in. In the fall of 2021, teens spent 22% of their own income on clothing, according to a Piper Sandler’s Taking Stock With Teens survey. This causes a discrepancy between the amount most students spend on clothing and how much they should be allocating towards wardrobe shopping. According to financial planners, only around 5% of one’s income should be allocated towards buying clothes. This 17% difference highlights the inability of teens to recognize the proper ways to spend and save money, which contribute to a lack of financial awareness.
Another way overspending has become normalized are the rising prices of consumer goods. As the eleventh most expensive city in California, according to Reader’ Digest, students in Palo Alto may feel pressured to contribute to the consumerist culture and spend more than anticipated in a short period of time. Inflation significantly contributes to teens’ increased spending. According to Mercury News, fast food prices in the state of California have risen by over 7% in the last six months alone. While 7% may not feel like a large increase, small increments over a longer period of time may lead to more noticeable differences.
Many of these issues stem from an absence of financial responsibility. Countless students do not receive sufficient monetary education, contributing to a lack of motivation to save or invest their personal wealth. Additionally, teenagers rely on their parents for income assistance, whether it be a total dependency for cash or occasional borrowing. While common, this reliance is detrimental to the futures of these students, who are missing out on learning economic skills at an early age. It is important to teach children the importance of money management from an early age to encourage sustainable financial habits.
A majority of high school students do not have an official form of income, and while getting a job may seem like an obvious solution, this is often difficult for students with significant academic and extracurricular commitments. Part time employment could affect a student’s academic performance. According to a study conducted by Penn State, having a job negatively impacts scholastic achievement, creating an incapability for students to maintain their grades while acquiring a source of income conducive to their preferred spending habits.
As children grow older, more time is spent independently with one’s friends. These excursions with friends encourage spending money, but without a steady income, this lifestyle is unsuitable for individuals attempting to be money-conscious, introducing the conflict between spending time with friends without going over budget. Teenagers encourage each other to make impudent decisions, ultimately leading to a lack of thoughtful monetary consumption. CollegeData refers to this as “financial peer pressure,” in which individuals are influenced to spend a larger amount of money around friends than they normally would while alone. These negligent social influences promote an ignorance towards responsible financial habits.
As societal coercion grows with age, student spending habits increase with it. Teens often feel pressured to buy unnecessary products due to their environment and the money habits in Palo Alto. To prevent excessive consummatory behavior, students should be aware of their spending and remain money-conscious when with friends. Instead of buying a $7 coffee simply because others are, money should be saved for more important occasions. Contrary to the popular mindset within Palo Alto, not all activities need to be expensive to be fun, and not all friendships need to involve money to stay strong.
]]>One of these climbers is junior Cameron Ennis, who began his rock climbing journey in middle school after his dad brought him to a climbing gym on the Stanford University campus. Ennis shares his personal journey of improvement using the V scale, where the difficulty of climbs increase from V0 to V14.
“(At first), I didn’t take (rock climbing) that seriously,” he said. “Then when COVID hit, I stopped entirely. About a year ago, I got back into climbing, but this time, a lot more seriously. When I started, I could only climb V1’s and occasionally V2’s. The progression that you get from working your way up the grades was really motivating for me. A year later and I’m climbing V5’s and V6’s.”
According to Ennis, rock climbing is especially appealing to students due to its inclusivity regarding one’s physique and skill level.
“A lot of sports are significantly easier for people who have a specific body type that’s optimal for that sport, like basketball with tall people,” he said. “Climbing, on the other hand, is a lot more accessible since people of any height or weight can climb and have fun. Climbing gyms are made to be for everyone, and the community is super supportive, so you don’t have to feel embarrassed about not being able to climb stuff that really experienced people can.”
Sophomore rock climber Annika Kulawik echoes Ennis’ points about the inclusivity of the rock climbing community, saying that accessibility is one of the many common misconceptions that deter participation in the sport.
“Some people think in order to rock climb you have to be super strong and need a ton of special equipment,” she said. “You don’t. Gyms make climbing way easier and more accessible now, and you are unlikely to hurt yourself falling.
According to Ennis, many people, especially those afraid of heights, believe that rock climbing is dangerous. In reality, many safety precautions are taken before even one begins climbing.
Sophomore Joshua Rene-Corail believes that the importance of rock climbing comes from the necessity of perseverance and character building.
“Rock climbing is for everyone, because it can be both an individual and team sport, and you don’t need a lot of experience to start out,” he said. “It’s all about setting goals and challenging yourself.”
Rene-Corail has been rock climbing for five years, during this time, he has achieved a healthy balance and between his schoolwork and sport.
“(Rock climbing) definitely removes a lot of pressure and stress that I have with different classes or assignments,” he said. “It’s an easy way to escape work sometimes.”
To Kulawik, although rock climbing takes up a lot of time, she believes that its benefits greatly outweigh its costs.
“I’ve met friends at the gym and it can be fun to work on climbs together,” she said. “It does take a lot of time. Sometimes I spend three hours from when I leave my house to when I get back, which gives me less time to do homework, but it’s worth it.”
Rock climbing at Gunn embodies the spirit of community and resilience, welcoming all students to challenge themselves and find solace in a sport that transcends mere physical activity. As rock climbing continues to establish itself in the Gunn community, it fosters student connections and inspires individuals to pursue their own unique paths.
According to Ennis, Gunn’s Rock Climbing Club readily invites those who are curious about or interested in climbing.
“If you’re thinking about trying out rock climbing, I’d recommend getting in contact with climbers at Gunn, such as people who go to Climbing Club,” he said. “We do regular meetups at the nearby climbing gyms, and we’re totally down to introduce you to climbing and give advice.”
]]>Before divulging into the negatives of this privilege, it is important to understand the depth behind it. According to Vice News, “pretty privilege” is the idea that those who are conventionally attractive, based on current societal beauty standards, are given more opportunities than others. Pretty privilege, however, is not just a concept: It is also a proven science. In a 2019 study conducted by Behavioral Science, conventionally attractive individuals have a greater acquisition of resources and are more likely to experience marital and career success. This study highlights the systemic bias favoring attractive individuals, leading to unequal opportunities. The larger implications are clear: Society’s emphasis on appearance over personal value creates imbalance and undervalues intrinsic qualities, ultimately shaping people’s life outcomes based on looks rather than abilities.
Society’s emphasis on appearance over personal value creates imbalance and undervalues intrinsic qualities, ultimately shaping people’s life outcomes based on looks rather than abilities.
Pretty privilege quietly exists in daily life, but is most apparent and harsh in the media. A primary pop culture example of this is how British singer Adele Adkins was treated before and after her weight loss. The current societal standard of a healthy, attractive body is thin and athletic, which up until 2019, Adele did not have. Once she managed to noticeably lose weight, however, she began receiving positive feedback from the media and was publicized by magazines such as the British Vogue who were surprised by her abrupt, undocumented weight loss. Because of the sudden amount of attention she was receiving, her idle career was given a boost. Adele had been trying to release music in the 5 years prior to her weight loss, but her label had rejected her sampled music. However, after the media attention, Adele was able to release a new album of music, she had said in the November 2023 edition of the British Vogue. Adele immediately gained more success in her musical career once she gained media publicity, which she received because her body was seen as more attractive. This common theme of altering one’s body to comply with societal standards can also be seen in celebrities such as American singer Lana Del Rey and American television personality Kim Kardashian, who all received career benefits after fitting themselves into a beauty standard.
Pretty privilege also affects one’s likelihood of being hired, according to an article written in April 2024 from Business Insider. Labor and employment attorney Robert I. Gosseen told Business Insider that despite the existence of hiring laws that protect candidates against biases, whether racial, economic or due to other circumstances, employers still typically weigh attractiveness as a key factor in hiring. Because the concept of appearance over personal matters is so deeply integrated into aspects of everyday life, from what is seen in the media to the chance of being successful in a career, attractiveness becomes associated with prosperity, wealth and overall wellbeing, furthering the Halo Effect.
While pretty privilege can be seen as beneficial to the people who have it and unaffecting or neutral to those who don’t, it is extremely demeaning and degrading to both parties. Of course, the absence of beauty advantages in a person can be incredibly detrimental because it engraves the message in their head that they are unattractive and undeserving, greatly impacting their self-image and worldview. Having a negative perception on one’s own attractiveness can taint their vision of how they can contribute to or fit into a societal setting. This problematic mindset can cause feelings of inferiority, decreased confidence and limited aspirations, as they believe their efforts will be undervalued due to their appearance. Living without advantages as a reward for one’s beauty while seeing others be rewarded can make them second-guess themselves, which can be frustrating if the more attractive but less qualified individual consistently receives better treatment. It is unfair to judge one based on their appearance in a societal setting, as it undermines the true value of an individual and bases their quality on something they have little control over. This fosters a divided environment where superficial qualities are valued over true abilities and character.
This notion is shown in a study conducted by Stress Health in 2019, which concluded that perceived appearance judgments can affect an individual’s willingness to do something, as well as increase their depressive and stress symptoms.
It is unfair to judge one based on their appearance in a societal setting, as it undermines the true value of an individual and bases their quality on something they have little control over.
However, pretty privilege can also be a disservice to those who experience it because it impairs their perception on the realities of life and causes a lack of awareness around biases and struggles. It also creates an illusion that their beauty will be long-lasting and that they won’t experience treatment any different in the future. In actuality, however, it is impossible to keep up with changing beauty standards for a whole lifetime. Once an individual is no longer seen as conventionally attractive, they can be thrown off balance through having to learn what life is like without a pedestal.
In conclusion, the concept of “pretty privilege” permeates various aspects of society, offering disproportionate advantages to those deemed conventionally attractive. While it may seem like a benign or even positive phenomenon for those who benefit from it, the broader implications are far more complex and damaging. This preferential treatment based on appearance not only undermines the self- esteem and opportunities of those who do not fit these beauty standards, but also creates a skewed reality for those who do. This privilege fails to prepare individuals for life’s broader challenges and reinforces superficial societal values over genuine merit. Ultimately, pretty privilege perpetuates an inequitable social structure that prioritizes appearance over substance, leading to a society where true equity and fairness remain elusive. Addressing this issue requires a conscious effort to value individuals for their inherent qualities and contributions, rather than their physical appearance.
]]>One of these sailors is junior Bosco Zhang, who is in the Penninsula Youth Sailing Foundation. Zhang was introduced to the world of sailing by a family friend, who was his first coach. After coming to the United States, he joined a sailing team in order to improve and meet new people.
“I have been sailing for 8 years,” he said. “My mother’s friend was a former world champion, and he asked me if I was interested in sailing during a summer vacation. I wanted to try it, and I liked it. The reason why I joined (the sailing team) is that I want to continue to improve my skills.”
“When you’re on the water, you cannot just quit. It’s just like life. When you make a mistake, you need to rethink and learn from it.”
— Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation coach Juan Pablo Del Solar Goldsmith
PYSF coach Juan Pablo Del Solar Goldsmith, who coaches Gunn’s team, also began sailing at a young age, and through his commitment and perseverance was able to compete at international competitions.
“I have sailed since I was six years old, I lived right around the sea,” he said. “So as a young kid, I started sailing, I competed at the World Championships and I went to the Olympics three times as a coach. I’m very competitive in any sport.”
According to senior Gunn sailor Naomi Lowenthal, the unique appeal of sailing and what makes it different from other sports can be summarized in a quote by sailing coach Dave Perry, a five-time national match racing champion.
“I think Dave Perry said it best: ‘Sailing is the most complex sport in the world (because) it requires split-second decisions based on a variety of strategic and tactical considerations.To execute successfully, you need to gather the right information, evaluate your options, and communicate clearly,’” Lowenthal said. “(Sailing) also teaches you how to control what you can in unpredictable situations. We can’t control the weather, but we can learn to adapt
to (it).”
Goldsmith believes that more high schoolers should consider sailing as a sport due to the important values and qualities it can develop in the athlete.
“If you were on a soccer field or a rugby field, quitting is very easy, where you just walk out and you’re out,” he said. “When you’re on the water, you cannot just quit. It’s just like life. When you make a mistake, you need to rethink and learn from it. And just by doing (sailing), it kind of teaches you that right away.”
Zhang believes that the allure of sailing comes not from the learning, but from the excitement and enjoyment it brings.
“(Sailing) is the one (sport) that allows me to relax and just focus on doing this one thing,” he said. “And it doesn’t have the constraints of the venue. I can go anywhere I want. It’s more free, and I just like the feeling of not being bound.”
Like Zhang, Goldsmith finds that sailing gives him a sense of liberation that could not be otherwise obtained.
“When you’re sailing, it’s like living twice,” he said. “I enjoy being in the water and competing against others.”
While sailing is still mostly unexplored at Gunn, to the students it does reach, sailing is a large portion of their lives. From reducing stress to teaching life lessons, sailing offers a unique experience that extends beyond the confines of traditional sports. It fosters a sense of freedom and strategic thinking that resonates deeply with those who partake in it.
]]>Whether it be walking through the halls or sitting in a busy classroom, it is clear that the change in weather impacts student style.
According to junior Kamran Khan, when the temperature changes, he feels obligated to alter the type of clothes he wears in order to stay comfortable. Although the temperature in Palo Alto doesn’t ever become too extreme, he still checks the weather app daily to choose an outfit for school.
“In the winter, I try to dress with a lot more layers just because it’s so cold,” he said. “(And in the summer), I wear a lot more T-shirts, tank tops, shorts and sunglasses.”
Khan also finds that he has fewer outfit choices in the summer compared to the winter.
“(Style in the) summer feels definitely more restricting than winter because you have to wear shorter or thinner stuff just so you don’t overheat,” he said. “In the winter, unlike the summer where you’re just wearing T-shirts and shorts, you can still wear those if you just have a long sleeve layer underneath or with other layers on top.”
However, sophomore Gianna Tuffley, believes that winter weather puts more restrictions on her style due to the fewer opportunities to wear unique outfits.
“When I’m in the winter, I feel like I don’t do as much shopping because I end up covering what I’m wearing with a hoodie,” she said. “I feel like I get to express myself more when it’s hot out because I can wear what I actually want to wear.”
Evolving color palettes is another aspect to consider when it comes to style changes in relation to the weather. According to Tuffley, some colors work better than others in certain seasons.
“In the winter, I tend to focus more on cooler toned colors — I graduate more towards blacks and grays and browns and navies,” she said. “When it comes to summer I like to wear (more) vibrant colors (such as) reds, pinks and greens.”
This contemplation of warm and cool colors extends beyond clothing and into accessories.
“In the winter I tend to gravitate more towards silver, and then summer feels more like gold,” Tuffley said. “I think gold is such a great way to elevate a good summer look because it’s such a timeless piece (and) the way gold reflects in sunlight is so pretty.”
But the weather and colors are not the only thing that determines what students wear. Personal opinions and attitudes towards the time of year can also be a significant contributor to popular style. Khan finds himself putting more effort into his summer style through planning outfits and going shopping to switch things up.
“I’m tired of the winter — I want to branch out and change it up,” he said. “I might put extra effort to (plan what I’m going to wear) for the next couple of days because I’m excited to wear something different.”
Tuffley echoes Khan’s observation on the excitement surrounding the novelty of summer clothing and senses a collective attitude shift around campus.
“The general vibe around school is that everyone is putting more effort (into their outfits) and everyone actually cares now because we only have a month of school left,” she said. “I feel like everyone’s starting to treat it like it’s summer already.”
]]>However, in the process of creating these plots and themes, the media industry inadvertently creates many stereotypes, such as the “dumb jock” and “unpopular nerd.” These stereotypes cause cliques to form where individuals with similar traits separate into exclusive groups. Consumers of this media internalize these stereotypes, even though in reality, they are little more than fiction.
According to Visual and Performing Arts teacher Kristen Lo, these stereotypes must be established in the beginning of a play in order to kickstart the main plotline.
“(High School Musical) starts out (with) everybody in their little cliques, and it’s like, ‘Don’t get out of the status quo,’” she said. “And so, when everybody is coming up on stage, you basically have the four different cliques that you have established.”
These stereotypes in media depict jocks as large, muscular bullies with little intelligence, but popular for their prowess in sports, and nerds as thin, unfashionable and unsociable, picked on by the jocks. The girls are also portrayed similarly, with popular, pretty and unkind girls bullying those seen as social outcasts. These stereotypes almost always have a defining quality as well, such as jocks only playing basketball or nerds being weak and thin. This forms the belief that certain traits are mutually exclusive to a designated social group.
The light in which stereotypical cliques are portrayed is also of paramount importance in terms of influencing the way teens act. Whether or not these actions in movies enable teens to replicate them in some form or another is a key factor in evaluating the impact of this genre of high school movies.
“This is always the (issue): ‘Does art influence people in bad ways?’” Lo said. “Do people see things take place in art and they say, ‘I’ll do the thing that they did in Mean Girls?’ That is the catch with art – can that happen?”
The messages portrayed in media significantly influences students’ perceptions of high school cliques: Some imply that students should stay in the roles given to them by their community, while others present the idea that students can be anything they want to be and do anything they want to do.
The idea of students striving for popularity can be seen in “Mean Girls.” In this movie, students are either a part of “The Plastics” – the group of popular and pretty girls – or social outcasts. The expectations of their actions portrayed by these cliques create a stigma around the average high schoolers’ acts. For instance, The Plastics “banish” one of their own after they wear sweatpants because it was a violation of one of their rules. This scene conveyed the message that students should stay within their cliques’ ideals and that having different personal beliefs is unacceptable.
This is always the (issue): ‘Does art influence people in bad ways?’ Do people see things take place in art and then they say, ‘I’ll do the thing that they did in Mean Girls.’ That is the catch with art; can that happen?
— Visual and Performing Arts Teacher Kristen Lo
However, other examples of media offer an exception to these characterizations, such as in the movie “High School Musical,” where a jock falls for a nerd and they both end up auditioning for a musical together. This plot broke stereotypes by bringing individuals of different social groups together.
It is important to promote the creation of pieces of media such as these, as they act as examples for students to act in accordance to their own feelings rather than how others believe they should. Encouraging the embrace of individuality makes space for an expansion of interests past what society deems acceptable for a certain person to do. This will not only help enrich a teen’s personal growth but also promotes a more inclusive culture that values authenticity within the high school community.
Unfortunately, however, movies that feed into stereotypes are still extremely prevalent. According to theater performer Connor Engstrom, in certain films, these stereotypes may not be apparent, but can still be implicitly involved.
“I feel like, to an extent, Harry Potter did perpetuate stereotypes,” he said. “It’s like the jocks (are) the Quidditch team, and then other characters are nerds. I think it’s more tamped down in terms of stereotypes than (other) movies.”
These forms of media are also not as free in expression, according to Engstrom.
“I think other mediums of art are a lot more stringent with the rules that they apply in terms of who you can be and what you can do,” he said. “I think of movies and TV shows as being very restrictive of stereotypes. For instance, (in) “Modern Family,” you’re either a nerd or you’re popular.”
Even though these forms of media can have wholesome themes, many of these movies seem out of touch with present high school norms.
“I feel like the stereotypes are a thing of the past in most cases, or at least a thing of twenty years ago,” Engstrom said. “People are still cliquing up, and they’re hanging out with others who have similar interests to them. But I think those interests are more broadly spanning than before.”
Gunn also defies these long-standing stereotypes with a culture that applauds individuals for striving for intelligence rather than popularity. This value breaks the stereotype that prioritizing academics automatically means that being unathletic and a target for bullies.
“Gunn is a really special place,” Lo said. “I have worked at three different schools, and Gunn is the one that bucks stereotypes the most, mostly because it is extremely cool to be intelligent here. Everyone here is being pushed towards wanting to go to an elite college, and so the stereotypes don’t really fit here.”
Gunn students participating in a diverse amount of extracurriculars also decreases the hostility that some characters feel in high school movies when attempting to cross their group’s boundaries into another: The feeling of belonging to more than one group is not frowned upon, perhaps even normalized at Gunn.
I feel like the stereotypes are a thing of the past in most cases, or at least a thing of twenty years ago. People are still cliquing up, and they’re hanging out with others who have similar interests to them. But I think those interests are more broadly spanning than before.
— Junior Connor Engstrom
The perpetuation of stereotypes can play a role in forms of media besides on-screen entertainment. Although many stereotypes may stem from plays and other theater productions, theater offers a way to defy these stereotypes. The ability to do other activities, like sports, while also being in drama, is a direct contradiction to the portrayal of only being able to do one at a time.
“I don’t think my basketball teammates think any less of me because I do theater,” Engstrom said. “They’ve seemed relatively supportive and have asked interesting questions, like ‘What do you do during rehearsal?’, which is indicative of a good school space in my opinion.”
To break out of this representation of high school as an exclusive landscape where each person is automatically sorted into a group that is completely polarized from another, literature and media creators should seek to catch up to the current high school culture. Staying in the past creates a division between teens’ perceptions in media and their true identities.
]]>“I was learning from students that are agricultural and environmental science students at Stanford,” she said. “They come from all over the place and have different perspectives on everything, and it’s just really interesting to listen to while doing mundane tasks like weeding.”
Novitskaya grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and often visited countryside farms with her family. Moving to California showed her the importance of agriculture as a system.
“A lot of people didn’t realize how important it is here because a lot of people are focused on tech and not really on a more traditional or not-as-fancy sort of profession,” Novitskaya said. “But I think it’s really important.”
Over the years, Novitskaya has explored various perspectives on agriculture through volunteering, going abroad, and traveling with her family. Last summer, as part of a Council on International Educational Exchange program focused on climate change, she learned how Costa Rican people battle climate change through agriculture in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
“Seeing different farms of different countries, (I saw that) other countries are able to do (agriculture) sustainably,” she said. “So can we, but we aren’t really pushing towards that. I want to focus on the sustainable side of it and help other farmers make better choices that are more environmentally friendly.”
Through majoring in agricultural science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Novitskaya hopes to learn more about the agricultural system in the U.S. and abroad.
“As people live in more urban areas, it’s harder to get fresh food and food deserts are a big problem,” she said. “Being able to assist people with getting fresh produce in a more environmentally friendly way would be really cool.”
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