Opinion

This story originally appeared in the April 4th issue of The Saratoga Falcon.

When it comes to having access to an advanced education, there is a big difference between an engineering student at a premier university and a bicycle repairman in a rural village in China. Now, thanks to a rapidly growing program called Open CourseWare–popularized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–that repairman in Luoyang, China, can, with a little bit of initiative, learn the same material as the student and give himself the technical skills necessary for job advancement.

This story originally appeared in the April 4th issue of The Saratoga Falcon.

When a California state appeals court ruled on Feb. 28 that all homeschooled children should be taught by a credentialed teacher, homeschoolers and their supporters were outraged. Focus on the Family, a Christian values organization, deemed the ruling an “assault on family”; Gov. Schwarzenegger vowed to overturn the court’s decision; and 74 percent of participants in a San Francisco Chronicle survey voted against the appellate. A deeper analysis of the court’s motives, however, reveals that the ruling may actually have more benefits than harms.

This story originally appeared in the April 4th issue of The Saratoga Falcon.

When it comes to having access to an advanced education, there is a big difference between an engineering student at a premier university and a bicycle repairman in a rural village in China. Now, thanks to a rapidly growing program called Open CourseWare–popularized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology–that repairman in Luoyang, China, can, with a little bit of initiative, learn the same material as the student and give himself the technical skills necessary for job advancement.

The No Child Left Behind Act, originally enacted in 2002, promised many educational improvements for the youth of America. Underprivileged children had the hope of being educated as well as wealthier kids.

Public schools all over America were curious as to how the bill would improve the education students received. Five years later, it appears that few of the original goals have been met. Congress has finally begun to rewrite the bill. Big mistake. The act needs to be cancelled to repair some of the troubles it has caused over the past five years.

The issue of global warming has become an important one in the upcoming elections. All the candidates have accepted its existence and have promised to combat it using various methods.

On the other hand, there are many who deny that global warming is actually happening. They argue that environmentalists are merely blowing the phenomenon out of proportion.

A lone newspaper gently rolls across the vast desert of the quad, never to be picked up, and never to be recycled. Like tumbleweed, the newspaper continues its lonely journey, bumping into the occasional student who is too occupied to pick it up and recycle it.

The word “teenager” normally brings to mind a variety of stereotypes, namely drugs, drinking and sex. These pleasures have cast a gray image of irresponsibility, while becoming the juicy topics of discussion among older generations.

“O hai, this r intrstng stuf! Luv teh dyagramm!” commented a user on icanhascheezburger.com. The post, made about an article that analyzed the evolution of language on the web, is an accurate representation of the language teens use.

Most people don’t have someone they barely know scream “I love you” in an obscure foreign language at them every day.

Apparently, I’m not most people.

The general feeling among many Saratoga students regarding the school’s competitive nature, exemplified by a Facebook group called “Saratoga Kids Who Hate Saratoga” targeting both the school and the city, has once again brought to the forefront the question of whether SHS is too academically oriented for its own good.