"Defeated and hopeless": The past year's brutal impact on teachers
(Published in the February 2020 issue of the Pleasant Valley Spartan Shield. Click to enlarge)
Kosama: Carrying the weight of COVID
(Published in the February 2020 issue of the Pleasant Valley Spartan Shield. Click to enlarge.)
Feb. 22 board meeting report: Audience members voice concerns on mask mandate and lunch dividers
(Published on February 27th, 2021 on Pleasant Valley's spartanshield.org)
The piece is linked here, and also pasted below.
The school board fielded concerns from parents and community members about the district’s mask mandate and cardboard lunch table dividers at the Feb. 22 board meeting. The week prior to the meeting, social media posts sparked controversy surrounding the fact that elementary and junior high students could not see those around them while eating lunch due to their new cardboard lunch table dividers. District superintendent Brian Strusz addressed the controversy at the beginning of the meeting, saying that the purpose of the dividers is to keep students safe and to minimize the amount of students that have to quarantine if there is a positive case in the lunchroom. This statement was followed by audience members voicing their concerns. “What is the data that they [lunch dividers] do something?” asked community member Diane Holst. She also questioned the district’s mask mandate, saying “I’m concerned about the masks in general for children…the peer reviewed studies need to come out of what the effects of wearing masks on children are.” “One of the questions I have is do you think it’s good for the kids?” asked the next audience member to speak, Steve Zimmerman. “I challenge everyone up there to eat in a cardboard box for a week, because that’s what you’re asking our kids to do.” He also questioned the district’s COVID decisions, saying “I’ve heard no talk of stair safety. More kids under the age of 15 die falling down the stairs than they do of COVID-19, but I hear no talk of stair safety at schools.” These sentiments were echoed by David Zimmerman, a community member who would not wear a mask at the event until instructed to by the school board. He asked the board to “get rid of those dividers because it’s not good for our kids social, mental state,” continuing that “All of this is having a mental impact on them, that none of you have any idea what it’s going to be.” Strusz responded to the concerns over students’ social and mental wellbeing, saying that the district “just implemented a social, emotional, behavioral program to address the needs of our kids, all kids.” The discussion also prompted responses from elementary teachers and administrators in the audience concerning the lunchroom atmosphere. A Riverdale Heights teacher acknowledged that the first day with dividers up was “concerning” for the kids, but said that since then the kids have been “totally fine with it” and the atmosphere has been “very similar to what the cafeteria has been in the past.” Bridgeview principal Tony Hiatt also added his perspective on the topic, saying that “At the end of the day, we have to make the decision that lands the most physically safe conditions for our kids, based on the best information we have at this time.” The next school board meeting will be held at 6 pm on Monday, March 22 at the district’s Belmont office, and will also be live-streamed. |
COVID college admissions: the students being left behind
(Published in the December/January 2020 issue of the Pleasant Valley Spartan Shield)
When encouragement became a shove: the accidental pressure of the "Girls in STEM" movement
(Published on on June 19th, 2020 on Pleasant Valley's spartanshield.org)
The piece is linked here, and also pasted below.
There need to be more girls in STEM fields, there’s no question. But the assumption that the deficit comes from lack of encouragement fails to consider one thing: simple disinterest. Women in STEM are seen as heroes, which many are, but the lack of any intense recognition being extended to women in non-STEM fields perpetuates an unfair pressure. As books, hashtags, and movies cause young girls to become enamored with the idea of breaking glass ceilings by entering one of these majors, girls who love English or Art can feel like pursuing their passion would just be playing into what is “expected” of a girl. It happened to me. As an 8th grader who was becoming passionate about gender equality, I tried to convince myself that I loved STEM; I wanted to do my part in reaching equality, and I was convinced that was the only way. Suppressing my love for writing, I attended engineering conferences that I hated and convinced myself that I liked to code, a time-consuming and expensive endeavor that I rarely enjoyed. Despite the general argument that a lack of encouragement is the problem, research shows that my experience is not isolated. According to a study done on high school students in 67 countries by Leeds Beckett University and the University of Missouri, 51 percent of girls excel in reading, compared to the 24 and 25 percent who excel in science and math. With such a large percentage of girls having non-STEM related talents, presenting an engineering or computer science degree as an exemplar of feminism or strength is simply not fair to intelligent young women who would rather use their talents elsewhere. And often, a liberal arts degree turns out to have more longevity than a STEM one. In the New York Times article “In the Salary Race, Engineers Sprint but English Majors Endure,” David Deming argues that it is harder for STEM majors to keep up with the changing face of their field: “Help-wanted ads for jobs like software developer and engineer were more likely to ask for skills that didn’t exist a decade earlier….Skill turnover was much higher in STEM fields than in other occupations.” In the current environment, a well-rounded liberal arts education, capable of sustaining an entire career, is too often implied as an inferior option for girls figuring out their future. Women in STEM do still deserve the recognition they receive, but the fight to include more girls needs to be one free of guilt for those who decide not to tag along. Celebrating women in all fields is vital, because STEM professions are not the only place where there is shattered glass. |