The Stuyvesant Spectator

Opinions

Escape into Reality!

Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By JUDY BAEK

Once I finished junior year, laziness was supposed to prevent me from doing any difficult work.  I had previously sworn never to associate myself with the evils of idleness, but after suffering through SATs, Advanced Placement Exams and three years of Stuyvesant, I wanted to embrace senioritis. However, my summer job stopped all my hopes [...]

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Diary of a Mad Senior: That Inevitable College Application Article

Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By GEORGIA STASINOPOULOS

Working three jobs this summer, I became a master at navigating small talk. Still, even such finesse at spare-time banter lost its usefulness when conversation shifted from the latest drinking party at the local bar (which I had not attended) to other topics of conversation more suited for the naïve high school senior in the [...]

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Elephants and Army Tales

Backpage · Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By REBECCA ELLIOTT

Erwin, Tennessee—town of 500 known for hanging a circus elephant to death in 1916.
Murderous Mary, the first elephant in Tennessee, was undoubtedly unaware of the fame she would bring to the town of her final performance—or how stories of her killing would one day be told by a wilderness aficionado to a busload of whitewater [...]

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No Reason for Shame

Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By JUDY CHEN

Americans demonstrated national pride when they swept all three medals in women’s individual fencing at the Beijing Olympic Games. Everyone cheered when the U.S. men’s gymnastics team took home an unexpected bronze. And many Americans partied when Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal and broke the record for winning the most gold in a [...]

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Crouching in a Wooden Dragon

Frontpage · Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By GAVIN HUANG

On race day, it was 90 degrees, the sun blazingly bright with a nice comforting breeze. A steerer, a drummer and 12 paddlers were seated in a long colorful boat adorned with the head and tail of a dragon. We could hear the captains in the boats next to us giving pep talks. “Keep together,” [...]

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Prime Real Estate

Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Location, location, location—the key to a successful year at Stuy.
Principal Stanley Teitel’s Trident, proposed in spring 2007, introduced a new scanner system, required faculty to wear identification and upturned the school’s existing locker-swapping culture.
In past years, students would be assigned lockers within the building, then use their own locks to secure them. Many students abandoned [...]

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Out of the Red

Opinions- September 4th, 2008 · By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Phew. We can breathe again. The New York City Council cancelled the budget cuts for Stuyvesant’s 2008-2009 school year on Thursday, June 26. We’ll get everything back—our classes and extracurricular activities are out of harm’s way.
This change is a direct result of adamant student and parent opposition to the cuts. Parents joined together at schools [...]

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Despite Threats to Student Speech, Student Journalists Celebrate Press Freedom

Opinions- June 2nd, 2008 · By SNIGDHA SUR

What you hold in your hands right now is the product of a free press. Uncensored, unpreviewed, a result of journalism for students and by students—a rare breed to which fewer and fewer high schools are exposed.
While the majority in our school were recovering from an exhilarating SING! weekend, 102 “free-spirited” student journalists gathered in [...]

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Current Necessities

Opinions- June 2nd, 2008 · By JAMES DENNIN

As skeptical students, it is in our nature to always question the value of learning, especially when placed out of our element in terms of subject material. Future poets toil over physics problems, while future engineers ponder the value of reading Shakespeare.
Many of Stuyvesant’s required classes seem pointless. They aren’t geared towards preparing us for [...]

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A Political Republic

Opinions- June 2nd, 2008 · By EVAN SMITH

As we approach the elections for junior, senior and Student Union (SU) caucus, we once again find ourselves asking: Why do we do it? Why put up with the in-your-face campaigning, the incessant pleading of the candidates to vote, the election whose validity must every so often be called into question? In theory, we want [...]

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