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How Social Media is Affecting Our Academic Lives

Technology. You see it everywhere you go. Around every corner you turn, there is no doubt that you will see some form of technology. Our generation grew up in a world consumed by instant messaging and lives that were posted all over the internet. Now, the technology of social media has blown up into something we cannot stop. Almost everybody has some type of social media account. We use these accounts everyday and some people even post their entire lives on those sites.

We have become consumed by the power that social media holds. We follow trends that appear, we check for how many “likes” we’re able to get, and how many followers we have. These sites have just become a part of our life. But, can their effect be deleterious? If we’ve become so consumed by these sites, then, are our lives at school being affected?

I’ve asked some students around the halls of McClatchy how their school lives are affected by social media accounts. Ian Curtis (’17) states, “I have one social media account. I use it almost everyday. It does make it harder to study and do homework.” He only has one social media account and even that is devouring his time. The effect of social media has such a powerful hold on us and definitely has a strong impact on our everyday lives. However, despite the fact that Ian may go on his account on a daily basis, he still says that he is not as distracted as most people are; however, “every now and then, I want to check what everyone else is doing.”

Scott Kumamoto’s (’16) life is also affected by social media, saying, “I have three different social media accounts: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.” He says that he uses Instagram the most and when asked if any of his accounts made it hard to do homework, he replied, “ Yes. Instagram makes it very hard.” So, social media does make his academic life more challenging; it offers more distractions. This only furthers the proof that social media is negatively affecting our school lives and shows the control it holds over our lives.

Overall, while some students are able to resist the attraction of social media, others are not and have become consumed by it. It has come to the point where we are so enveloped by it, that it is starting to affect our school lives and become a daily distraction. Whether it be because we want to check the number of “likes” we received on our most recent photo, or see what our friends are up to, these sites have become deeply embedded into our lives and serve as a constant distraction. Technology, in general, is advancing, whether we like it or not, and along with these advancements, social media will continue to have a huge effect on our lives.

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Sexism in the Dress Code

The carefree days of summer have ended, and the 2015-2016 school year has come into full swing. The beginning of the first semester not only marks the start of the dress-code, but for many girls, the end of denim shorts, tank tops, and flowy dresses. In recent years, the dress-code has become extremely strict and unforgiving. Its enforcement has brought me to realize that it targets girls in particular – or at least seems that way. Implementing standards of public decency on the entirety of the student body is a very different thing than looking specifically for girls whose shorts don’t meet their fingertips or whose tank top straps aren’t two inches wide. The dress code’s newly systemic nature has consequently become polluted with sexist ideals.

Sexism, put simply, is the discrimination and oppression of someone based off of their gender identity. Though cisgender males can be affected by sexism, it is primarily experienced by both trans men and women, cisgender females, non-binary, intersex, and gender fluid individuals. It is inclusive of much more than the dress code issue, but it definitely plays a part in teaching young girls in particular that their bodies are inherently sexual and need to be hidden. This is extremely unhealthy and damaging; because ultimately, sexism in American society will undoubtedly continue – and that is an immense issue for the next generation of impressionable girls.

In my three years attending McClatchy, I have seen a considerable number of girls being dress-coded before and after school, during passing period and even the beginning of class. Though boys are dress-coded occasionally, it is far less frequent. This shows how centralized the dress code is towards girls. What is and is not considered appropriate by the McClatchy staff is extremely inconsistent. Many guys, for example, wear shirts with everything from sexualized women, to people smoking, to depictions of violence. Despite this, I have yet to see anyone wearing these types of shirts being dress-coded.
There are extremely unhealthy consequences to telling girls, and only girls, that their appearances are more important than their education and that their bodies should not be seen because they are shameful or perceived as sexual. Ingraining these misogynistic ideals in young girls and boys only allows for gender roles and sexism in society to perpetuate.

From workplaces to schools, sexism is prevalent everywhere in society. It’s particularly unfortunate that it still perpetuates itself, in something so simple as the way people dress. Ideally, a non-discriminatory, non-oppressive code should be established, in which no person, under any circumstance, is made to feel bad about their body. It’s a hopeful goal, especially considering the yearly reinforcement of the current dress-code – but it is plausible. Like anything, though, enough people need to care about the issue in order to help spur much needed change.

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Lions vs Lionesses Basketball

Lionesses
After a phenomenal 2014-2015 season the girls varsity basketball team set a legacy that will stand with Mcclatchy for a lifetime. I call it phenomenal because during the playoffs they went against insurmountable odds to prove two major things. The first, that you can beat anyone if you have determination.The second, that Mcclatchy girls basketball is the best in the Sacramento School District, let alone the state of California. This is what the girls left for all to be amazed by. With new and returning players, I had to ask the question what are the girls basketball team’s goals and expectations for the 2015-2016 season. I got a response from Gigi Garcia. She said, ”My goals for this season are to come back by playoffs and be able to play but also just be a great teammate and help coach the young players. We have a couple new really good girls who I expect to blend well with the team and hopefully we’ll get far again this year.” To explain, Gigi got injured during the summer. The quote tells a thousand stories, it just shows how much it takes as a team to get to a state championship title. The girls seem pretty confident and can’t I wait to see what they can put together.

Lions
The boys had a pretty good 2014-2015 season as well. They didn’t get a state title yet they can still walk around with great pride in the hard work they put in. This season, the boys varsity team will do everything in their power to match the girls state title win. I asked the varsity coach Jeff Ota what his goals are for the upcoming season. He answered, ”To have the boys work as hard as they can in order to meet their full potential, if they reach their full potential, that’s all I could ever ask for.” That simply shows how great of a coach he is. It’s about having each boy get more out of basketball then just a title, to unlock their full potential. I asked another question this time not to a coach but to a player. His name is a Aj Wood. I asked him what his goals and expectations are and he replied this, ”My goal is to obviously make playoffs and my expectations is to get better as an individual and as a team; to get to our best potential. we play as a team, we win as a team.” It show the dedication of the entire team in a few sentences. I can only hope the guys can bring home a second title.

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The “Another Day, Another Dollar” Announcement

If you aren’t screaming or snoozing during second period announcements, you will hear the newest ending slogan,“another day, another dollar,” said by the president of ASB, Kweku Djan.

With every new ASB president comes a new signing off phrase. Some of the previous phrases have been: “stay classy McClatchy”,“don’t talk about it be about it”, “thanks for stopping by”, and “make good choices.”

Kweku explained how Sam Brocchini, the ASB treasurer, had told him the phrase last year in their physics class. Back then, neither of them expected it of be part of the announcements. However, when the time came around to have a new sign off ready Kweku couldn’t think of anything better. “I kinda had no other ideas and I thought, well, I gotta say something.”

The slogan originates from an old sailor’s saying around the 1850s, “more days, more dollars.” Meaning, the more days at sea, the more the sailor earns. Word Reference and various answer websites, say the phrase nowadays means the person saying it is not excited about what they do for a living and is just there for the money. Kweku says the phrase signifies “persistence, working hard consistently pays off.” It must be subjective.

When asked for their thoughts on the phrase, Larisa Mercado, a junior at McClatchy, says “I like it ‘cause it’s true. Time is money. Going to school leads to getting a good job and getting paid.” However, Mr. Maxwell, an English teacher, had very different thoughts. “Oh, I hate it. It’s a cliche and I don’t get it. All the freshman want to know when they are gonna get paid.” Another junior at McClatchy, Claire Fetros said, “I think it’s kinda dumb ‘cause most of us don’t have jobs since we are too busy with school. School isn’t paying us, it’s sorta keeping us from getting paid.”

Obviously, students do not get paid to go to high school. But, in the long run, doing well in high school does pay off. Even though a day passing doesn’t necessarily mean more money is added to our future, it’s what we do with that day that matters. Kweku’s phrase may not be interpreted how he wants but that could be a reflection on the person hearing it, not the one saying it. The phrase could be taken positively– another day working hard means another step towards success– or negatively– just another day in school where we are not even getting paid.

You will eventually prosper by working your tush off. Maybe you can’t see the benefit in the moment but, when you are old and retired, laying on your diamond encrusted couch amidst stacks of benjamins, you can think of this saying and chuckle:
“Another day, another dollar.”

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3-D Printing Dreams

Maybe you dozed off at your desk after a long night of homework, or perhaps you fell asleep watching Netflix and cuddling with your cat. Regardless of how you fall asleep at night, you are guaranteed a dream (or the occasional nightmare), whether or not you remember it in the morning. Everyone dreams! And “everyone” includes your fellow teachers and peers.

Juniors Derek Imai and Max Zoglio each shared a recent dream.
Now imagine a 3-D printer, but rather than relying on a piece of technology the machine is your imagination. This is how Derek’s dream began.
Derek said, “I had a dream the other day where I was sketching animals and such, and whatever I sketched magically jumped off the pages and were real. I then drew an airplane and flew across the world. Best dream ever!”

Max Zoglio also had a dream about travelling, and recalled his dream, “Some friends and I were flying a helicopter in Latin America with Mr. Still. Then it transitioned to Central Asia, and I was going through the mountains, and some really scary guys stole some essays I wrote. But then they were cool, and I crashed at one of their houses for a few days. Then I went to South Uzbekistan and got some Pizza Hut at a K-Mart, but all the workers looked like aliens. It was really weird! Then we went to a hotel and ate some frozen pizzas.” He added, “This, legit, was all in one dream, and it was super vivid!”
Both Derek and Max love dreaming. Though they haven’t analyzed the meaning of their dreams, they consider themselves lucky to remember what they see. Sometimes you don’t remember your dream, or worse, you wake up fuzzy and happy, only for your dream to slip from your memory, pieces of it vague and blurred. Sometimes you do remember your dream, a spectacular blend of magic and mystery, but forget it hours later.

An interesting hobby to consider is dream journaling. Dreams are especially unique because half the time your mind envisions things you wouldn’t dare think of consciously. Reading your dreams helps you interpret what your subconscious is telling you. When you reflect on earlier journal entries, you may unearth how your emotions paralleled to what you were feeling at that time.
Dreams can even help you come up with inventions! But remember, dreams are products of a sleepy mind. No matter how stressed you may be from homework or school drama, always make the time for your mind to rest!

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McClatchy Debate Lives For Bids

The “BF” in C.K. McClatchy BF stands for Boettner Fleming, but it could just as easily stand for best friends. It is the name of McClatchy’s premier policy debate team, composed of two seniors, Nate Fleming and Eric Boettner. I had the opportunity to talk to both of them at the same time, and they clued me into not only the dynamic of their partnership, but policy debate as a whole.

CI: Describe policy debate for me in one sentence.

NF: There is a big question and we all argue about what the right answer is, for a year.

CI: What is the question this year?

NF: Should the U.S. federal government curtail its domestic surveillance.

CI: My understanding is that you can either argue yes we should, or no we should not.

EB: The point of debate isn’t to say yes or no to the question, it is to negate what the other team is saying. Me and Nate don’t really talk about the question at all, we just force the other team to answer us.

CI: How?

NF: The affirmative team is responsible for agreeing with the question. The negative is responsible for making the affirmative team look stupid. They have to respond to what the affirmative team is saying specifically. Eric and I typically like to do this by saying that surveillance is based on a fear of death and that makes us hate queer people, so we should become zombies.

CI: OK. That makes sense. How has the season gone for you so far?

EB: Pretty good. We were in a bid round in our first tournament of the year.

CI: So a bid round would be far?

EB: So the way things work is, your final goal is to go to the Tournament of Champions, and to do that you have to “bid” at two tournaments. The bid round at each tournament is during the later stages, where if you lose, you are out.

CI: Why do you love debate so much?

EB: For every class discussion I enjoy in school, there are 10 of those in debate. There aren’t any teachers telling us what we can and can’t say. In the end, it is a competition, and that also plays into why I like it.

NF: Yeah the competition is one of the best parts because you get to have those academic discussions but at the end someone actually wins. There’s a prize attached to it.

EB: They also serve us Chipotle at tournaments.

CI: Do a lot of schools like McClatchy do debate?

EB: No. At a national level, I would say McClatchy’s lack of funding is extremely unique.

NF: Nothing compared to almost all the teams we go up against in the more competitive rounds of our tournaments.

CI: And John Spurlock and Keenan Harris managed to win the Tournament of Champions three years ago?

NF: McClatchy was the first Californian public school to win the ToC in 35 years. Winners of the ToC are almost always private schools. When John and Keenan were in finals they were up against a team that receives 100,000 dollars a year. College Prep, a school, has 13 full times in the last 30 years has six coaches that make 60,000 dollars a year. We have one, part-time coach.

CI: How does the dynamic work with you guys as partners?

EB: I mean, me and Nate are me and Nate. It kinda just works.

CI: Do you guys complete each other, in a sense?

NF: Yes.

CI: How much work do you guys do an average per week, combined?

NF: Around 25 hours, but in the week before tournaments, around 40.

CI: And this is one of those weeks. You guys leave for a tournament tomorrow, October 15th, right?

EB: Yes, in Texas.

CI: What is your goal for the tournament?

EB and NF: Biiiiiiiiid.

NF: If we get in the top 16 teams out of 80, we get a bid.

CI: Are you guys feeling good about the tournament going into it?

NF: Yeah, there are a lot of good teams there, but there are also a lot of scrubs. I hope we face the scrubs. But we’ve already beaten some excellent teams in the two tournaments so far, so we are confident.

CI: What makes the program perform well despite the funding?

NF: We have a real, real, devoted coach, named Steven Goldberg, he helps us out for no money, splitting his time between three schools. Our parents sacrifice a lot, driving kids to tournaments that are sometimes 10 hours away.

EB: As well as just devotion from the debaters themselves. There are three seniors this year that are giving it their all. Shout out to Tony Hackett.

NF: We also have a lot of promise for the next two years. Our sophomores and our junior are on track to be devastatingly good by the time they are seniors.

CI: What would you say to freshman who are interested in policy debate but haven’t tried it yet, and are worried?

NF: Join it, try it out, stick with it. It’s a thing that takes a while to get a feel for. Don’t be terrified by the kids who read at 400 words per minute cause you won’t have to face those people yet anyway.

CI: Thank you, very much.

EB: Woooo, I did it!

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Girl’s Golf Wins Sections

McClatchy Women’s Golf Team brought home the title of Division 2 Sectional Champions. After playing 18 holes at Teal Bend Golf Club, McClatchy placed first with a team result of 472, beating Rocklin with a score of 496, and Kennedy with a score of 505. Senior, Katie Low had one of the best individual scores of 76, followed by Senior, Marisa Kwong with a score of 80.

The team started playing at 9 a.m. and did not finish until 3 p.m. due to the large amount of girls present at the tournament. The weather proved to be mild throughout the day. In the morning, the course was foggy and cold, and the green was wet with morning dew. However, as the day progressed, the sun broke out. After playing for an entire day, the team discovered that all of their scores were up, and that they had won Sectionals. All of the girls received their sections champion patches.
“It was a great experience,” said Jeannie Lam (‘16), “It was challenging both mentally and physically since we all pushed ourselves so hard, but I felt like I could have done better, there’s always room for improvement.”

This season, the team faced many other tough opponents, but was undefeated by the end. Kennedy proved to be one of the toughest teams this season, although they were still no match for McClatchy.

“This season was awesome,” said Sophomore, Tori Cano, “I’m so proud of our team and it feels so amazing to have made it to sectionals. It was awesome to have helped the team to be able to win and move on to masters, it’s a great accomplishment.”
The team moves on to Masters, where they will face tougher opponents. However, through practicing nearly every day of the week, the team will be ready for the upcoming tournament.

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New College and Career Center Advisor

Ms. Monica Gonzalez has taken on the College and Career center at McClatchy, replacing Ms. Jessica Kunisaki, who is now working as a counselor at California Middle School. Ms. Gonzalez is from Salinas, a small farming town near Monterey. She attended U.C. Davis, and majored in Native American Studies and Chicano Studies.

Ms. Gonzalez found herself at McClatchy because she was looking for work straight out of school and wasn’t completely satisfied with any of the jobs she was finding. She previously worked for 4 years at a center that was based entirely on working with underrepresented minority communities, to help people within them get into higher education and stay there. Ms. Gonzalez knew she wanted to work hands on and help students again with her new job. When she heard about the position in the College and Career Center, she knew it was what she wanted.

McClatchy’s College and Career Center offers all your college needs from applying to UCs, private schools, community colleges, and state schools, to SATS and filling out the FAFSA financial aid form. Ms. Gonzalez is there to help with the process. The center also offers skills assessments, work permits, career planning, and 4- year plans. Ms. Gonzalez is trying to bring in freshman, “to start them off early and get them thinking about what they want to do, and how they are going to reach that goal.” The 4-year plan is centered on that idea of helping students achieve their goals. She is also there for seniors to help with the application process in general because she knows it is a stressful time.

Ms. Gonzalez’s goal for this year is to diversify the College and Career Center and to bring in everybody from 9th grade to 12th grade, regardless of whether or not they think they are going to college. She wants to help “students that have no idea to students whose families have been in college for generations.”

Ms. Gonzalez’s advice for students is that there are so many paths to higher education and they shouldn’t give up. She says that some students “start off really badly their freshman and sophomore years and think they can’t make a comeback, but they definitely can. Junior and senior year are the years that colleges look at most, and if you show that you are on a positive slope it is really exciting for college admissions officers.” Also, Ms. Gonzalez wants to let students know that even if they haven’t done well at all in high school, there are still options. She feels like a lot of students think they have no more chances, but wants them to know “it is not the end of the world. There are so many possibilities for higher education.” She says, “Students should come talk to me for help.”