November 2009

Vol. 26 No.3 November 2009 <, •• aSSlC Townsend Harris High School at Queens College 149-11 MelboumeAvenue, Flushing, NY 11367 Harris scores highest within peer group Charity project to build well in Africa by Pearl Bhatnagar . dents' performance based on by Emma Court Coordinator- of Student an organization named For those Harrisites who demographic data. Since 15% Two young girls in Activities Aleeza Widman and charity:water, which is believe their school is the best of Harris's population comes Southern Malawi leave their seniors Ann Marie Ramsaroop, devoted to providing clean in the city, the results of the from private schools, the homes at 5 am, hike to a hand Natasha Bankay and Sherry and safe water to the one in six 2008-2009 Progress Report school gained 8.2 points due dug pit in the earth filled may offer evidence in support to this new policy alone. with runoff water, and of their claim. Lisa Mars, Assistant Prin fill their pails. With an overall score of cipal for Languages Other than They then travel 88.7, the school beat out all 14 English, said, "It's gratifying home through the steep others in its peer group, which that the hard work of teachers mountains with 40 included Stuyvesant High and students is acknowledged pounds ofwater in bright School, Bronx High School of by the DOE." yellow and blue buckets Science and Brooklyn Techni Kenneth Bonamo, princi balanced precariously on cal High School. pal, agreed. "We all work very ~ their heads. Oftentimes, ~ According to the Depart hard. The APs leave later than ~ rains and floods fill ment of Education (DOE), I do; the teachers are planning };. their water hole with . ~ "schools are judged based on and grading in their offices. .cl bacteria, animal waste <.J how their students' perfor .... The kids are here at seven and disease. mance compares to that of stu in the morning and leave at ....'" Hundreds of miles ~ dents in their peer schools," night." he said. north, in Rwanda, 15 =e The DOE calculated the "When we [students, OJ year-old Jean Bosco e overall score by adding the teachers, and administrators] e makes four to five trips a .cl sub-scores of three different do what we do on a daily ba l:l. day to fetch water from categories: school environ sis, we're not thinking of the a polluted brown pond. A - r :" ~b -1- . ..•. ft ak f d . ment, student performance, . Progress Report. But when n A rican oy uxunates III water, a resource 0 en t en or grante III Amenca. In eastern Africa, 4 000 and student progress. those efforts are validated by people in the village of Leung heard these stories people who don't have access Harris received 11.5 out this external measure, it's very Athinai, Kenya rely on the at a leadership summit in to it. The school is embarking of 15 points for school envi gratifying," he continued. polluted waters of the Molo Manhattan on October 16. on a yearlong charity ronment, based on both atten The Progress Report states River, including patients at the The tales prompted project in order to build a dance rates and surveys filled that "schools that get As and local Mogotio Clinic. them to get involved with continued on pg 9 out by parents, students, and Bs are eligible for rewards." teachers; it earned another According to Mr. Bonamo, Talen wins mayoral race in Election Sim~lation 24.2 points out of a possible "Harris administrators will 25 for student performance, receive performance bonuses" by Nicholas Lupo and lation, I had no idea who which took into account grad from the DOE because the Allison Bennett this guy was. I thought it uation rates and types ofdiplo school scored in the top 7% of Green Party can was between Bloomberg mas received; 52.6 out of 60 all high schools in the city. didate Reverend Billy and Thompson," said ju points were gained for student For some freshmen, the Talen, played by senior nior Karina Hain. progress, which was based on result of the Progress Report Solomon Cohen, won Competing candidate number of credits earned and validated their choice to attend the Election Simula Michael Bloomberg (Aziz Regents passed. Harris. "A lot of students say tion's mayoral race on Rahman), agreed. "The fact Once added together, the that because they go to a spe November 4. The vic that Billy Talen won with overall score of88.7 exceeded cialized high school, they're tory was unexpected out too much campaign the 70-point minimum needed better than [Harrisites]. Now by many, including the ing or focusing on issues to earn anA. we can say that we are," said candidate himself. beyond just attacking big The score has increased freshman Mareena George, "I was really sur companies was a shocker," by nine points from the 79.7 who was accepted to the Bronx prised when we won he said. received last year. The DOE High School ofScience. because before the de He added, "I was a bit awards additional points to Susan Getting, Assistant bates, very few under surprised when I found out classmen actually knew 1Z I lost because Green Party studentswhose Regents scores Principal of Humanities, held .cl . a less competitive viewpoint. that I was in the elec ~ candidates have never been are higher than their 8th grade ~ citywide scores. "I am not a competitive per tion," Solomon said. considered serious candi Since only public schools son, so I'm not really con "I did not expect to ~ dates in the past." ~ administer the citywide ex cerned about other schools. win because we started Democratic candidate ams, the DOE previously had I don't spend a lot of time out with a small trea ..6' William Thompson (An no way to assess the improve wondering about how other sury and few (if any) ~ drew Goodman) said, "I'm ment of students who had at schools are doing." students in the school -a not surprised that I lost. Sol- tended private and parochial "The 88 is great," contin actually knew that the omon did a great job and I schools. ued Ms. Getting, "but what Reverend was rim sort of messed up my whole It implemented a formula would be better than that? An ning," he continued. campaign with the whole this year to factor in these stu- 89." "Before the Simu- Reverend Billy Talen (Solomon Cohen) won continued on pg 9 the mayoral race in the Election Simulation. " 1- MLIT Where the Wild Sweet Sixteens, Spirit Week . ~ Bar Mitzvahs, pg. 5 Things Are photos pg.6 and more pg.l0 pg.9 I I i I -- --- The Classic 2--November 2009 Election Simulation should mirror 'reality Library lunch pass policy Reverend who? should be reversed Let's face it: outside ofTownsend Harris, barely anyone knows who Billy Talen is. As the Green Party's mayoral candidate, he won only 0.8% ofNew York City's vote on Election Under a new policy enacted this month, underclassmen must Day, compared to winner Michael Bloomberg's 50.6% and Bill Thompson's 46%. From the have cafeteria passes to gain access to the library during lunch beginning, he had little hope ofgaining support beyond his core group offollowers. bands. Although this policy was adopted with good intentions, it is And yet, he won by a landslide in our Election Simulation, beating out the other two more proving to be more ofa hindrance than ofhelp. mainstream candidates by an overwhelming majority. This policy does encourage students to eat lunch by mandating This is not the first time the simulation results haven't reflected the outcome of the real they to go to the dining hall prior to making their way upstairs. election. However, it's unusual for the final tally to be so drastically skewed. The victory ofa However, this possible benefit is outweighed by its negatives . First, candidate virtually unknown in the real world reveals a major flaw in the Election Simulation. many students have been going to the library immediately after class Ifthe simulation is supposed to mirror the real election process, then we shouldn't have singled to make full use oftheir time to study and do their work. Especially out such an obscure candidate to be featured alongside Bloomberg and Thompson while since the lunch bands have been shortened to 39 minutes this year, disregarding other minor party candidates. there is a greater time constraint. Also, with the limited number of Minor candidates like Billy Talen are just that: a minor part ofthe process. They express textbooks and computers in the library, students are under greater their views on issues they feel most strongly about, and hope to win some votes along the way. pressure to claim them, and are more likely to lose access to these But word travels easily in a small population ofstudents, and so a minor candidate is bound to resources to upperclassmen. attract a disproportionate amount ofattention. Furthermore, for students who might be fasting as part oftheir It's true that the outcome of the election simulation should reflect the quality of student religious observances or to make a statement for a cause, getting campaigns, not the candidates' popularity in the real world. But at the same time, the simulation a cafeteria pass is only time-consuming. Students have to go to should show us what's happening on the actual political scene. Even if Talen did a better job the first floor just to return to the third.

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