Parents, Kids, and Materialism by Jane Bolton

Did you ever receive a reward for a good grade on a test at school? Or do your parents surprise you by giving you things to make you happy? This is where materialism all starts.

Materialism occurs when people attach importance to tangible objects. Materialists judge others by the material objects in their possession and admire those with more material objects. Not only will people define others by the material objects they own, but they will also define, and express, themselves by their material objects.

Materialists associate owning material objects with happiness. But material objects can’t give all the happiness people need. Indeed, research has connected materialism with many negative outcomes including gambling, debt, marriage conflict, and lower happiness. For example, research shows that materialism leads to loneliness, which in turn leads to materialism, which leads to loneliness… and so on. It’s a never ending cycle!

But what creates materialism in the first place? According to new research, materialism begins with parenting. There are two kinds of material parenting: rewarding children by giving material objects or punishing children by taking away material objects. These actions by parents lead children to relate material objects with success and achievement. As a result, children become more materialistic.

So what should parents do if they want to reduce materialism in their children? Instead of rewarding their children with material objects, including toys, electronics, and money, parents should spend more time with their children, providing comfort, encouragement, and fun. And, to punish their children, parents should take away privileges, not toys, electronics, or other material objects. In addition, researchers think that gratitude can prevent materialism.

So the next time your parents give you a reward for a good grade, be sure to express your gratitude and say thank you.

MLK History by Audrey Shu

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin was the middle child of Michael Luther King, who was a minister. The family was very religious, and lived in a racist town. One day, Martin went with his father to a shoe store. They sat down at the front of the shop and began to try on shoes. Suddenly, a  clerk came and told them to go to the back of the room because they were colored. Martin’s father was so upset, he left the store. This made a very big impression on Martin. That was the spark of his dreams.

Growing up, Martin was a kid who liked to play but didn’t like to learn. He started school at age 5, but skipped both 9th and 10th grade. Martin even attempted suicide after his grandmother died. Martin entered Morehouse College at age 15. In 1948, Martin got a sociology degree. He began to see how racist America and the world were. Now, His parents could no longer shield Martin from the evil and bad.  Martin could see it all in plain sight; for example, the stores and cinemas that would only accept whites. Martin was outraged by all of this, and he was going to do something about it.

Things changed on December 1, 1955, when a colored woman, Rosa Parks, was unwilling to give up her seat on the bus, and was arrested and fined 10 dollars and 4 dollars for court fee. That very night, President Nixon held a meeting with Martin Luther King. Martin was to be the head of a new boycott. In Martin’s first speech, he declared, "We have no alternative but to protest. For many years we have shown an amazing patience. We have sometimes given our white brothers the feeling that we liked the way we were being treated. But we come here tonight to be saved from that patience that makes us patient with anything less than freedom and justice." Martin’s great public speaking skills put new hope and energy into the civil rights struggle. People began to have hope. Finally, people of all color could be equal.

On the spring of 1963, Martin Luther King gave an unforgettable speech in the downtown of Birmingham, Alabama. Tons of families attended. City police turned fire hoses and dogs on protesters. Martin was jailed along with many other protesters. This caused an uproar nationwide. King was criticized for putting children attending the demonstration in danger. Even in jail, Martin spoke eloquently of nonviolence, "Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community, which has constantly refused to negotiate, is forced to confront the issue." In August of that same year, King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which was truly wonderful.

On April 4, 1968, Martin was shot and died. But to this day, his words are remembered. As truth, pride, and respect. Martin Luther King Jr. helped our world become a better place for all.

Punxy Phil 2017 Prediction by Milo Schmitt

In the magical underpopulated land of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, citizens believe the word of a legendary groundhog by the name of Punxsutawney Phil. Every year, on February 2nd, Phil comes out of his small den. If he sees his shadow, 6 more weeks of winter are to be seen. If not, spring is right around the corner.

Today, Phil came out of his burrow and saw the current state of the U.S. and predicted that a cold and dark nuclear winter is ahead (sentence influenced by Ryan Burklow). By the time this is published, everyone will probably know that he saw his shadow, but who cares, right? Enjoy the extra six weeks of winter. Or don’t. Your decision.

Some other state groundhogs have predictions that conflict, but Phil is the most popular one and those guys are just trying to copy us, right? Well, there’s not much more to say about this. Six more weeks of winter. Groundhogs are cool. But are they good predictors of weather?  You decide.

The Women's March by Michelle Zhang

The Women’s March was a protest in many locations in the United States and worldwide- there were a reported 673 marches took worldwide. On January 21st, over five million people came to march, 1 million of them in Washington, D.C. They marched for gender and racial equality, LGBTQ rights, workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, environmental protection, disability rights, reproductive rights, and healthcare reformation. The marches were peaceful and no arrests were made. The march in Washington, D.C. was streamed live on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. In fact, the Women’s March attracted more people than Donald Trump’s inauguration. Marchers carried signs stating, “Make America Compassionate Again”. Many celebrities attended, including Madonna, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. As quoted from the Women’s March site: “Women’s rights are human rights, regardless of a woman’s race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, sexual identity, gender expression, economic status, age or disability.” I support the march and I hope that the goals the marchers are fighting for will become true in the near future.

How you Think Depends Upon Where You Live by Jane Bolton

Have you ever wondered about how you think and why? Research shows that the way you think depends upon where you live, specifically your culture and geography.

The eastern world, including India, Japan, and China, are collectivists and the western world, including Europe and America, are individualists. Collectivism is the principle of group priority over individual need whereas individualism is the principle of being independent and self-reliant and to esteem individual accomplishment over group achievement. Collectivists concentrate more on relationships in the problem at hand whereas individualists tend to concentrate on separate elements and to believe the problem at hand fixed or unchangeable.

These cultural differences affect how people think. For example, imagine choosing two similar words from train, bus, and track. A person in the west part of the world would probably answer with train and bus because they are both vehicles but independent and different from each other. A person in the east would probably pick train and track because they depend on each other to do their job.

These cultural differences also affect how people see the world around them. Imagine seeing a picture of a tall person intimidating a small person. A person from the west would be more likely to see the tall person as a bully who is mean and nasty. In contrast, a person from the east might instead see a father reprimanding his son because they focus on relationships in a situation.

Why are these ways of thinking so different? The evidence points to culture and history, which affect how people view the world. But now, researchers are discovering that geography can also have an impact.

Imagine two geographical areas. One area has wheat farming and the other area has rice farming. Rice farming needs a lot of labor and a complicated irrigation system to carry water through the fields. It is double the work of wheat farming, which depends on rainfall instead of irrigation. As a result, rice farmers need to interact with others in order to farm, but wheat farmers only need rainfall and not the help of others. This geographical difference influences the way they think: the rice farmers are more collectivist and the wheat farmers are more individualist.

So the next time you interact with a person from another culture and you disagree about something, it might be due to the way you think. Think about it!

Hans Herr House by Marcus Henry

The Hans Herr House, built in 1719, is located in Lancaster County, near downtown Lancaster. In the same area is the Lancaster Longhouse, created to teach people about Native Americans. It was the settler Hans Herr’s house. He came to Lancaster as a Mennonite bishop. He was born on September 17, 1639, and he was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He had joined the Swiss Brethren, which was later called the Mennonites! Hans Herr was a descendant of the Knight, Hugo Herr. Cool, right? Anyway, Hans Herr came here with his wife, Elizabeth, and the house may have been lived in by Hans Herr, but it was definitely lived in by his son, Christian Herr, and his wife, Anna. Christian Herr was also a Mennonite Bishop.

Information from http://www.hansherr.org/

Airbus' Electric Plane by Marcus Henry

The French company Airbus has made a new electric plane-the E-Fan. The E-Fan 1.0 is an all-electrical plane. Good things about an electric plane- less noise, less vibration and less pollution. The E-Fan has completed the first-ever full electric flight over the Channel. The E-Bus was developed in only eight months, with help from many engineering schools. The E-Fan demonstrator made its first flight in 2014, and Airbus hopes that the E-Fan 2.0 will be done in 2017. The E-Fan 2.0 will have lithium-ion batteries to power the double electrical engines, and it will also have a thermal combustion engine in the rear cockpit, which will allow the plane to go farther. The E-Fan design has also won many awards.

Information taken from Airbus E-Fan website.

Post- Presidential Election School Culture by Max Duverneuil

Recently there has been a lot of controversy regarding our newly elected president.  Does it affect how students are living?

On November 14th, 2016, in the outskirts of Washington DC, numerous high school students flooded the streets of different cities in Montgomery County, Silver Spring, Wheaton, Rockville, Kensington and North Kensington, MD. The reason for the protest was because on November 12th, a Silver Spring church had extremely racist writings “Trump Nation Whites Only” spray painted on its walls. Students at Woodrow Wilson High School in DC say they will leave their Northwest school at midday Tuesday, with plans to protest at the new Trump International Hotel a few blocks from the White House.

Students at Montgomery Blair High School streamed onto the school’s football field about 10 a.m. Monday for a walkout that soon turned into a march along University Boulevard. The procession grew larger as it drew students from Northwood and Albert Einstein high schools and headed into Wheaton and downtown Silver Spring. Some students chanted, “Not our president,” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”  Very recently on November 15th 2016, at Penn State University, students also protested because of Donald Trump’s surprising win. At University Park, protesting students gathered in front of Old Main at 12:30 p.m. The first chant was “Not my president.” Students then spoke on Old Main’s steps to a crowd of hundreds of people. The students protested at Old Main for more than 30 minutes before walking to the HUB-Robeson Center to continue their protest. The crowd inside grew to more than 1,000 protesters, singing and chanting.

Hopefully in the coming months hate crime will not increase.  

Have Hillary Rioters Gone Too Far? by Ava Babcock

After the 2016 Presidential Election, you would think we would all accept our new president. But many areas populated by democratic voters have had their streets filled with protesters. These protesters are angry Clinton supporters seeking justice of what they see as an “unfit” president for the next four years. All choosing to either follow others, or just join the quest for what they see as a future they can change with these riots.

I myself was a Hillary Clinton supporter up until the winner was announced. But personally, I think riots are just too much. A survey shows that 60% of the protesters didn’t vote at all. But the other 40% did. Maybe it’s angry parents who want to protect their kids. But some are even claiming themselves to be professional protesters. Either way, all of them are angry over the fact electoral college trumped their votes.

In my 6th grade Science and Social Studies classes, we learned that electoral college is a group of people, the number depending on population, who cast a vote depending on the dominant vote in their state. Never in history has an elector gone against its states choosing. All you need are 270 electoral votes to be elected president. Highly populated areas like Chicago, New York, Seattle, and Denver, but most recently, Portland, have seen horrific frenzies occurring in the streets of their cities. Protesters are burning American flags, smashing cars, and breaking windows all because the majority of their state chose Trump over Hillary. Thus having the electors send their votes in for our president.

All though these protests have been mostly peaceful, some have turned violent, resulting in tear gas being used on these rioters. Have they gone too far? Is bruising the people who protect us so important that we have to continue? Expressing your beliefs is one thing, threatening to assassinate our president is another. This is the cruel reality of the threats they are making. One of the first protests immediately after the election, was right in front of our nation’s capital, the prestigious White house. These protesters were threatening to burn it to the ground and murder Trump. But the thing is truthfully, Hilary just gave up. The night before the election, Hillary Clinton turned her undivided attention away from 3 major swing states, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida. Thus quickly losing many of her democratic voters. A swing state is a state that commonly changes it’s voter majority from Republican to Democrat and so forth. Our state, Pennsylvania is one of those states, unlike Texas or California. In which Texas almost always votes Republican, and California Democrat.

So if Hillary gave up, is there any real reason to protest?

Is this all just a waste of valuable time or a real issue?

I think we should all put down the “Not our President” banners, and just accept the fact we cannot change our president, but only accept it with optimism for the future.

Rowling's Magical World Returns to the Big Screen by Marcus Henry

J.K Rowling is making yet another movie about the magical, wizarding world. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is her newest movie.  Here’s a link to a trailer for the movie.

    Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them Trailer

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was originally a book written by J.K. Rowling, under the alias Newt Scamander, who is the main character of the movie. The movie is rated PG-13, however. The movie is about magical creatures escaping from Newt, and are running loose in the No-Maj (American word for Muggle) world. So, all you Harry Potter fans, keep a look out for the new movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.