Teens and Fake Personality By Nayanika

A lonely girl in a huge school changed herself to fit in with the ‘cool kids’. She told them what they wanted to hear, and became the person they wanted her to become. Shaped her personality like modelling clay.

Yes. That's right, children and teens these days cover up their true personality just to make themselves look better and fit in. It’s becoming a real problem not just for teens, but for parents, who want to see their child blossom, not become someone they are not.

Picture this; You moved to a new school and don't have any friends at all, then you meet a group of people who you think are ‘cool’ and change your personality to be someone you’re not, just to become friends with them. Teens are doing this more often as time goes by and now it’s becoming very concerning for Parents. We all tend to think sometimes that being ourselves isn't enough, and that may lead us to change ourselves.

“Teens often put on masks that cover up their real identity and reveal a false individual, just to impress others”, Says Brian. S, a teen behavioural specialist. As Brian. S said, its all just to impress others and fit in. There are a wide range of stories, from as simple as a girl changing her likes and dislikes to her friend’s, or major stories like teens who change who they are completely and leave no trace behind of their real personality. Many such stories happening all around us. We just need to dig deeper to reveal the truth.


Some people experience major stress as they forget their true personality and can't seem to be their real selves, which leads them to become that fake person permanently. Teens get so caught up in their school and social lives that they start to make up their own different identity and find themselves caught between two stools.


I asked a few grade 8 students on their personal stories that they may have experienced with this issue, and one really stuck out to me.

“I have seen people fake their personality every day. It happens more often than you think. So many of them talk behind their best friend’s back to get attention. Its ridiculous”, Says the student.

Indeed this is very true, occurring more often that anyone may think. Some seemed to think developing fake identities could be a cause of indirect peer pressure and are pressurised by society to become this ‘Ideal person’ that everyone wants to be. If we just take into account that we don't need to change ourselves to be liked.

Changes like these in personality are just drastic. Healthy changes are tiny things that you want to change about yourself to make you a better person and make yourself happy. You don't have to change yourself to please others.

Many teenagers are very insecure about themselves. Teenage years are very crucial to Identity. These years are when they develop their sense of identity and find their real selves. But now, teens find it very hard to do that because of all the fake personalities everywhere. One wrong move and they could easily change their personal identity.


Another place you could find fake personalities are… basically everywhere on the Internet. The Internet is filled with people not being themselves. They think the screen can cover up their true personality and identity. People pretending to be someone they are not, whether this is physically or personality wise. Everywhere you go there are people being fake. Posting pretentious things about themselves, posting rude snarky comments based off of their friend’s likes and dislikes, but not their own. Social network can be a cause to change identity too. Teens hearing bad things about themselves constantly may not take a good toll on them and could lead them to change themselves for others.


Overall I would say that I think society needs to be more considerate of other people’s feelings and put themselves in other’s shoes for once and try and understand what they might go through. Don't give up your crucial teen years being someone you're not. Find out who you really are on the inside and don't take into account what other people want you to be. Just go and be yourself! And also keep your eyes open and have a heart to heart talk to someone who may be going through this. Help someone out! They will surely be very grateful.


Sources: "Artificial Personality." Artificial Personality. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2015.:

Elmore, Tim. "From 13 to 23: A Study in Artificial Maturity." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

Excessive Amounts of Homework for Students by Marushka Rout, 8ReM

‘Is the unnecessary amount of homework you’re receiving from your school keeping you up all night, desperate just to finish it? Well, you’re not the only one'

A mother wakes up to the sound of a pencil dropping and plastic bags moving. She immediately got worried as it was 4:30am. As she walked down the hallway, she saw her that her 17-year-old son’s light was still on full brightness. She opened the doors to see him packing his bag, driven to a state of pure exhaustion. She instantly sent him off to bed so he could get at least two hours of sleep before he would have to get up for school. Wait, why was he still up though? He wasn’t up because he was playing video games or talking to anyone, oh no it’s nothing even near that. So then why was he up?

An excessive amount of homework.

Yes, that’s correct. An excessive amount of homework was what kept the exhausted teenager up all night. He even ended up sleeping through an entire class, luckily managing not to get caught! According to study that was published in ‘The American Journal of Family Therapy’, kids in elementary school receive up to 3 times as much homework as they really should be getting. A kindergartener, for example, had 25 minutes of homework, which is too much for a small child.

“This kind of busy work, by its very nature, discourages learning and instead promotes doing homework simply to get points,” says Denise Pope, a senior lecturer of Stanford Graduate School of Education as well as a co-author of a study that was published in the ‘Journal of Experimental Education’.

As mentioned previously, students are receiving 3 times more homework than they really should be getting as opposed to the recommended homework amount by the NEA and the National PTA. There is a 10 minute rule that some schools supposedly follow where the grade determines the amount of homework that should be given, for example, Grade 1 receives 10 minutes of homework a night, Grade 2 receives 20 minutes of homework a night and so on until Grade 12 that receives 120 minutes, 2 hours, of homework a night. However, a report showed that first graders who should be having 10 minutes of homework a night ended up having 28 minutes instead!

Also, a study last year showed that high school students are negatively impacted by the amount of homework that they receive, causing them to develop health issues, the main one being sleep deprivation, followed by ulcers, migraines, stomach aches and unhealthy weight loss. Students aren’t the only ones being affected by the excessive amount of homework though. It was reported that too much homework also causes intense stress in households, especially in those with undereducated parents. (i.e. those who didn’t have a college degree.) The report showed that families with undereducated parents are 200% more likely to have fights and conflicts with their child over their homework. They also showed to have much less confidence in helping their child with their homework which was also a main cause for high stress levels in the household.

“Anybody who’s tried to keep a 5-year-old at a table doing homework for 25 minutes after school knows what that’s like. I mean children don’t want to be doing, they want to be out playing, they want to be interacting, and that’s what they should be doing. That’s what’s really important.” says Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, director of the New England Center for Pediatric Psychology.

Children in elementary school are also prone to health issues due to their homework, which can cause a negative impact on their growth and could even make them develop unhealthy habits. After all, children of such young ages really shouldn’t be forced to sit at a table. As Donaldson-Pressman said, they should be outdoors, interacting and playing, as it will generally make them happier.

A while back, a Stanford researcher had also found that too much homework is bad for kids. They had decided to survey 4,137 students that were from 10 high-performing high-schools in upper-middle-class California Communities. The average amount of homework that high schoolers were assigned was a total of 3.1 hours of homework a night. Looking back at previous information, the most homework that should be assigned for the highest grade, Grade 12, is 2 hours! Looking further into the negative impacts of excessive homework, the researchers found that 56% of high schoolers admitted to homework being the main cause of their high stress levels, 33% admitting that they put pressure on themselves to try to get good grades in the subject of the assigned homework. They also described their homework as being ‘mindless’ and ‘pointless’. The results also showed that many high school students were giving up many of their hobbies and talents and stopping any extracurricular activities and even limiting their time with family and friends to almost none so they can complete their homework and study, just because they feel they have to in order to get a good grade. Of course, after those reasons we see a reoccurring one; Sleep deprivation and health issues that are caused by an excessive amount of homework. The health issues reported this time were headaches, exhaustion, unhealthy rate of weight loss and stomach problems, essentially the same as the previous mentions. However let’s go into more depth of the symptoms of sleep deprivation.

Symptoms of sleep deprivation include decreased performance and alertness, memory and cognitive impairment, increased stress levels, poor quality of life, obesity/unhealthy weight loss, headaches and exhaustion. By just losing an hour and a half of sleep can result in approximately a 32% reduction in alertness during the day. Also, by having lower alertness as well as daytime sleepiness, it can impair your memory and cognitive ability. (your ability to think and process information given to you). Increased stress causes people to not think clearly and not be able to be truly calm and relaxed. Poor quality of life means that because of your daytime sleepiness and lack of awareness and alertness, you’re unable to take part in activities which involve/require a sustained amount of attention. This means that it would be really hard to watch a movie or a television series, or even read a book without fully comprehending what is happening. Headaches can be irritating to endure throughout the day, and it also clouds your mind and with the pain in your head, it makes it hard for you to concentrate.

As you can probably see, too much homework causes quite the large number of problems and cause short-term and long-term effects on our general health. Two 8th grade students that attend a public school in London, England, said that they receive an average of up to 4 hours of homework a night, when by looking at the 10 minute rule mentioned before, 8th graders should be receiving a maximum of 80 minutes, 1 hour and 20 minutes, of homework! Several students that attend UWCSEA East in Singapore spoke of coming home from activities at around 8pm and after eating dinner and saving a few minutes to relax, having to do their homework from 9pm to 12am maximum, a total of 3 hours of homework! When those students come to school the next day, they look incredibly tired and sometimes, they end up falling asleep in class! (and if they’re unlucky, they get caught by the teacher… Oops!)

“Rather, any homework assigned should have a purpose and benefit, and it should be designed to cultivate learning and development.” Says Denise Pope (continued from a previous quote in this article). Teachers should be wary of the amount of homework they’re assigning, and take into consideration that there are other subjects that a student has as well as upcoming projects and tests. Homework shouldn’t be something that is ‘mindless’ or ‘pointless’, and it definitely shouldn’t be something that is just done for the sake of getting good grades or points and not for actually learning. Most of all, we should stick to the ’10 minute rule’ so that students don’t have to experience any extra stress and develop health issues like sleep deprivation.

But if you’re still losing out on sleep? Try to sleep on the way and back from school! Or you could even pick a hated subject to sleep through, if you so desired.


Sources :


”Kids Have Three times Too Much Homework, Study Finds - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.

"Stanford Research Shows Pitfalls of Homework." Stanford University. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.

"Chronic Sleep Deprivation and Health Effects." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2015.

Stereotyping is Incomplete, Not Incorrect -Kimaya Shahi

Categorizing people is essential for human survival. Stereotyping is categorising to an extreme. Stereotypes aren’t necessarily incorrect, but are incomplete stories.

Envision this. A new girl and her friends from South Africa join a school in the US. As the girl is introduced in her new class her fellow pupils come up to her, fascinated, and ask her if she can teach them how to tackle lions, and if she needed help learning how to basic technology like her phone and laptop. Offended and confused, the girl tries to distance herself from anyone associated with her stereotypical group, including her friends in South Africa, growing unnecessarily and increasingly self-conscious every day.

This isn’t just a story. It’s an everyday reality. People all over the world look at what’s on the surface and interpret things about a person, unaware of the consequences this causes. They spread a single story that goes around about a place, a certain race or a group of people, over and over again, without realising that people are 3 dimensional, not 2d. This unfortunate reality is known by society as a stereotype.

A stereotype is represented best as being thought of as a blurb at the back of a book. It makes you think that you know what the story’s about, but you can never be sure until you actually pick up the book and read it. A blurb will only show you an exciting excerpt from a story, but never the entire thing. “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are not true, but that they are incomplete,” says novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. People’s minds, especially children, are very impressionable. Their thoughts, like play-doh, can be moulded - twisted and shaped to form a long lasting opinion.

Psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, who is studying unconscious bias, has come to the conclusion that we are subconsciously using and believing in stereotypes. “Our ability to categorise and and evaluate is an important part of human existence, without it we couldn’t survive.” she stated in an interview held by Psychology Today, “But Stereotypes are categories that have gone too far, [...] as our minds are tricked to respond with messages that say ‘hostile’, ‘stupid’, ‘slow’ and ‘weak’.”

Children and teenagers are especially prone to not seeing the full picture or thinking it through. Stereotyping their peers has become a colossal issue in a student’s everyday life. Grade 8 student Nayanika Gunvante says, “When I see a person with glasses, I automatically assume they are super smart or nerdy, and then I remember that I have glasses and am nothing like that.” When asked why, Nayanika stated that “It’s probably because all the TV shows and books shown and read to kids represent smart people by a person wearing glasses.” Nayanika and well as 63 other Grade 8 students believe that stereotypes are established in books, TV shows and movies shown to children. They say the “Stereotypical characters linger” in the back of their minds, forming opinions about races and cultures in their heads.

Furthermore, research indicates that children in the United States come to understand race and ethnicity concepts between the ages of three and four. Many children have definite and firm, rooted stereotypes about race, gender, culture and all other social groups by the age of 5. At around 6 years old, children become accurate at sorting people by ethnicity and by the time they’re 7 years old, children are convinced that they fully understand race and ethnicity.

Additionally, some stereotypes that were created several generations ago still haunt us to this day. For instance, the stereotype about people with glasses being extremely smart was initially created because people usually had glasses when they were bookworms, and would constantly be reading, even if it meant staying up late, reading in the dark. However, nowadays, people have glasses usually because they’re on their phones or laptops very often, which could mean it’s because they have several friends and are very sociable. Nonetheless, if someone has glasses they are immediately thought of as ‘nerdy’.

Using stereotypes to represent people is a form of prejudice that leads to incomplete and often incorrect presumptions about people based on the way they look, act, dress or interact with society. Based on research done by the University of Toronto, Scarborough, stereotyping has long lasting negative impacts on people’s behavior. It can cause aggression, lack of self-control, issues focusing and/or cause eating disorders.

A simple solution would be increasing exposure to diversity. Befriending a number of different kinds of people, whether they seem like someone who fits into your friend group or not, would give you the opportunity to learn more about people unlike you. Whether a person is a regular teenage student, an adults, or even the president of a country, categorizing people is human nature, however, avoiding judging a book by it’s cover, or the back of the cover, as much as possible would help decrease the unawareness of an incomplete story.




Sources:
"The Danger of a Single Story." Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

"Social Psychology Network." Mahzarin Banaji

"Stereotyping Has a Lasting Negative Impact." University of Toronto Media Room

Don’t Stop Travelling, It Won’t Help The Fight By Shawronna

September 10, 2001. A young engineer checked out of the Marriott World Trade Center, New York, one day earlier than he had planned due to an urgent need at home. He was supposed to have been in a meeting a client in the WTC on September 11. If he had been there the number of victims on 9/11 in the WTC would have been 2754. Since that day the young man has lived his life as if every day could be his last, and is now a very successful professional.

July 7, 2008. A bomb ripped through the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. 58 people died, and many people working for the Indian government lost their good friends. An Indian Foreign Service officer lost one of his best friends that day, but when he was posted in Afghanistan soon after the bombing he did not hesitate to go. When asked why he would take the risk when Kabul was so unsafe, he said “by not going I’m making it more unsafe, I’m giving into fear.”

Friday the 13, 2015. Terrorists attacked sites throughout Paris, killing 130 people and injuring many more. In the days after the attack, many people cancelled their travel plans to Paris. However a couple from Singapore did not change their plans to visit Paris in December. They told their family and friends, “If we don’t go we’re giving into terrorism. I think everyone should consider that before they cancel plans because of this.”

These people have an important message for all of us. The terrorists attack planes, and concert halls, and embassies, things and places that bring many people from many countries together. They want to achieve their goals by creating fear that will separate people. If we give into that fear, the Terrorists will win. With this in mind, President Hollande of France said “ We will not give into terror or hate” and talked about how citizens in Paris will be encouraged to go to concerts, sporting events, and mass gatherings as usual to show that the Terrorists could not change the normal life of Parisians. Just like it has not changed the normal lives of people in New York and Kabul.

And the data clearly shows we should not let the terrorists change our lives. The chance of dying from a terrorist attack anywhere, including abroad, is much less than dying from a car accident, something large falling on top of you, or even lightning. A US study showed that in America people were 54 times more likely to be murdered in a small town vs. being killed by a terrorist, and 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a bolt of lightning. As Helen Keller said “avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”

With all the constant news about terrorism, it seems like the world is becoming a more violent, unsafe place. But actually violence on the whole is on a steady decline. If you look through history, we are actually in the safest period to live in, as explained by Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker who wrote about this in his new book, ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined’. He wrote: "The decline of violence may be the most significant and least appreciated development in the history of our species." The number of people killed in battle – calculated per 100,000 population – has dropped by 1,000-fold over the centuries, from more than 500 out of every 100,000 people, in 19th century to about three-tenths of a person per 100,000 today. The rate of genocide deaths per world population was 1,400 times higher in 1942 than in 2008. And, as we are taking more precautions against terrorists, the number of deaths from terrorism does not change this trend. And, planes are still the SAFEST way to travel, even after 9/11. A person is more much more likely to die driving 5 kms from his home, than to die in a plane crash thousands of miles away. This doesn’t mean that you don’t take precaution while travelling; don’t get on a plane to Damascus without thinking about the danger and chaos in Syria.

Still, there seems to always news about terrorism on TV, and things like in Paris keep happening once every few years. It is normal to wonder what we can and should do. The data and examples show that we should all do our part to take the right precautions, but not change our normal lives. For example, when travelling, security control has become more tough and a much longer process. We need to remember that this is for our own good and that we need to be patient during these processes. We should accept security checks with patience and a smile, and keep travelling all over the world, keep meeting new people, and keep getting together in concert halls to listen to our favourite bands.

We have to remember that we can live with fear but not in it. Because, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself ”

Http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/living-with-terror/html. N.p., n.d. Web.
Https://sumedhakalia.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/impact-of-terrorism-on-tourism/. N.p., n.d. Web.
Http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/22/world-less-violent-stats_n_1026723.html. N.p., n.d. Web Http://twenty-somethingtravel.com/2015/11/do-not-cancel-your-travel-plans-because-of-terrorism/. N.p., n.d. Web.

Gossips that happen in school and the danger behind it by Sota Ito

Gossips, everyone has experienced it, if you doing it or hearing someone do it. Gossiping to others should be right and fine if the content does not offend anyone in anyway, but this sometimes doesn’t apply to students in school, some of the gossips that gets transferred in school is mean and very offensive to others. Also studies show that 80% of chatters that happen in school between friends are gossips. Indeed, talking with friends and gossiping is normal thing to do, because talking is how you spread thought, ideas and experiences. Also talking and gossiping about others is not always wrong, maybe it could be talking about how someone helped solve a math question or maybe how someone opened the door. There is an immense amount of gossips that is possible and which is pleasant and doesn’t impact anyone in a bad way.

Bob a student in middle school is going to school every day worried about if his biggest secret leaked, he was on the verge of hitting a big wall. It was the next day that finally his biggest fear became a reality and what he didn’t see coming was that his best friend Robert was the one who figured it out and also gossiped around school, Robert was always that nice person who told Victor, to not worry about those kind of things.

Imagine this event happening to you and also when you’re at this age, the friendship that was there is suddenly cut off, the friendship and trust after these events is most likely to never connect back together. Two students from Grade 8 in UWCSEA, also speck that their are many gossips that go around school and say that “most of the gossips that I hear are making fun of other students and discriminating them, like making fun of them about their physical looks”. The main reasons that gossips happen in school, is to feel superior, like a part of the group and the biggest of them all to get attention, as student gets older they tend to seek attention and the best way that they think it to gossip about others about something mean and stealing others reputation.

But when you say something mean, or reveal information that should be private to someone, it all changes. Also most of the times, the students who tell the gossips are not even sure if it’s true. They just interpret things that they haven’t even seen happen, these are how gossips are started they start with a small event and frequently explodes into something very different from the truth.

There are many different ways to avoid these gossips and the danger behind them, which can have a very big impact on people. Trust and the friendship with other can be a very big deal for people and it is unfair for people to just cut it instantaneously, also when half of the gossips that goes around school is false information, that is used to increase the gossipers reputation.

One of the ways to avoid harmful gossips is to be knowledgeable about the information that you are hearing or saying and be able to differentiate the gossips that are harmful and the ones that are not. On top of that only gossip about things that the people want to know, don’t gossips about things that people will not want to hear. For example, a person was cheating with his wife, even if this was a true fact people will not want to know that.

The next way to avoid harmful gossips is to do something about the problem, rather that just uttering to every people you meet, do something about the problem, and find a solution to stop what is causing this harmful gossiping. For example, you are complaining about your ex-boy/girlfriend, about how mean and a bad people they were, this mainly caused because you still have a connection on the social media for example, just completely cut them off this will help wasting your time complaining and could use it to have a more fun and bright life.

The last way to avoid harmful gossips is to change the subject to a more subject if the gossips are negative or tell them that you are not interested about that topic and type of rumor, if this is not working just disengage with the person, just walk away. There may be peer pressure but if it’s for the better not to know some harmful information, just disengage with the person talking to you. There are much more ways to avoid listening and saying harmful rumors and gossips. Always think about what you're saying and check if it can be harmful to other people, because harmful gossips can destroy friendship and trust with the people around you.

Lastly concluding the whole idea, gossips are allowed wherever you are and definitely shouldn’t be discouraged but their is a line of a gossips that is acceptable and not, and being self aware and noticing these lines are on you, thus also meaning that spreading gossips that people don’t want to hear is obnoxious and shouldn’t be aloud. The biggest dangers with mean gossips is the beginning of a trustworthy relation with another person.

Living A Social Wall By Arko

Imagine you are on your laptop, you have some free time, so you go on facebook, to check what is going on with your friends life. However, your parents scream at you the moment they see what you are doing on your laptop. Have you ever wondered why they are screaming at you? There are so many teenagers that spend half their time on social media. So many teenagers that have fights with their parents, just because their parents want to know what their children are doing at all times. These fights can be fought with words, unfortunately, they are often fought with strength. They are fought as hard as Katniss fights in the Hunger Games arena, they fight as if they are fighting for their lives. So, why do teenagers spend so much time on social media? What is their to fight about?

A study suggests that 52% of 8 to 16 year olds have a social media account. However, only 32% of their parents feel very confident about helping their kids stay safe online. Also, 63% of parents check their kids internet usage and their history once a week, to make sure that they are not doing anything wrong or going on the wrong sites. 21% are not confident they could install parental controls on their child’s computer. This shows that parents are not monitoring their children as much as they can. Fortunately, they still try to see what their children are doing on social media, by checking their screens, when they are on their laptops and following them on social media, to see what their children are posting. Unfortunately, some teenagers still find a way to do the wrong things on a social media site.

At the age of 11 teenagers create a fake account to get access to sites like facebook, where the restriction age is 13. A recent study by facebook showed that there are 83.09 million fake accounts that are being used either to log into other sites or to maintain a profile for your personal pet. Facebook has made three categories for fake accounts. Duplicate accounts, misclassified accounts and undesirable accounts. A recent survey suggests that 13/40 teenagers created an account when they were under the age of 13. Also that same survey suggests that 22 of 40 teenagers have more than one account on facebook and other social media platforms and 19 of 40 teenagers have accounts they just made, to get access to specific sites.

Duplicate accounts are 4.8% of Facebook’s active members. These are accounts that are made on behalf of other people or they are just another personal account. This goes against facebook’s terms of service, as it is noted in there that you are not allowed to have more than one personal account or make accounts on behalf of friends.

Misclassified accounts are accounts made for companies, groups or pets. These accounts are allowed on facebook. However, they need to be created on pages. There are 22.9 million accounts that are misclassified accounts, facebook estimates that 2.4% of facebook’s live membership body are misclassified accounts. A recent survey suggests that 13/40 teenagers created an account when they were under the age of 13.

The third party of accounts is the smallest amount of people. However, it is the most troublesome group. 1.5% of all active accounts are undesirable account, this is 14 million of the facebook membership body. These accounts are created to violate the facebook laws, they are used for things like spamming.

As it shows there are many people in the world that create fake accounts, and use facebook for the wrong thing. Fortunately, the amount of people that have fake accounts are still hugely outnumbered by people who do the right thing. Recently an interview was conducted on why kids use social media and why kids like it? The subject of the interview is an 8th grader named John Krupa.

John Krupa has multiple social media accounts. We asked him “ Why do you use social media?” He answered “ I like using it to connect with my friends easily and it’s fun, seeing what my friends do outside of school. Also, I like posting what I do, and letting my friends know what I do.” He also stated that “ Its good that people are creating these ways to connect with friends, because it’s easier to connect with them, rather than just calling them or emailing them. It also costs less to connect with far relatives, on skype rather than conducting an overseas call.” This shows that kids are not doing anything illegal or wrong on facebook, they are just enjoying the resources they have been handed. They connect with their friends and they are being social.

As you may have seen there are many cons about social media. Fortunately, there as many pros. Social media can help students with their academic work. 59% of students state that social media sites are used to discuss educational topics and 50% use sites to talk about school assignments. George Middle School introduced a social media program to engage students in their learning. After this was set, the grades has went up 50% and chronic absenteeism went down 33%. Also 20% of students voluntarily completed extra assignments. So, when adults say that social media is distracting students from their work, they need to realise that it can help the students as well, if used carefully and correctly.

Social media can help build relationships and create new ones. 70% of adult social networking users visit sites that connect you with friends and relatives. Also, increased online communication strengthens relationships. 52% of teens using social media state that has helped their relationships in some manner. Also 88% report that social media help them to stay in touch with old friends and friends they do not get to see regularly. 69% state that they get to know students they hardly meet, and 57% make new friends. A recent survey suggests that the only reason why teenagers use and like social media is because it is the easiest way to connect with their friends. As stated in the interview earlier on.

As parents you want to make sure that your kids are safe. You want to make sure that they are not doing the wrong thing, every single time they sign on to a social media website, you are protective of them, which you have every right to be, as the people that have brought the children into this world, you want to make sure that they are happy all their lifes and safe. However, the teenagers are only ever happy, if they are on their phones, or on social media. So, there is a way to get it both ways. You can make sure he or she is safe on social media, and they can spend all their free time on their phones chatting to their friends.

One thing that parents can do to make sure that the teenagers are doing the right thing, is that they can be their friends on facebook or twitter. By doing this you can monitor what they are doing on facebook, and see if they are posting anything wrong, or if they are commenting on something they shouldn’t be. Parents have to always make sure that they are using their computers in a public place, so you can see their screens, and also discreetly check their history. However, make sure that you respect their privacy and make sure that you don’t break the trust that you have with them.

So, parents don’t be scared that your teenagers are always on social media, just make sure that you know what they are doing and just make sure that you can see what they are doing at all times they are on their laptops. Also, you have to trust them. There might be many stereotypes about how teens always do the wrong thing. But, they don’t. You have to trust them. If you break that trust, it will be like glass falling off a table, it will last an eternity before you fix it, if you fix it. So, don’t break their trusts. Otherwise they will not trust you. If they don’t then you will face mass crisis, on whether they are doing the right thing.

The Thrill of Overcoming Obstacles in Sports by Sahir Doshi

It’s the final set. The score is 19-20 to your opponent, and the next point determines everything. Sweat trickles down your face. Your opponent gets into position to serve as you tighten your grip on the racquet. He serves, and instead of diving forward, your stand there, your thoughts of conversations before the game swarming your head.

“You’re fat.”

“If you lose this, we breakup.”

“Please, for once, don’t lose ok? This school has suffered too much loss already.”

And then you snap out of your dream world. You dive forward, barely managing to lift the shuttle, as you crash and roll on the floor. Silence fills the sports hall, all eyes on the shuttle. You watch, sitting on the floor, as he smashes.

Sports. Something that is supposed to be fun, but is instead is a self-esteem killer, that is if you choose it to be. 9 out of 16 students were afraid of sports at a certain time of their life, said a survey taken by the class of 8RUp at UWCSEA East. Teenagers are misunderstanding the importance of sports, and instead using it to become ‘popular’ or ‘cool’. This is the time to go out there and learn, “the time for experimentation and getting good at things” said Jabiz Raisdana, an English teacher at UWCSEA East who is working towards a 10KM run in December, in an interview. This demonstrates that adults like Jabiz, who’ve lost 30 years worth of time are regretting that they didn’t venture out and explore the world of sports, clearly stating that if you don’t start playing sports in the teenage years, when will you?

At UWCSEA, there is a swimming unit in the PE curriculum. Many students struggle with this unit, as this sport isn’t their piece of cake. Mallika Shankar, a student in Grade 8 at UWCSEA East, said “Yes I do feel scared when i’m swimming because i’m not very good. It’s scary because sometimes people think you’re good but you let them down”.

This indicates that it is not your own fault for not reaching the ‘expectations’ of others, but it is the bystanders fault for thinking wrongly of you. This also doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t slack on your effort, but this means that you should continue to put in the effort, and “ just ignore the haters” said an Anonymous person.

Similarly, a student at UWCSEA Dover, Arnav Tapadia who is also a Grade 8 student, said, “I may not be good at one aspect of the sport, and people may judge me on that, and overlook the fact that i’m good at other aspects of the sport”. This continues to indicate that spectators, in fact everyone, overlooks the good in you and only focuses on the bad. We, as humans, naturally spend majority of our spotlight on the bad and mistakes than spotlight on the achievements and improvements teen athletes make.

In both of these examples, bystanders are overlooking the good and only caring about the bad, and this is part of the process of overcoming obstacles. Listen to those who respect you. They will motivate you. There are other ways you can be motivated. One student talks about the joy of sport, his name is Fayyaz Ahmed, who's also in Grade 8, he said, “My motivation comes from the sport itself, it’s a load of fun and the competitiveness is exciting and intriguing”. To add on to this, 4 of the 16 students who filled out the form said that the joy and fun of the sport motivates them. Vardhaman Lodha, a student who plays for the U14 Badminton Team at East said that his motivation is, “The fact that it helps me stay fit and healthy and it is a great way to get rid of stress from school such as exams, tests, etc.”. This reveals another great reason for students to be part of sports. School usually causes you the most problems in life, from stress, to friends, to dating etc. Going for a swim or shooting some hoops at the basketball court can help release these feelings. The best part of this motivation is that after you play the sport you will feel an amazing feeling, and get rid of stress or whatever was bothering you before.

When you come back from a run or a cycle that you had to drag yourself out of your house for, there is a special feeling that you feel. A feeling full of adrenaline, pride, and joy. Many students feel this when they come back from a sport. Anisha Uppal-Sullivan, a girl who plays for the Girls Football Team at East said, “When I do well and give my 100% I feel exhilarated and proud,” but then she said, “but other times when I haven't played my best or have been tired i’m upset with myself”. This shows that it’s ok to be frustrated with yourself after a bad day of sports, but if you never try, you will never get the result you want. The feeling is like none other, as I, the writer of this article, has experienced it myself. Many other students felt the same as Anisha.

As part of my interviews, I asked all the students for any advice for those who are having trouble with sports obstacles. Philip Haryanto said, “Be confident in your abilities, as everyone has a unique skill set”. Michael Tham, a Cross Country Runner said, “Don’t worry, you’re learning, it’s okay to make mistakes”. Hugo Howell, a Football player said, “Don’t listen to popular kids, they don’t know anything”. This is an another key point in the generation of today. Popular kids, aren’t popular, it’s just a mindset, and if you want to be ‘popular’, or want to impress them so that they don’t make fun of you or for whatever else reason, then you should drop it. Don’t let others judge you. Instead look at the bright side. There are plenty of people out there who will support you, they will be there for you, and they will care for you. If no one in your physical community is there, then there is always the online world, where you can meet and talk with others.

Teenagers are being over conscious of sports. They are scared of people and things that aren’t important. They are missing out on epinephrine, bliss, and delight. These feelings serve more than one purpose, they improve your mental-being by persuading yourself to continue to work hard, resulting in your physical-being also improving. So are you going to quit sports because of what the others said, or are you going to rise to the A team?

Citations:

Jabiz Raisdana,  English Teacher at UWCSEA

Survey on students at Grade 8 UWCSEA

Too Much Pressure Can Make You Snap! by: John Krupa

Less than one week ago one 13 year old grade 8 boy stayed at home for over a week and even went to the hospital at one point, but not because of a sickness or illness, but because of stress. Kids nowadays are going through more and more stress than ever from, school, homework, and even parents. This stress can have long term effects unless it is managed or stopped.

Stress has always been known to cause problems in kids and even adults. One grade 8 student Fayyaz Amed said “I think a lot of my stress comes from myself and not as much from my parents. My parents are always supportive but never really put stress on me” he also commented “Videogames and technology in general don't really affect my workload or my stress. I think I have a good amount of self control and that is a factor to my stress.” Another grade 8 student named Vaibhav bakhshi said “I think that my parents and teachers put a lot of stress on me. Especially with grades and tests I get a lot of stress. Also a lot of my stress comes from technology. When I'm using social media or playing video games I lose a lot of that stress but as soon as I finish playing more stress piles on, because I could have been doing homework or studying during that time.” This goes to show that there are two side to the topic and it also goes to show stress varies between people and sometimes that stress is not only caused by others but also by yourself. In a grade 8 class 6 out of 7 kid said that the majority of their stress comes from themselves adding pressure to do the best possible

Most of the student I’ve interviewed have said that procrastination is one of the main factors of stress. We all know one episode of your favorite TV show can quickly become 4, 5, even 6. Procrastination is a big problem nowadays with social media and online tv shows and streaming services becoming more popular students have a hard time concentrating on the work that matters. It causes stress by diverting you from the task you’re meant to be doing leaving you less time after you finish. Procrastination can be because of little distractions too such as a ticking clock or a pet making noise. They can distract you and push you off task and leave less time to accomplish your goals. Things like procrastination don’t seem to but can heavily impact your stress and how you control and manage it.

An online survey recorded over 1000 teens say how much stress they go through on a scale from one to ten. Over 25% of the teens said that they went through extreme (8-10) stress in the last year and 13% said they had gone through it in the past month. Over 50% of the teens said that they went through moderate stress in the last month and in the last year. This is really bad. Extreme or even moderate stress can have several negative effects. such as, skin conditions like eczema, weight problems, sleep problems, digestive problems, increase chances of heart diseases, pains, and even depression. Stress in teenagers can be caused by a variety of things, some of the most common ones are, lack of sleep, over studying, taking tests, report cards, major life changes, a loss of someone close, or even other people going through around you such as siblings or parents.

Luckily there are signs that you might be heading down a path toward extreme stress such as, having an inability to concentrate and a feeling of constantly being anxious. Sometimes there can be physical signs like aches or pains and even frequent colds. All of these are basic symptoms of have a lot of stress. Along with the previous statement, this says that stress is a major problem and not only does it affect your focus and anxiety it can also have physical and mental effects. Some of these effects can even be long term causing serious health problems and concerns.

There are many ways to relieve people of stress but not many people know them. One of the simplest strategies to prevent high stress is talking to people about it. You can talk to a friend, a family member, a counselor, anyone that you're comfortable with express your anger and explain why you're stressed. Many times even something this simple can relieve you of a lot of stress. Another recommended strategy is to write about your stress for 5-15 minutes a day. Think of your own ways to cope and write them down. Finally a more different but trustworthy approach to relaxing and relieving stress is to meditate, meditation is one of the most beneficial and proven means to stopping stress. It helps calm down the mind. By clearing your mind for 10 to 20 minutes a day you help relieve and manage your stress.

Even if you aren't going through too much stress it's likely that someone close to you is. You should try to talk to them and ask why their stressed and try to help them through it. Try to get them to use some of the techniques above and if they don't want to then just talk to them. Just like I said above talking to someone is one of the best ways to stop stress. If nothing is working suggest to them talking to a counselor or adult. Things like this can become very serious and adults can always help and provide advice.

Some good ways to stop procrastination are, creating a schedule. Creating a schedule can help you keep organised and on task. A schedule will help cut out distractions and other things. Another useful skill to stop procrastination is applications that can remind you what your meant to be doing and why you should be doing it. Things like iProcrastinate and Reminders always come in handy when you get side tracked.

If all else fails you can always watch another 12 episodes of Friends on Netflix.

Sources:

Jayson, Sharon. "Teens Feeling Stressed, and Many Not Managing It Well." USA Today. USA Today, 11 Feb. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2015.

Segal, Jeanne. "Stress Symptoms, Signs, and Causes." Helpguide.Org. Helpguide.Org, Sept. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.

Media's Perception Of The "Perfect" Body by Vidhushi Harit

Buy weight loss pills! Do you want to look like a Victoria’s secret model? why don’t you come along to this slimming sanctuary, you’ll definitely have a bikini body in less than 3 months! Everywhere you go, every website you click on, every magazine you pick up, you’ll find several advertisements about how to get the “perfect” body, women fall for these tricks hoping to look like models or have a body everyone dies for but these are just spells that the media puts on them, trying to persuade women that there is only one body type that is beautiful or that unless you have a certain type of body you aren’t good enough or you’re not worth it. the media has created an image in their minds of what the “perfect” body type is and saying there a simple ways of getting this body but in reality all the models you see in magazine’s go to extremes to get these bodies.

Events last year on the MRT illustrate the extremes that people go to when two teenage girls were scrolling through their instagram newsfeed when one of them came across a photo of Essena O’Neil and said “I wish I had a body like that”. At the time I would have been on the same boat wishing for a body like that but recently this model decided to quit social media and edited the caption on her photo’s and the things she said were quite interesting.

On one of her photos was where she was on a beach in a bikini, her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten all day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals” Another one was where she was wearing a long white dress and her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - I didn’t pay for the dress, took countless photos trying to look hot for instagram, the formal made me feel incredibly alone”. As if it was not obvious enough, reporters and paparazzi still asked her several questions on why she decided to quit social media. She said “Without realizing, I’ve spent the majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance, Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated, self-absorbed judgement.”

This shows that models have very tough lives and the scarce amount of food they eat isn’t a healthy lifestyle. This model is clearly not happy as she says that social media is just a way for people to find approval, approval for whether waist is small enough or their legs are skinny enough when these are just ways people use to bring others down. Rather than focusing on being skinny why don’t people focus on having a healthy lifestyle. The media takes big effect on teenage girls health issues since these are the biggest users of social media, when advertisements are constantly popping up telling them how to look can you imagine how they feel? These adds can and have made girls feels insecure about their bodies and have brought their self esteem’s down by an enormous amount.

Media can also have a good effect on them if these girls focus on becoming healthy rather than skinny by eating healthier and working out more but this is not always the fact, sometimes these girls can go to extremes as well like taking weight loss pills or starving themselves. This not only has a negative effect on their health but their personalities as well, girls can be obsessed with the idea of being as skinny as a model they look up to or thinking that if they were skinny they’d be more like-able When in reality your weight and body does not define you.

A survey taken asking the girls in 8RUP whether the media has affected how they feel about their body shows that seven out of the nine girls in RUP are affected. One girl who asked for her quote to be anonymous said “In the media you always see stereotyped blonde girls with small waists and barely any flesh on their bodies, and sometimes girls can feel like you have to look up to these people and if you’re thin then you’re more respected”. One other girl said “At this age we’re looking for inspiration and we’re trying to find our own opinion, all these photos do is create negative goals for girls”. Also asking the girls who said they weren’t affected one of them said “I don’t let these photos get to me, yes I see them and wish for bodies like those occasionally but I don’t let it affect my personality and I work on becoming a better and healthier person rather than being thin”. They were also asked what they think the reasons behind the media doing this to girls is, one of them said “I think the media and the secret people who work behind the media are doing it for themselves, they’re telling people to buy weight loss pills because it’s their product they want it to sell but people need to realize that while they are getting crazy rich it is hurting people everywhere”. The most important question in the survey was what should people do about this? Most of them said that if what they’re doing isn’t hurting their body in any way then they can try to lose weight but it should be a good, healthy option which they’re doing for themselves not so they can get more likes on instagram for having a better body because numbers don’t define you, people working behind the media don’t define you, your weight doesn’t define you, your body doesn’t define you.

In conclusion social media has affected many people in negative ways, Taylor swift once said “I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does that - even the people I consider flawless - you can start to live with the way you are”.

sources :

http://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/

Parental Pressure: The consequences and how this will affect the Parent-Child Relationship by Imogen

The apprehensive parents crowd around the small window to anxiously observing the daughters. The girls try to look away and forget about their mothers’ judgmental glares. After class the constant criticizing and critiquing begins.

The issue of parental pressure has been around for a long time but it is being ignored. The consequences of parents pushing their children to excel worse than many think. Children become detached from their parents and their relationships become damaged.
Most pushy parents say they only want what is best for their child but how are they doing what is best for their child? Dr. Paul Stricker from the American Academy of Pediatrics say that we have to really evaluate the problem learn want the children really want.

“We have to ask what we really want for our kids. Do we want them to be happy? Do we want them to feel empowered, to have social lives and agency in their life decisions?” Many parents think they know what is best for their child but it isn’t always the case.

Thursday night at City Ballet Academy, a pushy mother is caught arguing with her daughter in the reception who has just finished her class.
“When is my break?” an eleven year old screamed at her mother.
“You don’t get a break” The mother responded.
“My solo is really tiring! I need to a break, I can’t do that much!” The girl screamed back.
“We will talk more in the morning,” The mother replied. THe pair then trucked out reception however the constant mumble could still be heard.

Would you want a mother like this? According to Daniel Bates from The Daliy Mail “helicopter” parents are more likely to end up pushing their child away from them.

“Children of pushy parents are more likely to reject them in later life, a study has found.Boys and girls born to ‘helicopter mums’ grow up being resentful of all the pressure that has been piled on them in their youth.”

Burning out their children isn’t the only problem pushy parents face. Children want to be free to make their own choices. According to Lead researcher Jean Ispa, a human development professor at the University of Missouri, said: ‘It looks like children just don’t like to be with their mothers as much if mothers are highly controlling.

‘That is not a good thing. Ten-year-olds should enjoy being with their mother.’ Parents are becoming too involved in their children’s lives. A study by the Johns Hopkins Centre of Talented Youth conducted a survey over 800 families with talented students. In the first year of study the parents were asked about their school involvement and the importance of achievement. Results show that 85.5% of the parents of children in grade 5 were being either somewhat involved (45.5%) or heavily involved (40%) in their child’s school. Also 78.6% of the parents were part of the local PTA. Do parents really need to be so heavily involved in their children’s lives from such a young age?

All in all, Helicopter parents are creating negative consequences for they are pushing their children away and the parents end up damaging the parent-child relationship. As well as the children do not enjoy spending time with their parents if they controlling for some parents are heavily involved in the child’s life and the child want freedom.

Hard Work Doesn't Always Pay Off By Fayyaz

Parents ; many of your children have been exposed to sports at a young age, and have been giving them up as they grow older. The increasing difficulty of IGCSE and IB courses (O Levels and A Levels {age 13 and above}) have required young adults to give more attention and their own time to them. Resulting in an increase of missed trainings or quitting the sport all together. This sanctions kids to unintentionally nurture possibly fatal medical conditions.

“Besides the well-known benefits to their health and well-being, you've seen how sports gets teens and tweens involved in school and community groups,” says Roni Cohen-Sandler, a Clinical Psychologist, Author and Speaker. “So when teens announce they're quitting, sometimes after spending as much as a decade at their sports, many parents are upset, disappointed, or angry.”

Undeniably, O Level and A Level curriculums have become exceedingly more difficult compared to the past generations. Causing kids to spend more and more of their time on studying for tests that ever so happen once every 2 weeks. Instead of spending quality time outside, with the fresh air and absolute quietness that is peace.

The National Alliance for Sports reports, “Twenty million kids register each year for youth hockey, football, baseball, soccer, and other competitive sports. The National Alliance for Sports reports that 70 percent of these kids quit playing these league sports by age 13 -- and never play them again.” This report leads to multiple different questions and possible answers, but it also leads to the big one. What is the reason for 70% of 20 million kids (14 million) to quit the sports they had once loved? Have they forgotten what used to be such a huge part of their youth? Or do they simply not have the time from the hours you are expected to spend on increasingly difficult homework? The pressure to do well from parents, teachers and other peers do not help in the matter. Even sometimes the encouragement from them, their intentions may be pure, but the results can vary.

That is a big problem. The majority of kids that are quitting sports completely are aged around their teen years (13-18). “Sports and other physical activities have innumerable physical health benefits, including improved cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, increased life expectancy, and coronary health. Sports can also help prevent various types of cancer and weight gain and have positive effects on mental health by reducing depression and improving cognitive function,” says Bradley Cohen, a former sports editor for the "Ketchikan Daily News" in Alaska. “Sports can decrease the risk of colon cancer by as much as 300 percent, according to the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. It can also significantly decrease the risk of breast cancer, and might decrease the risk of endometrial and lung cancer.”

Undoubtedly, experts say 16-20 hours a week of physical activity in youth children should be more than enough to benefit the kids health and mental wise. After discontinuing their sports life, kids don’t get nearly enough physical exercise they should be getting to keep healthy. Without those precious hours, teens are more likely to receive the opposite of the health benefits noted by Bradley Cohen. Meaning more prone to cardiorespiratory malfunctions. “Sports can help people of all ages maintain and improve the health of their heart, lungs and blood vessels. Physical activity can significantly reduce the risk of coronary disease and stroke. According to the British Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, approximately 40 percent of deaths related to coronary heart disease are related to inadequate physical activity, obesity, stress and raised blood pressure. Sports can help with all of these physical issues, decreasing the risk of coronary disease by about 50 percent.” Says Bradley Cohen.

For the most part, 8 in 10 kids grow up and out of their teens healthy and happy. That is until the years go by and slowly, very slowly, their pasts begin to haunt them. “Healthy bones are critical to senior health. As you age, your body begins to absorb old bone tissue faster than new bone tissue can be created, and your bones tend to become thinner and weaker. This leads to a condition known as osteoporosis, a disease in which bones become very fragile and can easily break during a fall or even when you're making everyday movements.” A study from Everyday Health conducted by Dennis Thompson Jr, a career journalist with more than 20 years of experience, writing for newspapers in Virginia, West Virginia, Florida, Delaware, and Oregon. In which their goal was to finding the “10 Health Conditions to Watch For as You Age”. It is proved that a consistent amount of sports or physical activity a week can gradually increase your muscle and bone strength allowing you to more likely avoid osteoporosis.

To avoid multiple health conditions from your children that could affect their life long term, take steps to insure that your son/daughter is passionate to go outside the house and participate socially in team sports or in races etc.

Steer your child away from time consuming activities like TV and social media. Get them engaged in activities that reinforce learning. As a thumb rule, 16-20 hours a week of outdoor-physical activity should be more than enough. But look out for signs of burnout. As a parent, you should closely observe your child and base your decisions off feedback directly from communicating with them, purely.

If all else fails in trying to associate your child in some sort of physical activity or sport. Then get your pen and paper ready, because you should already be assisting them in their academic life.

Cohen, Bradley S. "How Does Playing Sports Affect Your Health?"LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

Jr, Dennis Thompson. "10 Health Conditions to Watch for as You Age."Everyday Health. Everyday Health, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.

The Words They Say, Make Bruises That Don’t Fade Away-By Vardhaman Lodha

Bullying in Indian schools continues to be a serious problem. According to recent news reports, 5% of children in India, especially those aged between 8 to 12, are physically bullied including in well known institutions such as St.Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata.

“Fight...Fight….Fight….Fight.” One can hear this much too often during lunchtime at St.Xavier’s. The poor little children tremble in fear as the High Schoolers walk towards them, determined to unnecessarily pick up a fight.

Unfortunately, what happens inside the school seems to have remained within the high walls of the same. The parents of the victims and the society at large seem to be blissfully unaware of the unpleasant occurrences. Those that have an inclination are unable to understand the gravity of the situation - after all, aren’t students in one of the best all-boys school in the country supposed to be strong and capable of fending for themselves?

Furthermore, the faculty seems to have been unable to eliminate this problem in most Indian schools. If a child is bullied and goes upto a teacher, the teacher just calls the bullies and asks them not to repeat the incident again. There is no serious action taken against them. They easily get away, without fully understanding the difference between what is right and what isn’t. Moreover, there is no counselling given to the victims in most instances.

One such incident took place on the 7th of February, 2012. The sun was shining brightly over the massive green football pitch. Everything seemed normal until it was time for break. As soon as the period bell rang, kids from all the different classes rushed out of their classrooms to go and buy their lunch. There was pandemonium.

As usual, the High Schoolers hogged the football pitch, making sure that nobody else even laid their foot on the well kept soft green grass. ‘Sharing is caring’, was not something they believed in.

After a few minutes, something very unusual happened. One boy from primary school mustered the courage to go to the pitch. The minute the sole of his polished black shoes touched the grass, all the high schoolers glared at him. Each one of them resembled ‘The Hulk.’

They looked at him in the eye and tried their best to frighten him. However, all their attempts went in vain. The boy did not move. Not even an inch. It felt like he was planted to the ground like a tree. He seemed fearless.

Suddenly, a few of the ‘Big Dudes’ started striding towards him. Now the distance between the child standing alone and the group of High Schoolers was only around 6ft. Finally, one of the big boys opened his mouth and said in a harsh voice, “ Get outta here….. Go play somewhere else. Only we can play here.”

But the kid did not move. He still seemed calm and replied sarcastically, “ Where is your name written on the pitch? I don’t see it. Everybody has the right to play wherever they want to and just because we are half your size, doesn’t mean you have the authority to treat us in such a cruel way.”

That was it. No other child had ever mustered the courage to go to the pitch at break, let alone challenge the big boys so openly. In a few seconds, the kid became the centre of attraction. He was surrounded by 8 High Schoolers. And then, all of a sudden, everything turned black.

After 15 minutes or so, the poor kid woke up in the nurse’s room. His head felt like it was going to rip apart and his stomach hurt, but it was his heart that ached the most. It ached because he was sad. It ached because his confidence had been shattered.

After a few weeks time, the kid came down to the pitch again. But this time his face lacked the determination it had once had. He knew he had lost, as he said to the bullies, “ I promise I won’t come here again. Please don’t hurt me the next time.” And then he walked away.

That incident had destroyed that poor little child. For life, perhaps. What was his mistake? Would he ever fight for his rights again? Would he ever trust his heart again? Would he ever be determined to pursue his dreams, to practice football, no matter what?

When asked- What do you think is the effect of bullying on people that are bullied?, Daniel Seymour, a student at UWCSEA (East campus) class 8RUp, said that, “Sometimes like me I get over it after a while, but I never forget it and cannot really ever forgive the bully.” Jace Gallante of class 8RUp, UWCSEA(East campus) was asked the same question and his response was, “It makes them angry, depressed and scared. They might become really depressed that sometimes they want to kill themselves.”

Both these comments portray the fact that bullying can have massive detrimental impacts (both physical and mental) on the victims. It can destroy their self esteem, confidence, etc. It is a common phenomenon amongst school going children. Frequent bullying is associated with certain symptoms and school absenteeism. According to a study released by the Indian Journal of Pediatrics in 2011, 60% of the students in India are bullied per year. This does not only include physical bullying, but verbal and cyberbullying as well. What is more shocking is the fact that only 39% of the victims’ parents know about the incidents.

What about the 61% of the victims’ whose parents have no idea and wrongly believe that their child is enjoying school. How do these children handle the trauma? Do they have somebody else to turn to? Do they dread school? Do they feel lost?

Imagine yourself being bullied in school. You come back home and your mom is serving you lunch. She asks you- “How was your day in school darling?” What will you say? You would probably say “It was good” and not mention the bullying, just like 61% of the victims, who keep their secrets hidden deep inside their hearts.

They probably don’t want their parents to get stressed and hence try and hide the reality. Some children might even think that their parents will just shout back at them and call them a ‘Sissy’, because they could not fight back. The poor victims’ probably have nobody to show them the light at the end of the tunnel.

Just thinking about the victim is not the appropriate thing to do. Thinking about- ‘ what makes a bully, a bully ’, is also quite vital. When asked this question, Victor Schneuwly of class 8RUp at UWCSEA (East Campus) said that,“ A bully is a person who has been hurt or beat in a physical or mental way. These people need a way to release energy so they pick on people. But sometimes the energy is infinite and this leads to long term bullying.”

Indiaparenting.com says that, “Bullies are children who like to dominate others. Bullies are often children who want to feel important and want to make themselves popular. Bullying children who are weaker than themselves makes them feel big and powerful. Many a times bullies are just insensitive children who know that it hurts their victims but they continue to do it anyway. Some children who bully are attention-seeking. Children who do not get emotional support at home and are not given attention at home may try to attract attention towards themselves in the classroom through bullying. In some cases, a child who is bullied sometimes ends up bullying others. Other factors such as teacher's indifference to the victims and bad disciplining by parents of bullies can also cause bullying.”

This relates to Victor Schneuwly’s comment about what makes a bully, a bully, because they both mention the fact that a bully is a person who has been bullied, or hurt, either in a physical, or mental way. They might also be attention-seekers and think that in order to fit into society, it is vital to portray your power and strength on kids that are half your size.

Bullied children often feel neglected and lonely. They are made fun of and left out of groups on purpose. At such times, the support and care of parents and teachers will help them to fight bullies. Children who are being bullied dislike going to school and the very thought of going to school makes them fearful and uneasy. Bullying can also have long-term effects on both the bullies and the bullied. Studies suggest that bullies are more likely to engage in criminal activity at a young age itself. Children who have been bullied are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, loneliness and other negative emotions. In some severe cases the bullied child may also experience unwanted thoughts. Therefore, it is very necessary for parents to take the right steps to help their child to come out of this situation.

What some readers may not realize is the fact that bullying is not only a serious problem in India, but can be a major one all over the world. Buzzle.com says that, “ All over the world: Every half an hour, one child attempts suicide as a result of being bullied. Every year, around 19,000 children attempt suicide as a result of the same. Every seven minutes, one child is subjected to bullying on the school playground. What's more shocking, is the fact that 85 percent cases of bullying go on without any intervention from fellow students or teachers.” This makes it clear that bullying is a problem that needs to be arrested. If not now, then never.

In the United States, 64% of children who were bullied did not report it. The figures are similar to those of India. However, confiding in somebody else can go a long way in making the victim feel better.

“Another case that caused a widespread anger in the Eastern Indian society, exactly in the city of Kolkata after the death of a student who was subjected to school bullying, was the case of Oindrila Das. The 11 year old girl who was traumatized after she was locked for hours in the toilet of her school by a group of senior girls from her school. Oindrila died after she was sent to a local hospital for treatment,” says nobullying.com.

This is very similar to the incident that took place on the 7th of February 2012 at St.Xavier’s Collegiate school Kolkata, because in both the cases the victims were from the same city and were bullied severely.

Bullying can be a humiliating and embarrassing experience for children. It can demoralize them for life. If a child is being bullied in school, it is very incorrect on the part of the teachers to ignore the issue. Moreover, if parents think that something seems amiss and their child does not look forward to going to school, they must try and get to the bottom of the situation as soon as possible. The help and support of parents is very important to help the child cope with bullying.

In order to get rid of bullying, schools must become more strict and take serious action against bullies. This will make them think twice before actually doing something wrong. Not only parents and teachers, even students can help stop bullying. When a student sees their peer or somebody else being bullied, they should call a teacher and tell them explicitly what happened. Going up to the bully and telling them to stop is probably not a feasible option, as many students will not muster the courage to fight against people bigger and stronger than them. Even if they go to the bullies and tell them to stop, 99.99 % they will either get beaten up badly or they will be looked through.

Every child has the right to be treated respectfully. School days are meant to be filled with beautiful and fond memories. It must be ensured that Bullying does not victimize any child, so that each one of them can build these moments that they can cherish forever. “The words they say, make bruises that don’t fade away.”

"Bullying and Children." Indiaparenting.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

"Bullying Facts." Buzzle.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

"Bullying in India." Nobullying.com. N.p., n.d. Web.

Racial Bullying is Everywhere: And It Shouldn't Be by Nicky

       For most people, racial bullying is just something that they hear about in the news. However, Sharon, an Indian citizen, has a different point of view; something much more personal. She describes one particular incident where a classmate refused to even look at her. “She was in my group for a project, but she never looked at me directly. I once overheard her talking to someone else, and she said ‘Her brown-ness is affecting me’”. Sharon felt like she was falling down, just like the towers in 9/11. Sharon was unable to understand how the colour of her skin was affecting the other girl’s ability to work. Unfortunately, this is only one of many examples of racial bullying that Sharon experienced.

       A similar example of racial discrimination and bullying happened to another student; let’s call her Judith. Judith was born and raised in Japan, but she was of Indian heritage. When she was living in Japan, she tried her best to fit in. Whenever she wore traditional Japanese dress, they laughed. Whenever she walked into a shop, she was labelled ‘foreigner’ and teased. No matter what she did, Judith just couldn’t fit in.

       Another example occurred on a class trip to Chiang Mai, though this incident was much scarier. One particular student was reportedly yelling at other classmates who were of Indian descent, cursing at them and telling them to go away. He was heard spitting out insults such as ‘black scum’ and ‘black dirt’, the words slicing through the air like knives. Similar to the first case, nobody said anything about the clear racial bullying and discrimination that was going on.

       With just three examples, there is one thing in common: nothing was done to prevent the bullying from happening again. In all cases, only the offender, victim and bystanders were aware of the current predicament. As the bystanders are the only people who are able to prevent these situations from continuing, why do they choose to not intervene? Is it because of peer pressure? Is it because they fear that they will be picked on? A 2004 poll indicates that although 86% of children between 9-13 have seen somebody being bullied, only 20% have tried to stop this. The fact that this number is so shockingly low shows us that one thing is clear: This needs to stop.

       This isn’t only a problem that is near to us. There have been several other cases elsewhere of teenagers being verbally and even physically bullied just because of their race. One such example is that of Japjee Singh, a Sikh who lives in the US. Peers were telling him to ‘go back to your country’. The abuse even went so far to extreme physical bullying, with Mr Singh having to undergo two surgeries after the beatings. This, too, is just another example of racial bullying, albeit in a different country.

       The fact that this needs to stop is obvious. The question, however, is how. If the children won’t try to change it, that leaves the adults. In most incidents, adults are either not there or they aren’t paying enough to notice the discrimination, however obvious it may seem to the teens. The first step to decreasing and eventually stopping racial discrimination is clear: Get adults to notice it.

       After looking at just three stories, it is clear now that racial discrimination and bullying is a threat that is still at large for the teens of today. If adults notice it, they will be more likely to step in and intervene. With teens naturally being afraid of authority, the intervention from an adult could teach them that this is morally wrong. So the next time you see a child getting
bullied, take action and take initiative. It’s our responsibility too.


Bibbillybobbly Bibbilyography:

"Calgary Family Resource Facilitation Program." Bullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
Lee, Esther Yu-Hsi. "Sikh Family Takes On Racist Bullying After Teen Was Beaten And Sent To Hospital." ThinkProgress. N.p., 16 Oct. 2015. Web.

The Digital Social Gathering by Isaac

Teenagers alone in their room like hermit crabs dwelling in their shells, refusing to leave what it calls home. This is the current state of teenagers and many parents have been linking their behaviour to the internet and thus create barriers that don’t allow teenagers to be on the internet and instead socialise. Teenagers say that they are communicating and socialising over the internet but the question is : Who is right?

To start we need to define the word “Socialise” and the word is defined in the dictionary as: “Mix socially with others” which at a first glance matches the activities that teenagers perform over the internet but word “Socialise” has been forgone by many people in exchange for a more widely accepted, new definition which is “Go outside do something physical with friends”. This definition doesn’t seem to be an issue for many people except the people who use the internet frequently however times are changing and with new technology comes new language and redefining words. When you get together with friends over the internet and play video games, Are you socialising? Most people say no but by definition, Yes you are socialising, However most parents refuse to accept this definition as it doesn’t involve direct physical communication but the internet also allows for direct instant communication using programs like Skype or even Social media. Which is where the problems and debates start arising.

Many people will say that the internet is an amazing place to access and information travels almost instantly which gives you new possibilities to connect to people like talking with your families overseas or sharing photos with your friends. The internet allows for all of that and more so people have created programs specifically to share photos and communicate, All of those programs fall under the term “Social media”. In January of 2015, as many as 2.1 billion people are active social media users who all share their experiences and culture over the internet allowing people to expose themselves to information they never would’ve been able to get if they didn’t socialise over the internet. Furthermore, because of the speed that information travels you don’t have to coordinate social gatherings as carefully than Physical social gatherings. In addition to that, Almost every way to communicate with family and friends are cost free and only require an internet connection and a device that can access the internet.

Inversely, The internet is also one of the most dangerous places because of everyone’s anonymous profiles and connectedness. One concern that is relevant to the topic is psychological threats and issues. Cyberbullying like real bullying can have huge repercussions on the victim as it can lead to depression or in extreme cases, Suicide. But that is not the bottom of the barrel as the internet is now creating some psychological disorders, One of the big disorders is named “Facebook addiction disorder” Which increasing amounts of people are being diagnosed with the disorder. This disorder is so large that approximately 350 million people have been diagnosed and has been compared with gambling addictions. It’s characterized by not spending time with friends and family to go on facebook and can get so extreme to the point that people have dates over facebook or, In the wider picture. The internet. This suggests that people are more and more concerned over how they look over the internet rather than their physical being. Another consequence of everyone’s faceless identity is sharing and exploiting other people’s personal data over the internet which can be used in different ways, most of them being dangerous to the person who that personal data belongs to.

In the end the internet is a double edged sword : It cuts both ways. The internet is great and makes communication easier but it also makes you vulnerable to the negatives and dangers of the internet. Most parents will say that the negatives outweigh the positives but the choice is there, If you want to access the internet it’s your choice but if you are accessing it you need to be aware of your surroundings and just like the hermit crab, You need to peek out of your shell to see the outside world.

Sources

Summers, Amy. "Facebook Addiction Disorder — The 6 Symptoms of F.A.D." Http://www.adweek.com/. N.p., 02 May 2011. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.

What it Means to do Something “Like a Girl," By Ellen

Picture a game of softball, an eighth grade PE class is split into 2 teams: one fielding, one batting. On the batting team, a boy steps up onto the plate confidently, bat at the ready. The whistle blows. He swings, he misses, it’s a strike. The other boys laugh. Two more tries: whistle, toss, swing. Both times the ball flies past him and onto the ground. He’s out. The boy lets the bat fall to the ground and steps off the plate looking wounded. “You hit like a girl!” one of his friends say, the boy looks down.
Next a girl steps up onto the plate, bat at the ready. She is nervous, the girl feels like everyone is expecting her to do badly. She swings, she misses, it’s a strike. The boys tell her it’s ok to get out. Round two, whistle, toss, swing - she hits the ball at full force. The girl makes it to second base. Her teammates are surprised, laughing at the boy that had striked out before her, “You got beaten by a girl,” they tell him. The girl hears, she doesn’t understand why they are laughing now that she managed to hit the ball, she feels out of place. On the other hand, the boy is ashamed, he hits like a girl.

That for someone to do something “like a girl” means doing it poorly, something that many of us
learn yet never really take into perspective. Boys use it as an insult, and especially, when it comes
to playing sports.

This is a typical scenario in many cases. ‘Like a girl,’ is used as a joking phrase, something boys
to say to tease one another. And finally girl’s just accept and internalise the expression, an
expression that suggests someone weaker, a screw up, laughable and useless. When did we start
describing girl’s under these stereotypes? And when did the stereotype of boys being better than
girl’s become generally accepted worldwide and between cultures? We can all recognise what it means to “run like a girl,” running childishly; flapping our arms around wildly and basically looking as silly as possible. This may seem funny, laughable, but when we are hit with the truth it is simply degrading.

From a survey taken among 8th graders at UWCSEA, 8/10 girls admitted having being told they had done something ‘like a girl’ at some point. Half of them added that it was all the time, and 7/10 girls told us that they took the expression as something insulting and downgrading to women and girls.
“I think saying ‘like a girl’ will definitely bring someone’s self esteem down, because when a girl is trying really hard but then someone’s like ‘oh you're acting like a girl’ well, what does that mean to act like a girl? We are girls, and that doesn’t mean it's a bad thing. Boys may think it’s okay to say it to each other because then they just laugh it off, but when a girl hears it, it can really bring them down.” says Mallika Shankar, an eighth grade student. What is revealed here is that ‘like a girl’ has much more of an underlying meaning to it than just a laugh, but the real issue is that this expression clearly demonstrates an example of how sexism is still a part of our everyday world. Yet many people still argue that it’s only a joke, that girl’s should understand not to take it too seriously. “I think that the boys have to learn to be more sensitive,” Commented Mallika on the issue, also bringing up another point that is by using this term many people still do not realise what they are implying.

For many girls, especially those playing what are typically ‘boys’ sports, have been directed with ‘like a girl’ countless times. “I’ve stopped taking it as an insult but it still does hurt,” said Anisha Sullivan, an eighth grade girl on the football team. She was asked why she thought this expression was directed to her a lot. “They say it because I play a traditionally boys sport and in a way they can’t admit that I may be better than them or play versus them because that would be admitting to weakness. So instead they reverse to say ‘oh you play like a girl.’ Which really in itself has no meaning, but, it hurts because we’ve put the stereotype of playing like a girl on that.” Underlying how we are pushing all girls into a mould that society has created, into even the point where it’s downgrading to be referred to one simply because we believe what society creates.

Many girls also believe that these stereotypes limit girls to what they can and can’t do. This topic was brought up many times when 8th graders were asked how they thought the expression ‘like a girl’ had an impact on young girls. “I think that it would really hurt the way they see themselves. If they got told, ‘you throw like a girl, you hit like a girl.’ It can make you stop playing sports, to stop following your passions, it feels like people are judging you, and that they watch how you play.” said Anisha Sullivan.
Some girls even had their own stories to share about how this common gender stereotyping had an affect on them. One of the 8th graders, Megha Jain, who does dance and gymnastics, both of which are typically referred to as ‘girl’s sports’ was asked why she chose those two sports in particular. “Mostly gender stereotypes, like at my last school the stereotypes were really big, girls would be on the playground and guys would be on the football field. And I went along so I kind of got stuck with dancing and gymnastics. I feel like I assume that if I try any other sports then people are going to be like ‘why are you doing that?’ Because if I try to do touch rugby people are going to judge me so much. So I just go back to sports that I know I can and am meant to do.” Megha replied. This offers evidence that it’s not only the stereotyping itself, but also the topic of self esteem and being willing to take that extra step over the line. Which for many reasons is difficult, where during adolescence is when a girl’s self esteem plummet the most. Of course self esteem and gender equality are both huge issues, of which ‘like a girl,’ only shares a small role in, nonetheless it is something so simple and so easy for us to change. And from this it has the potential to lead to bigger things, changing people’s mindsets about what it means to be a girl and to do something like a girl, and encouraging girl’s to stand up for themselves and feel comfortable in their own bodies.

By Ellen Potter.

The Effects Of Homework On Teens Lives By Victor

There was just too much he was starting to lose his mind.

It was late afternoon about 4:30 pm Tom was playing soccer, he was counting up all the homework he had to do for tomorrow. He also wanted to play Call of Duty with his friend over seas, it had been a long time since he had played and talked with his friend. His best friend had moved a couple months back. At around 4:30pm in Singapore Tom’s friend was going to wake up soon.

“What am I gonna do there is just too much!” Tom asked himself

A survey done by University Michigan 80% of teenagers spend 4++ hours on homework each week. This makes teens extremely stressed and can cause all sorts of problems with family,friends and all sorts of activities and sports. This evidence is significant because teens can become aggressive towards friends and family. Also they become tougher in sports which makes the feel extremely emotional and can end up by getting someone hurt.

Ann Dolin who did research at what times teens should do homework says that “kids should have a break of about 30 minutes before they start working”.

But the problem these days is many students have so much homework that they have to start working straight away. On a survey done in the UK students in grade 8 spend double the time than any other grade.

It was almost dinner time and Tom was still doing his homework, he had taken no breaks and was making tons of mistakes. When his mom called him for dinner he shouted back that he wasn’t hungry because he had homework. Tom was starting to get really annoyed about having to do so much homework. Now he was getting hungry and he knew he wouldn't be able to focus without eating so he went down and grabbed something to eat.

A study done by many scientists across the globe say that a teen can only really focus for about 30-40 minutes and then needs to have a break and also they cannot learn if they are not getting any nutrients.

After eating and feeling better Tom went back up to finish his homework he had done all task except for one but it was already time to go to bed. When Tom’s mum came up and told him to go to sleep he refused. But things didn’t go so easy, since Tom was so frustrated and his mum was angry it finished by Tom slapping his mom.

Scientists say that if teens get excessive homework their frustration and emotions toward homework can turn against them and they can use them on friends and family. Scientists also say that if this happens once or twice you should go see the teacher. If this does not work consider having some sessions with a therapist because I you don't scientists say that children will even go as far as committing suicide.

As Tom and his mum were walking towards the teachers room they were both getting nervous. After the meeting they all arranged that the amount of homework would be decreased and sports would be taken into consideration.

Citations

"The Effects of Too Much Homework on Teenagers." LIVESTRONG.COM. LIVESTRONG.COM, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.

"Is Too Much Homework Bad for Kids' Health?" Healthlines RSS News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.

"The Effects of Homework." The Effects of Homework. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.