In today’s high-pressure, must-get-into-college climate, many high-performing students attempt to maximize their scores before anything else. They grade-grub and burn the midnight oil studying to…
Posts published in October 2016
Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars of NYS Club Funds Were Not Accounted For
On June 17, 2016, Thomas P. DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller, released an audit called “Extra-Classroom Activities,” which disclosed how ineffectively officials (school principals,…
Music Department Takes on Fresh Look
The IHS Music Department is beginning the school year with new faces and a dramatic change in class structure. William Makin was hired as the…
Behind the Creation and Changing of School Schedules
School schedules are a complicated animal to pin down. The nature of course requests ensures that some students will inevitably be dissatisfied with the schedule…
The Hardest Year of High School
As a senior at IHS with all the typical worries and fantasies on my mind—college applications, Casino Night, graduation, etc.—I have realized that senior year…
Voters Are Right To Be Concerned Over Hillary’s Health
Is Hillary Clinton on the verge of death, or is she perfectly healthy and all claims otherwise are just part of yet another vast right-wing…
What Triggered Jacob This Month: Dress Codes
IHS, just like nearly every other school in the world, has a dress code. If students are caught violating it, they may be taken out…
Sentimentality vs. Development
“How much development is desirable?” prompts Downtown Ithaca 2020 Strategic Plan, published in 2010. Cited as “A plan for Revitalization, Development, Management and Promotion of…
Why I’ll Never Spend Another Penny At Regal Cinemas
After the first week of classes, I went with three of my friends, whom we’ll call Lamie Jovette, Klison Ae, and Suth Rilcoff (to preserve…
The National Anthem: Sit or Stand?
Recently, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick caused quite a stir in the media when he opted to kneel on the sideline during the National…
Chromebooks: One Year Later
The emergence of the Chromebook in ICSD in September 2015 gave thousands of students a new way of learning in and outside of the classroom.…
Heroes and Villains
Heroes: Secretary of State John Kerry (pictured), who has negotiated a ceasefire in Syria with Russia and some other combatants. In the past, he has…
Cartoons
Club Feature: Cycling Club
If you’ve ever noticed a group of kids on bikes at the bottom of Renwick Road or heading out of IHS onto Cayuga Street, chances…
Teacher Feature: Richard Horan
I and most other AP Lit students were surprised, to say the least, when our schedules abruptly switched from “Amodeo” to “Horan” right before school…
Rosh Hashanah: A New Year Shofar So Good
There are many different cultures across the globe that have their own New Year celebrations: for example, the Chinese have their New Year, the Ethiopians…
What Steve and Ms. Gray Learned in Georgia
This summer, math teacher Steve Weissburg and science teacher Carlan Gray traveled to Georgia, a small country bordering the Black Sea and Russia. They were…
Hall Monitor
What are you grateful for?
Tips for the College Application Process
Q: Hi Abby. I’m a senior, and I’m starting to get really stressed about the whole college application process. I’ve barely looked at the Common…
Center Spread: New Faculty at IHS:
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week: A Movie Review
The Beatles: Eight Days A Week—The Touring Years, named, of course, after the classic early Beatles song, follows the band through its four-year touring period…
Porchfest: Ten Years of Music in the Streets
Every year since 2007, people from all over Ithaca have come down to the usually quiet neighborhood of Fall Creek to listen to great local…
Swiss Army Man Review
This summer was a severe disappointment in the world of blockbuster films. While many were surrounded by major hype, none of them seemed to live…
The Get Down: A Movie Review
The Get Down is the Bronx in 1978. Suddenly you are there, walking past graffiti-covered trains, singing along to disco tunes, dancing down the street.…
A Blonde Review
After the memes, the waiting, and the almost complete obscurity of Frank Ocean’s plans as an artist, Blonde is finally here. Ocean is one of…
Odin’s Finest: A Viking Metal Playlist
Viking metal has been, for most of my experience with metal as a whole, one of my favorite genres of metal ever. Typically it consists…
JapanAmerica at the Johnson
Have you ever stared at something and noticed that it is not quite right? Like you weren’t sure if the frame was crooked or if…