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Runners-Up From Our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest

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Runners-Up From Our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest

This leads me to ask: how should I, an Asian-American, raise my future children?

It’s a question that many American children of Asian immigrants ask. Some Asian-Americans are traumatized by tiger parenting, but it’s part of our tradition, our culture. A New York Times article reports that “we’re largely abandoning traditional Asian parenting styles in favor of a modern, Western approach focused on developing open and warm relationships with our children,” but is that actually good? I want my children to be raised with love, but also with a strict regime that emphasizes the importance of education — a cornerstone of tiger parenting. Tiger parenting leads to success. Asian-Americans attend prestigious universities in large numbers and make up “12 percent of the professional workforce while making up only 5.6 percent of the U.S. population,” my sister included. Tiger parents are intimidating, but effective.

That’s why I want to raise my children through tiger parenting — with enough love to minimize emotional scars but still ensure success: a mix of me and my sister. Other Asian-Americans should consider this, too; after all, with each successive generation, immigrant children do worse, and the absence of tiger parenting is partly to blame. I don’t want my parents’ sacrifices and hardships to be in vain because I didn’t raise successful, intelligent, “Asian” children, and I know the same goes for other Asian-Americans. We’re Americans, but we don’t need to abandon our traditional method of raising children. With tweaks, tiger parenting doesn’t have to be abhorred – it can be embraced and appreciated.

Sources

Gee, Buck, and Denise Peck. “Asian Americans Are the Least Likely Group in the U.S. to Be Promoted to Management.” Harvard Business Review, 31 May 2018.

Park, Ryan. “The Last of the Tiger Parents.” The New York Times, 22 June 2018.

Weissbourd, Richard. “Why Do Immigrant Children Struggle More Than Their Parents Did?” The New Republic, 25 Feb. 2002.

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Why We Should Teach The Truth About American History
by Patrick Wang , 16

The bell rings, and I barely make it into my AP U.S. History class. I look up at the board: “Today’s Topic: Slavery.” I do not think much about it because slavery has been a part of the Georgia curriculum since elementary school. What more could I possibly need to learn about? Yet, as I read through sickening excerpts of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and watch clips of “Twelve Years a Slave,” I can feel the horror building up inside me. I am confronted by my own ignorance, the cruel reality of history clashing with my own sugar- coated understanding. I realize that I have been fed a filtered version of history all my life. In the end, however, I am thankful for the opportunity to learn the truth in my AP U.S. history class, because for millions of other students, the truth is a privilege denied in the name of “patriotism.”

In 2015, College Board’s AP U.S. History course came under fire for “painting American history in too negative a light.” Conservative critics charged that the framework of the course was “biased and unpatriotic,” with GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson even calling the course “so anti-American that students who completed it would be ready to sign up for ISIS.” Many states such as Texas and Georgia even threatened to pull the course all together. Caving under pressure, the College Board changed the AP U.S. History framework to include a new emphasis on “American exceptionalism.”

This controversy brings to light the U.S.’s inability to own up to its past. Whether we like it or not, the U.S. is a country built upon not just democracy but exploitation and injustice. Events like the My Lai massacre and the slave trade are scary and real. We can not casually sweep the ugly pieces of history under the rug and hope that our rosy facade continues to fool the next generation into being “patriotic.” Patriotism is not the pride you feel when you believe that your country has done no wrong. Patriotism is the pride you feel when you know that your country is on the present journey to righting its past wrongs and preventing future wrongs. By indoctrinating students with the idea of “American exceptionalism” rather than teaching them the truth about American history, the only people we end up fooling are ourselves. As the Yale professor of American Studies Jon Butler puts it, “America emerged out of many contentious issues. If we understand those issues, [only then can we] figure out how to move forward in the present.” Thus, knowing the truth about American history should not be a privilege. It is a right.

Teenagers in The Times: May 2019

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Teenagers in The Times: May 2019

Here is the May 2019 edition of Teenagers in The Times, the last of the 2018-2019 school year. This roundup of news and feature stories about young people that have recently appeared across sections of NYTimes.com appears on the first Thursday of each month from September until June.

Within these monthly lists, we hope students find articles that capture their imagination and show them what is happening among people in their age group around the world. For the summer months, however, we offer students the opportunity to find and tell us what interested them the most in The Times each week. Our 10th Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest runs from June 14 until Aug. 23, 2019.

For ideas about how to use Teenagers in The Times with your students, please see our lesson plan and special activity sheet, both of which can be used with this or any other edition.

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Civics, Politics, Economics and Business

HUD Says Its Proposed Limit on Public Housing Aid Could Displace 55,000 Children

The proposal, published on Friday, would prohibit families with at least one undocumented immigrant from obtaining public housing benefits.

Teenage Girls and Dating Violence: Why We Should Be Paying Attention

A new study found that 90 percent of young people killed by an intimate partner from 2003 to 2016 were girls.

Video of New Jersey Teenager’s Violent Arrest Prompts Protests

A videotape of Dover police officers punching and choking Cyprian Luke, 19, as they took him into custody exposes a rift in the community.

Writing About Teenager Who Makes Sex Videos, School Paper Becomes the News

The Bruin Voice in Stockton, Calif., refused to submit its student profile for approval before publication. Cue a nationwide debate about censorship.

10 Teenagers Burned by Acidlike Liquid Thrown From Above at Raucous Party

The teenagers, some of them students at Brooklyn Tech, had been partying in a rented basement room at a public housing complex in Manhattan’s East Village.

‘Become My Mom Again’: What It’s Like to Grow Up Amid the Opioid Crisis

Call them Generation O, the children growing up in families trapped in a relentless grip of addiction, rehab and prison.

Filling Oreo With Toothpaste Earns YouTube Prankster a Jail Sentence

A Spanish court gave Kanghua Ren, known as ReSet, a 15-month prison term and ordered him to pay his victim, a homeless man in Barcelona, about $22,300 in compensation.

3 of This Year’s Spelling Bee Winners Are Friends From Dallas

The region, where the boys competed together and became friends, has emerged as something of a spelling juggernaut in recent years.

National Spelling Bee, at a Loss for Words, Crowns 8 Co-Champions

A group of adolescents broke the Scripps National Spelling Bee, with eight contestants crowned co-champions after the competition said it was running out of challenging words.

The Scripps Spelling Bee Is Broken. Please Don’t Fix It.

Too many winners is not always a bad thing, argues this Opinion essay writer.

Let’s Hear It for the Average Child

This Opinion essay states, “In this season of prizes and trophies, we salute all the students whose talents lie outside the arena.”

Can Californians Still Find a Path to Mobility at the State’s Universities?

“As a counter to staggering inequality, the system needs to be more open to the people who actually live in the Golden State,” states this Opinion writer.

‘It’s Like the Wild West’: Sexual Assault Victims Struggle in K-12 Schools

While college campuses have become the battleground for Title IX debates, the mishandling of sexual assault cases in primary and secondary schools receives less attention.

A Priest Impregnated a Teenager. Decades Later, Should He Be Allowed to Teach?

An arbitrator ruled last month that Joseph DeShan can remain in the classroom, igniting a debate between parents determined to oust him and those who defend the longtime teacher.

Rhode Island District May Reverse Policy to Serve Cold Sandwiches to Students With Lunch Debt

The superintendent of the Warwick Public School District said the school committee would vote next week on a proposal to reverse the policy.

How New York’s Elite Public Schools Lost Their Black and Hispanic Students

At one school, black and Hispanic enrollment plummeted to 14 percent from 50 percent. At another, it went to 4 percent. “What has happened?” a black alumna asked.

Overlooked No More: Barbara Johns, Who Defied Segregation in Schools

At 16, Johns led a strike by the student body that ultimately became one of five court cases consolidated into Brown v. Board of Education.

A Half-Century of School Shootings Like Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland

A Times analysis of school shooting data identified hundreds of deaths and injuries across more than 100 episodes since 1970.

We Have 2 Dead Young Heroes. It’s Time to Stand Up to Guns.

This Opinion column states, “It’s too late to save Kendrick Castillo and Riley Howell, but we can honor them by taking on gun violence.”

A $40 Million Experiment

The larger meaning of the surprise Morehouse gift is the topic of this Opinion essay.

A Pledge to Pay Morehouse College Students’ Debt Prompts Elation, Envy and a Host of Questions

Robert F. Smith pledged to wipe out the debt of the graduating class at Morehouse College. Now the students are anxiously waiting to hear what happens next.

The Morehouse Gift, in Context: An Average Black Graduate Has $7,400 More in Debt Than White Peers

Four years after graduation, they still owe an average of $53,000, almost twice as much as whites.

We Are Applauding the ‘Gift’ of an Affordable Education. Something Has Gone Wrong.

This Editorial states, “The Morehouse College class of 2019 will walk into adult life unburdened by student debt. What about everyone else?”

4 Years of College, $0 in Debt: How Some Countries Make Higher Education Affordable

When we asked people around the world what sort of financial burden they bore for their higher education, we heard how much it varies from country to country.

A Financial Checklist for Your Newly Minted High School Graduate

We’ve got budget, retirement account, credit, information security and insurance advice for your independent adult, college student, gap-year taker or future soldier.

Admissions Scandal: When ‘Hard Work’ (Plus $6.5 Million) Helps Get You Into Stanford

The news that a Chinese family paid $6.5 million to help secure a spot at Stanford illuminated the global reach of the college admissions scheme.

His Father Paid $400,000 to Get Him Into Georgetown. Now He’s Suing the School.

Two months after the scandal broke, Georgetown said it planned to dismiss two students. One is suing, saying the university denied him due process.

L.A.’s Elite on Edge as Prosecutors Pursue More Parents in Admissions Scandal

New parents have been told that they are under investigation, while others worry that they will be. “This is the only thing they can think about,” one lawyer says.

Low-Income College Students Are Being Taxed Like Trust-Fund Babies

Higher education officials are calling on Congress to fix a provision in the Trump administration’s tax overhaul that has caused unintended tax increases. The rates, which will take effect on July 1, won’t make a big difference in monthly payments. But given the cost of college, one expert says, “this is a bit of good news.”

Free College, the Best Version

“Tennessee and Chicago aren’t just giving handouts to the affluent,” states this Opinion essay writer.

Arizona Students Protest Border Patrol Detention of Classmate

More than 100 classmates called for the release of Thomas Torres-Maytorena, 18, who was detained last week after the authorities say he “indicated” he had an “overstayed visa.”

A Teacher Shared Her Salary, and a Stranger Started a School Supplies Wish List

Last month, Ben Adam, a New Yorker who owns a real estate company, started the website Classroom Giving to help teachers in need of supplies.

F.B.I. Is Said to Be Investigating College Admissions Practices at T.M. Landry

The private school in Louisiana, once celebrated for helping underprivileged and minority students attend elite colleges, is now under federal investigation over its college applications.

Fairy-Tale College Applications

A school made headlines for sending black students to elite campuses, but it was too good to be true.

Swarthmore Fraternities Disband After Uproar Over ‘Rape Attic’ Documents

The move comes after the release of more than 100 pages of internal documents in which members of Phi Psi discussed sexual misconduct.

‘It Is a Victory for Me’: B.Y.U. Valedictorian Announces He Is Gay

During his commencement speech, Matt Easton, a Brigham Young University valedictorian, told the audience that he was “proud to be a gay son of God.” The university’s honor code prohibits “homosexual behavior.”

The College Dropout Crisis

How to begin solving it is the subject of this Opinion essay.

Harvard Lampoon Apologizes for Sexualized Image of Anne Frank

The student-run satirical magazine set off an uproar at Harvard by publishing an image showing the Holocaust victim’s face on the body of a bikini-clad woman.

When the Names on Campus Buildings Evoke a Racist Past

As students demand the renaming of buildings whose names pay tribute to polarizing historical figures, universities are at a loss for easy solutions.

Trash, the Library and a Worn, Brown Table: The 2019 College Essays on Money

Each year, we ask high school seniors to submit college application essays they’ve written about work, money, social class and related topics. Here are five that moved us.

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Science, Health, Technology and Sports

Big Question at the Hockey World Championship: Who’s No. 1 (in the Draft)?

Jack Hughes of the U.S., the top-rated North American prospect, and Kaapo Kakko of Finland, the top European prospect, are under the microscope as they play for their national teams.

A Harlem Team Is Changing the Face of Lacrosse

Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem is playing for its third straight New York City boys’ lacrosse title. The team is a sign of progress for a sport seen as elite, suburban and mostly white.

At Black Colleges, the Baseball Teams Increasingly Aren’t

As the number of African-American baseball players continues to decline, black players are often surprised to find themselves in the minority even at historically black colleges.

37 More Former Ohio State Athletes Sue the University in Sexual Abuse Case

The lawsuit is the fourth of its kind filed against the university and the first since Ohio State released a report detailing how a former team doctor repeatedly assaulted males athletes.

Ohio State Finds Team Doctor Sexually Abused 177 Students

In a report, the university said the doctor, Richard Strauss, groped students and asked intimate questions about sexual practices under the guise of providing medical treatment.

Jim Jordan Claims Vindication, but Inquiry Says Talk of Abuse at Ohio State Was Rampant

An investigation into a team doctor’s sexual abuse found no hard evidence that coaches like Mr. Jordan knew, but it said dozens of other coaches acknowledged rumors of the doctor’s predatory behavior.

How Larry Nassar ‘Flourished Unafraid’ for So Long

A new HBO documentary explores the rise and fall of the disgraced Olympic doctor and the institutions that gave him access to girls.

For Me, He Was Willing to Face His Worst Fear

A college student on medical leave for compulsive behavior finds comfort in a kindred spirit.

The Impact of Early Sexual Initiation on Boys

A survey finds that most boys who had sex before age 13 had not yet had comprehensive sex education in school.

Is ‘Digital Addiction’ a Real Threat to Kids?

Think of screens as something to handle in moderation, like food, rather than something without any healthy place in our lives, like heroin, experts say.

Your Kids Think You’re Addicted to Your Phone

While parents are, of course, worried about their teenagers’ phone use, that concern goes both ways, a new study found.

When Social Media Is Really Problematic for Adolescents

Underlying problems may make some young people particularly vulnerable to what they find on social media, an expert says.

When a College Student Is Home for the Summer

Adding college students back into family life is rarely as simple as rebooting their high school days.

So You’re Back at Home for the Summer …

A survival guide for spending the summer at your parents’ house.

The Sun Is Also a Star’ Review: A Charming, if Generic, Adolescent Love Story

Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton play teenagers falling in love on a hectic, sunny day in New York.

Miss America, Miss Teen USA and Miss USA Are All Black Women for the First Time

Each contest has previously had black winners, but the simultaneous wins make for a powerful symbol of how the pageants are evolving.

‘Boy Swallows Universe’ Follows a Gritty Coming-of-Age in 1980s Australia

Trent Dalton used his own biography as inspiration for his debut novel.

On Being Young, Gay and Addicted in the 1970s

“The Light Years,” a memoir by the artist Chris Rush, evokes his troubled youth in a wealthy Catholic family in New Jersey and his search for acceptance in the mountains of the Southwest.

An American Pilot, a Muslim Teenager and a Talking Dog All Caught in an Absurd War

“Red Birds,” a new novel by the Pakistani author Mohammed Hanif, satirizes America’s never-ending military conflicts in the Middle East.

Prep School Confidential

Secrets — and spirits — swirl through Michael Knight’s novel, “At Briarwood School for Girls.”

First Love and Other Investigations

In these Y.A. novels, teenagers search for answers to the mysteries of love and the puzzle of themselves.

To Be Queen

In Luling, the “toughest town in Texas,” two Latina high school girls compete to be the next Watermelon Thump Queen.

All Things Must Pass. But the Prom, Somehow, Goes On.

Since the 1950s, prom photos have been bellwethers of a changing America. At one high school just outside New York City, the prom is still the main event.

James Charles, From ‘CoverBoy’ to Canceled

The 19-year-old internet personality and makeup artist has provoked the ire of beauty YouTube.

At 11, I Sat in Seat D8. Now I’m Onstage in ‘Beetlejuice.’

On opening night, an actor delivered a message of encouragement to an audience member — from his 11-year-old self.

Review: ‘Dear Evan Hansen,’ With a Real Teenage Evan

Now in its third year, this Broadway hit has grown up by aging down.

They Played With Dolls. Did That Make Them Playwrights?

Five writers on how childhood fun — and a way with scissors — shaped the adult sensibilities they’ve brought to “Mac Beth” and other stage works.

Inside the Elite World of National Spelling Bee Competitors

Shalini Shankar’s “Beeline” explores the stakes of these intense, “brain-sport” championships on Generation Z.

China Needs Freedom of Information

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onlinefreecourse
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China Needs Freedom of Information

Update, June 6: We are reluctantly removing this essay from our list of winners. Our rules state that each writer must cite at least one New York Times source and at least one non-Times source. We regret that we discovered post-publication that this essay cites only Times sources, and we therefore have to disqualify it.

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This essay, written by a teenager who wishes to remain anonymous, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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China Needs Freedom of Information

China is the world’s second largest economy. People marvel at its newly-built highways, skyscrapers, and airports, but few know that, while modernizing the country, the Chinese government has also built a Great Firewall on the internet, blocking Western and American websites they deem dangerous to the Chinese minds.

I and my fellow 1.4 billion Chinese citizens are victims of that Wall.

The Great Firewall is blocking the free flow of information into China. When you try to get on The New York Times, The Washington Post or Google, you’d usually get a message that says, “system error.” When you try to search some politically sensitive contents, such as Taiwan, Tibet or “June 4th,” the message could even be threatening: “The content you are searching for is illegal. Report anyone posting such contents.” My government is afraid of anything on and off the internet that goes against it, even mild criticism.

Yet, some have found a magic tool, a VPN, to go around the information control. A VPN is a computer system that can be used to break free from the Great Fire Wall and is being used as a secret tunnel to get to websites outside of China. Many of my schoolmates are using it to get on to Instagram or Youtube, and I use it to read American newspapers. But it stopped working just recently when the Chinese National People’s Congress was in session. I was almost kicked out of WeChat for my “crime” of trying repeatedly to open a New York Times link my tutor sent me from America.

What is tragic is most Chinese don’t even know what they are missing out on. On the surface, they are pretty self-sufficient. They use Weibo, so no need for Twitter. They use WeChat, so Facebook can shut its book. They have Bilibili, so YouTube is useless. They have Baidu, so Google can go away. But there is a fundamental difference between the American sites and their Chinese counterparts—our lack of freedom to access information. What we have is what our government allows us to read, to listen to and to watch. But what about our right to the free flow of information?

China may have the fastest 5G networks powered by Western technologies, but it does not afford its citizens basic human rights, and Western trade negotiators should raise this issue when discussing tariffs with our government. The Western countries should put pressure on Beijing to loosen up its political control over its people.

An enlightened mind is a well-informed one. We young Chinese don’t want to be benighted in the Internet age. So help us.

Confronting Toxicity in Gaming: Going Beyond “Mute”

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onlinefreecourse
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Confronting Toxicity in Gaming: Going Beyond “Mute”

This essay, by Tony Xiao, age 15, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Confronting Toxicity in Gaming: Going Beyond “Mute”

The recent spate of white nationalist violence has raised concerns about the role online platforms play in the radicalization of attackers. Analysts have noted the disturbing tendency of YouTube algorithms to lead users to extreme content. Others have bemoaned social media’s role in the viral propagation of racially charged fake news. While internet companies are finally starting to respond (Facebook recently announced a ban on white nationalist content), there remains one lesser-mentioned vehicle for racial desensitization: online gaming.

I don’t mean the violent content of online games. Violent content is a boogeyman over-hyped by pundits. I’m referring to the racist, anti-Semitic way gamers are indoctrinated to speak to each other in the depersonalized realm of online competition. The ritual, similar to fraternity hazing, happens something like this:

A new gamer, let’s call him “Joe,” joins a game of Minecraft, a pixelated world-building game with 100 million active players. Joe tells his teammates he’s new to the game. When he drags his team down, his teammates begin to trash-talk him, firing racist, sexist and homophobic insults his way. After this bout of shaming, Joe builds his skill level. Months later, Joe queues up for a game, and sees a novice assigned to his team. After finally losing because of his teammate’s poor skills, he insults the player using the same script he had been abused by months earlier. Joe is now a part of the toxic cycle.

Prominent gaming companies like Blizzard and Riot have started creating systems to combat the hate speech rampant in gaming communities. Certain platforms temporarily mute players after instances of racist profanity. But in most cases, these measures are perfunctory, amounting to a slap on the wrist. Players evade censors easily by omitting letters or adding numerals to ethnic slurs written in game chats.

Gaming companies need to step up their efforts by punishing abusive players with meaningful competitive penalties. E-sports can look to an obvious model: real-world sports. Violence on the hockey rink takes a player off the ice for critical game time. Tennis players can be docked points, games or even matches for verbal abuse. In the world of e-sports, a similar dynamic might include lower maximum health, longer skill cool-down periods, or other handicaps. Unless penalties come down in a manner meaningful to players, hate speech will continue to flourish.

Players should self-monitor and realize that the racially-charged insults they hurl have real-world consequences. But, knowing the culture as it exists now, perhaps that ship has sailed. Such a deeply rooted problem calls for an strong, top-down approach. It’s time the gaming industry understood that it has a responsibility to stem the spread of hate on its platforms.

Works Cited

Moore, Bo. “Major Game Companies Are Teaming Up to Combat Toxicity in Gaming.” PC Gamer, 22 March 2018.

Schiesel, Seth. “The Real Problem With Video Games.” The New York Times, 13 March 2018.

Weill, Kelly. “How YouTube Built a Radicalization Machine for the Far-Right.” The Daily Beast, 17 Dec. 2018.

Dual Coding and Learning Styles

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onlinefreecourse
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Dual Coding and Learning Styles

By Megan Sumeracki

Dual coding and learning styles sound similar, but are not quite the same thing. While dual coding has scientific evidence backing its use, while learning styles has been repeatedly tested and shown not to improve learning.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post (see here), I have been working with a team of learning scientists and teachers throughout the country to apply key evidence-based learning strategies in the classroom. Along with two high school teachers from Memphis Tennessee teaching Biology and English, we have been implementing dual coding.

Dual coding is combining words and visuals such as pictures, diagrams, graphic organizers, and so on. The idea is to provide two different representations of the information, both visual and verbal, to help students understand the information better. Adding visuals to a verbal description can make the presented ideas more concrete, and provides two ways of understanding the presented ideas. Dual coding is about more than just adding pictures. Instead, the visuals should be meaningful, and students should have enough time to integrate the two representations (otherwise, cognitive overload could occur, see this blog). There is scientific evidence backing dual coding, showing that when we combine representations it is easier for students to learn and understand the material.

At this point, the discussion of visual and verbal information likely has at least a few readers thinking, “huh, this sounds like learning styles.” Surveys show that most teachers and those outside of education are familiar with learning styles. In a survey of average Americans, Yana Weinstein and I found that 93% of participants believed in learning styles (1). Surveys of other groups have shown 93% of UK primary and secondary school teachers (2), and 86% of college students believe in learning styles (3). All of this is to say, if you’re thinking about learning styles you’re probably not alone! Unfortunately, scientific research does not support the use of learning styles, and that is not for lack of testing the theory (4)!

‘Cultural Appropriation’ Is Critical to Human Progress

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onlinefreecourse
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‘Cultural Appropriation’ Is Critical to Human Progress

This essay, by Maggie Strauss, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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“Cultural Appropriation” Is Critical to Human Progress

A skirt on Zara. A Dior campaign. Keziah Daum’s prom dress. What do all of these things have in common? They are the latest victims of America’s politically correct crusaders.

In today’s “cancel” culture, people are quick to attack others for behaving in a way they deem socially unacceptable. Central to many of these accusations is the idea of cultural appropriation: the adoption of the customs, practices, or ideas of one society by a member of another.

The fashion industry in particular has come under severe scrutiny in the past year for “stealing” traditions. As Vanessa Friedman writes in “Fashion’s Year in Cultural Don’ts”, the aforementioned skirt was too similar to an Indian lungi, the Dior campaign drew too much inspiration from the Mexican escaramuzas, and Keziah Daum’s qipao was too Asian for her.

These fashion statements were clearly not designed to offend or degrade the cultures that influenced them. However, that is not to say that everyone who draws inspiration from different cultures is doing it with the right intentions. Issues arise when imitation is based on a shallow and offensive stereotype, which is just blatant racism.

Cultural appropriation is not a modern concept; it has existed as long as culture itself. From a historical perspective, the term that is typically used to describe the adoption of certain practices from one culture to the next is syncretism. Without syncretism, human progress would be next to impossible.

Often referred to throughout history as a “melting pot,” America is a perfect example of the importance of syncretism. Immigrants from diverse backgrounds can all come together under a common American nationality. Pizza, hot dogs, and soft drinks are often considered characteristically American, but they were originally Italian, German, and Swedish, respectively. Is this cultural appropriation? Even Democracy, the very basis of American society, was first seen in ancient Greece. Is it time to “cancel” America?

Obviously not. But what makes drinking a carbonated beverage so different from wearing a Chinese-inspired prom dress? Cultural appropriation is just the modern term for a concept that has aided in the development of human society for centuries. Those who perpetuate “cancel” culture ignore this. And that has dangerous implications for the future.

Limiting oneself to dressing and acting as one’s heritage determines is dangerously close to a “separate but equal” mentality. As George Chesterton writes for GQ, “If we can only exist in and guard the cultures we emerged from, from those we resemble, we will shrink into the superficiality of newly contrived tribes.” Without embracing and building upon the ideas of other cultures, humanity remains static. History has proven that “cultural appropriation” is critical for human progress, and without it the future is bleak.

Works Cited

Chesterton, George. “Cultural Appropriation: Everything Is Culture and It’s All Appropriated.” GQ, 15 Jan. 2019.

Friedman, Vanessa. “Fashion’s Year in Cultural Don’ts.” The New York Times, 21 Dec. 2018.

A Change in the Menu

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A Change in the Menu

The nutritional benefits of eating bugs are serviceable and can be instrumental in combating childhood mortality, and malnutrition rates. Monica Aiyeko of the Food and Agriculture department at Bondo University College has studied and published the effects of integrating native crickets into school meal programs in Kenya. Her studies have found that roughly 30% of Kenyan households are food insecure, leading to massive malnutrition amongst children, particularly under the age of 5. This is due to a lack of both macronutrients and micronutrients, including protein and zinc. Incorporating bugs into school feeding programs could provide children with the necessary nutrients to prevent stunting. Overall, bugs and insects are incredibly nutritionally beneficial. The New York Times states that “Some 2,100 insect species worldwide have been identified as edible…Their nutritional benefits, while varied across species, are substantial: high in energy yield, rich in essential amino acids and comparable and sometimes superior, per ounce, to beef, chicken, and pork in amounts of protein, omega-3 fats, iron, magnesium, calcium, and zinc.”

The Western consensus is best stated by New York Times writer Ligaya Mishan: “Europeans, and by extension European settlers in North America, never had a bug-eating tradition. Indeed, we largely consider insects dirty and drawn to decay, signifiers and carriers of disease; we call them pests, a word whose Latin root means plague.” This is a ridiculous stigma that we need to shake. The adoption of bugs into a normal diet would not be unlike the transition from raw fish being largely unaccepted in America, to sushi becoming a normal meal option.

All I want is a culinary cultural revolution, is that so much to ask?

Works Cited

Ilyashov, Alexandra. “How (and Why) to Cook With Bugs, According to Three Chefs.” The New York Times, 10 Sept. 2018.

Mishan, Ligaya. “Why Aren’t We Eating More Insects?” The New York Times. 7 Sept., 2018.

Münke-Svendsen, Christopher and Kipkoech Carolyne, John Kinyuru, Monica Ayieko, Anja Homan and Nanna Roos. “Technical Brief #5: Nutritional Properties of Insects for Food in Kenya.” University of Copenhagen, 2017.

Roberts, Wayne. “Eating Insects: Waiter, There’s No Fly in My Soup.” Alternatives Journal, vol. 34, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2008, p. 8+. Academic OneFile, Accessed 6 Mar. 2019.

Nothing Gets Between Me and My Sushi… Except Plastic, Maybe

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onlinefreecourse
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Nothing Gets Between Me and My Sushi… Except Plastic, Maybe

This essay, by Sophia Lee, age 15, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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Nothing Gets Between Me and My Sushi… Except Plastic, Maybe

As an Asian-American self-proclaimed millennial foodie, imagine the shock I experienced when I discovered a horrifying truth—plastic cuisine. Ubiquitous plastic extends beyond our surroundings—and invades our guts—through what we eat and drink. I first learned that sushi is chock-full of microplastics. There’s so much plastic in the water, churned down to the size of rice grains or smaller, and fish gobble it up. When the fish end up on our dinner plates, guess what? Our bellies receive an unsettling supplement that wasn’t on the menu.

In fact, a National Geographic study found microplastics in 114 marine species—with over half of them regulars in restaurants—meaning that my tummy acquires some uninvited non-digestible additives.

Even water isn’t safe! My parents often tell me to drink more water to wash down my food—but did they know that I was ingesting plastic too? A 2017 study by Orb Media found microplastic contamination in 83 percent of global tap water—with the highest amount, 94 percent, found in the United States!

You may wonder: So what? Has there been a study that proves housing microplastics inside of your body is harmful? Not yet, but still. Firstly—it’s gross! I’m eating a material that’s meant to last beyond a thousand years, and will probably accompany my skeleton long after I putrefy in my grave.

Imagine the surplus of chemicals needed to make these durable particles. National Geographic highlighted a few chemicals contained in plastic with the potential to become poisons in certain doses: “endocrine disruptors—chemicals that interfere with normal hormone function, even contribute to weight gain. Flame retardants may interfere with brain development in fetuses and children; other compounds that cling to plastics can cause cancer or birth defects.”

By informing you of this ongoing crisis, am I telling you to give up seafood? Never!

Personally, and I think I can speak for many fellow foodies, nothing gets in between me and my sushi. Instead, let’s stop dismissing the old-school motto: reuse, reduce, and recycle. Seriously—no more Acme bags that drift yonder with the wind, and take a hint from good ol’ Trader Joes for the more environmentally friendly alternatives. Sure, paper bags may be more fragile, and fabric ones are often more expensive, but that’s a small price to pay for potentially saving a sea creature that would have been strangled or starved otherwise.

Let’s cut down on the plastic, and the next time you’re tempted to innocuously trash some plastic straws, just remember that same “harmless” plastic is somewhere puncturing a turtle’s brain through its nostril and killing a fish through literally explosive bowels… and its next stop?

Your stomach.

Works Cited

Kosuth, Mary, et al. “Synthetic Polymer Contamination In Global Drinking Water.” Orb Media, 16 May 2017.

Quenqua, Douglas. “Microplastics Find Their Way Into Your Gut, a Pilot Study Finds.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2018.

Royte, Elizabeth. “We Know Plastic Is Harming Marine Life. What About Us?” National Geographic, June 2018.

Wassener, Bettina. “Fish Ingesting Plastic Waste, Study Finds.” The New York Times, 8 July 2011.

How to Start a Group Project

By
onlinefreecourse
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How to Start a Group Project
Teamwork makes the dream work.

As you develop your coding skills with Codecademy, you will eventually reach a point when you will want to take your new knowledge and use it to build a complex project. One way to create a fully-formed project is to assemble a team of collaborators to work on the project with you. We will walk you through the best practices on how to assemble and manage a team that will help make your project idea a reality.

When Am I Ready?

You may be wondering when you are “ready” to take the leap from learning code to creating a project with code. Rather than viewing a project as an “end” of your learning, we encourage you to think of projects as another step in your life-long coding journey.

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Projects are opportunities to push yourself a little outside of your comfort zone and expand your skill set. So, as soon as you feel comfortable with the foundations of writing and executing code in your language of choice, we encourage you take the leap and follow through on your idea as way to push yourself to learn more!

As Matt Daniels of The Pudding explains:

“I think you can have a really successful project without knowing a lot of code and sometimes knowing a lot of code can be debilitating because you want to do really fancy things. You think, ‘Oh I know how to build this crazy architecture, I’m going to build the fanciest house ever.’ Whereas, if you only know how to build a log cabin, you just end up building a really nice log cabin.”

In other words, rather than obsessing over what you don’t know, you are perfectly capable of pursuing an interesting idea with a basic foundation.

Scoping Your Project

The first step in creating a new project is having an idea for a project! Before assembling your team members, it is necessary to define your project’s goals. In these early stages of ideation you should be able to define the problem or need that the project will address, the end-goal and use cases for the final project, and a deadline for when the project will be released.

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You should be prepared to deliver a quick, catchy summary of your project idea called an elevator pitch. A successful elevator pitch will define your motivations for starting this project and your vision for a solution. This elevator pitch can be tailored to both convince stakeholders to support your project idea and to convince new recruits to join your team. One trope for start-ups’ elevator pitches is “Uber for X,” but feel free to get creative!

Once you have the project objectives and elevator pitch more clearly defined, you can move on to defining the resources needed to make your idea a reality, otherwise known as the project dependencies. These dependencies can range from having the proper dataset for your analysis, to having the proper web hosting services for your web app, to having proper funding to acquire these resources.

But, most importantly, it is crucial to define the proper areas of expertise you need represented by your team members. Once these team roles are well-defined, you can begin searching for collaborators based on the skill sets they will bring to the table.

Assembling a Team

The path to recruiting a team member will be different for every role. Sometimes, you will have worked with someone in the past and recall having a strong working relationship on a previous project. Other times, you will identify potential team members that have strong backgrounds in a skill set absent from your current team and need to reach out to them.

On other occasions, if you share your elevator pitch at local meet ups, conferences and online forums, individuals who gravitate to your mission will approach you and see how their skills can fit into your project. Using all these methods, you can build out your team one person at a time until every required skill set is represented.

If you live outside a major tech hub, there are still plenty of ways you can recruit programming talent for your project. First, I’d recommend checking to see if there are local tech-themed Meet-Ups, a Google Developers Chapter, or a civic hacking group in your area. Local programmers across the community like to gather at these events for knowledge sharing. If these groups don’t already exist in your area, we would encourage you to consider starting them yourself. You’ll be surprised by how many other programmers in your community were looking for a similar outlet!

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Plus, you don’t have to limit your team’s geographic footprint to your town—building a remote team is also an option! One place you can find team members for your remote team is on public forums or Slack channels dedicated to your interest. Some Slack channels we can recommend are Codecademy Lifelong Learners, DevChat, or Data Viz Society for aspiring data visualisation specialists.

Once you have secured commitments from all your collaborators, you should set up an initial meeting to get everyone on the same page. In this initial meeting, you will restate your project objectives and possibly open up the floor for feedback from your collaborators.

You should also establish each individual member’s specific responsibilities and areas of ownership. Be sure to discuss the tools, languages and technologies that you will be collectively working with. We also recommend establishing regular meetings (daily, weekly, etc) for the whole team or subteams to reconvene, share what they have accomplished, and outline their next steps.

Starting-a-team--3-

In this initial meeting, be certain to discuss how you can best accommodate your team members’ interests and availability: actively ask each team member what they would like to accomplish in their role and how much time they can commit. By having these conversations upfront, you can ensure that a) you create a working environment that all team members feel invested in, and b) you create an open line of communication should a team member become dissatisfied with their role.

Development Strategies

Now that your team is up and running, you want to make sure everyone is on the same page throughout the development process and as you move closer to your end goal. There are several different approaches used by project management teams to keep teams on track. Some of the most popular project management frameworks used in software development include: Lean, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban.

Starting-a-team

As we describe each of these frameworks, you’ll notice that there can be quite a bit of overlap between the principles of each framework. This goes to show that there is no one prescriptive framework that works for every project, rather your team’s particular management style can be a mix-and-match of elements these frameworks best suited for your team’s needs.

Lean

A Lean approach to business management is a set of principles that encourages continuous improvement. The seven principles of Lean management are:

  • Optimize the whole
  • Eliminate waste
  • Build quality in
  • Deliver fast
  • Create knowledge
  • Defer commitment
  • Respect people

A Lean team works by clearly defining a process and then having individuals or subteams assume responsibility to improve a step in the process without navigating bureaucratic hurdles.

Agile

Agile is an iterative approach to software development rooted in a set of four philosophic priorities:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation.
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
  • Responding to change over following a plan.

An Agile team works in short time spans where the team works to deliver the next iteration of working code as quickly as possible. They will then field user feedback of their newly released project to inform their next sprint.

Scrum

Scrum is a specific implementation of an Agile framework where the next iteration of workable code is developed in a short time frame referred to a “sprint” (usually 2-4 weeks). At the beginning of the sprint, the team will agree upon “User Stories” to communicate the features and objectives to include in this sprint and add it to the “Sprint Backlog”.

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Throughout this sprint, the team will host daily stand-up meetings (called “Scrums”) where each team member shares their accomplishments and setbacks. A sprint is complete when all User Stories are delivered and removed from the backlog.

At the end of a sprint, the project will be Reviewed or demoed by a team member who acts the “voice of the customer,” and then released to the public to garner user feedback. Following a sprint, the entire team will gather for a Retrospective to reflect went well and what didn’t in the previous sprint.

Kanban

Kanban is another project management framework that relies on a visual aid called a Kanban board to organize task based on their level of completeness. A Kanban board is split into multiple columns beginning with “Unstarted” and ending in “Done”. Your team can decide on as many intermediate columns as you would like with descriptions relevant to your workflow.

A Kanban board

Tasks are usually written on sticky notes or index cards and advance from one column to the next until all the index cards have migrated from one end of the board to another. All the intermediate columns will have a limit on the number of tasks that fall into that column, so if any one step in the process is stalling, the entire team’s collective brain power will swarm the delayed tasks and minimize the amount of Work-in-Progress items.

Kanban differs from a Scrum approach because it is a continuous method of development (no time frames dictating release), and the whole team is collectively responsible for the progression of tasks (not a scrum leader who sets priorities).

Aside from the overarching development strategies, there are other tools and practices your team can use to make sure you’re communicating and collaborating efficiently. Almost all modern software development teams use Git to version control and collaborate on code. It will also benefit your scrappy startup team to have a centralized repository for all your code hosted on Github, GitLab, BitBucket or another git management service.

Git’s version control is a useful tool because it allows you to return to previous states of your code. Although everyone enters a project with the best intentions, we are human and there will be times throughout your project when you and your team members will be scrambling to reach a deadline.

During this crunch periods, someone may make some careless mistakes and/or place a lower priority on creating well-organized code. Version control ensures that your previous work is never truly lost, and you can always return to an earlier working version of your code before an error was made.

Additionally, Git serves as an essential collaboration tool. In the past, code was maintained by individual coders, who would transfer or email their scripts back and forth to one another. However, a centralized git repository allows multiple users to edit or develop on the same code base simultaneously. These users “push” or upload their work to the same master git repository, which is constantly updated with everyone’s contributions and made accessible to all the collaborators.

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If you need a refresher on git, Codecademy has a Git course to make sure all of your team members are familiar with how to incorporate git into their workflow.

It is also recommended that you leverage your git repository to hold regular code reviews where different programmers review one another’s code. Code reviews can serve as teaching moments for both the code writer and the code reviewer: both programmers are learning from one another’s coding style and will pick up on the tips, tricks and techniques the other uses.

Furthermore, code reviews are a great way to make sure each contributor’s code is readable and interpretable to other programmers. This is important because if responsibilities ever change on your team or if there is turn over in a position, you can be confident that your existing code will be easy for the next person to pick up.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You are ready to take the leap into creating your very own project. This is an exciting step in your maturation as a code developer, because it means you are shifting from learner to creator. As you take the steps to develop your own coding project, it is essential that you crystalize your idea into an elevator pitch, recruit collaborators who fill out your team’s skill set, and establish a management framework that encourages continual progress.

We at Codecademy are excited for you to form your own project teams because we think this is where some of the best learning can occur. You and your fellow team members will learn from each other as you share knowledge from your respective areas of expertise and you will also push yourself to develop new tools and techniques to meet your project requirements.

By starting a group project, you are taking an exciting step in your life long coding journey. When you’re ready to get started, feel free to explore Codecademy’s Forums and Lifelong Learner Slack community to find your collaborators!

The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

By
onlinefreecourse
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0
The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

This essay, by Isabel Hwang, age 17, is one of the Top 12 winners of our Sixth Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 10,509 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up this week, and you can find them here as they post. Excerpts from some will also be in the special Learning print section on Sunday, June 9.

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The Life-Changing Magic of Being Messy

You might have a “messy” friend or family member. You can’t help but sigh at the chaos of their room — clean and dirty laundry mixed together. Odds are it’ll be difficult to walk two feet without encountering an empty chip bag. Gross? Yes. Bad? Not necessarily.

As a stereotypically “messy” person myself, I’ve received my own share of scorn. Living in a boarding school, I’m obligated to keep my room nice and tidy, ready for visitors and as a model to underclassmen. Monday room inspections are the norm, and faculty members have sometimes passively, sometimes aggressively, urged my roommate and me to clean up. For these purposes, I used to harbor a 24 x 24 x 24 cardboard box in which I’d stuff everything on Monday mornings and empty it out later that evening. Now, I just throw everything downstairs into the communal storage. Out of sight, out of mind.

As much judgment as we get for our clutter, research has shown that messiness can be a sign of creativity and openness. In the NYT article “It’s Not ‘Mess.’ It’s Creativity,” Kathleen D. Vohs’ study of messiness serves as a rare champion for us less-than-neat people. In her study, she gathered a group of subjects in a tidy room and another in a messy room. When each subject had to choose between a “classic” or “new” smoothie on a fake menu, the subjects in the tidy room chose “classic” while subjects in the messy room chose the “new” smoothies. This shows that “people greatly preferred convention in the tidy room and novelty in the messy room.” In addition, Vohs revealed that messy people were more creative. So, what does this mean?

Messy people are willing to challenge the conventional norm. They aren’t confined to the status quo. In a growing age where minimalism seems to be taking on the world by storm, we must remember that there is beauty in chaos. Although a University of Michigan study warns that some people might take one look at your messy desk and view you as “lazy” or “neurotic,” we must remember the people who challenge the old ways of being are some of our greatest innovators. After all, Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg famously harbored hideously disorganized workplaces.

So, when you see a scatter of papers, laundry, and old food containers, don’t rush out to buy your child, friend, or roommate “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Instead, appreciate that your acquaintance might be “sparking joy” by channeling their creativity differently.

Works Cited

Eichenstein, Izzy. “Albert Einstein, Mark Twain & Steve Jobs: The Messy Desk Link.” The LAX Morning Minute, Word Press, 19 Oct. 2013.

Vohs, Kathleen. “Tidy Desk or Messy Desk? Each Has Its Benefits.” Association for Psychological Science, 6 Aug. 2013.

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