Student Opinion Matters
Are we supposed to idolize these Americans?
u J oseph M iller
_________
Staff Reporter
In 2002, the first year of
"American Idol" and the
explosion of Kelly Clarkson's
career, it was all about the
singing and raw talent. It
was true, heated excitement,
passion, innocence and
pure energy. The buzz was
everywhere; all over the
pages, overflowing on the
net, and on every newscast.
It was a positive supernova
that seemed to brighten many
peoples' lives. It started at the
top—a true contest for the best
of the best. But it has all gone
downhill from there.
"American Idol” has become
mote and more about the
embarrassing, the strange, the
scandals and the superficiality.
It is all overrated, untrue
drama, instead of a search
for the greatest—the golden
talent of one of America's
citizens. This dark decline led
us to today, where it is raw
stupidity. It's no longer a talent
show; it's casting for the most
entertaining American idiot.
It's pathetic really, because
people who can actually sing
that audition for the show
don't even have a chance.
They don't even get to see the
judges. That's right— in this
deceitful show, the people who
audition are judged before
they're placed in front of the
gruesome threesome. In fact,
they are judged three times
(but judges who probably
aren't even qualified to be
judges, according to MSNBC)
before they meet Randy
Jackson, Paula Abdul and
Simon Cowell, the judges of
the show. And these "pre"
-judges aren't even looking
for singing ability—they're
looking for anything that's
remotely odd or strange.
They then encourage the
"singers" to change a little
20 minutes: too lengthy to be rule
J ohn C ampbell
Staff Reporter
"Students are expected
to be to every class on time.
Everyone is to remain in
the classroom for the first
20 m inutes (aides included).
The beginning of each class
period is a critical time to
be IN CLASS. Students will
n o t b e e x c u se d fo r b a t h r o o m
breaks, porch use, pop
machine, "visiting", w orking
on com puters, etc. This
time is essential for accurate
attendance taking."
This is word-for-word
the school policy. The first
20 m inutes m ust be used
for attendance taking,
and not even teachers are
exem pt from this. A great
example of this, is if you are
in a class and you're in the
middle of a huge project.
Your teacher has been nice
and given you the period to
work on the computers. In
the first five m inutes of the
class, attendance is taken
and everyone is there. Time
to w ork on the computers,
right? Wrong! According
to this rule, that extra 15
minutes should be wasted
by sitting there until the
clock goes a third of the way
around.
Now, I understand
the im portance of taking
attendance. I get it. We
want to know
who's here
and who's
not. But I
m ean 20
minutes?
Really?
How
does it
take 20
m inutes
to take
attendance? If
there is a teacher
in this school who's
taking a full 20 minutes to
see who's absent, there is a
serious problem that needs
to be looked at. Twenty
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Linn High School, 5464 West A Street, West Linn, OR 97068
(503)673-7843 •fax: (503)657-8710 •
wlhs-amplifier@wlhs.wlwv.kl2.or.us
ilifier is published approximately every four weeks by the West
High School Advanced Journalism class. Opinions expressed
ommentaries and editorials represent only those of the writer,
are not necessarily the opinions of West Linn High School, its
d
m
i faculty, staff, or student body.
fssss issi: «
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1 « Page Editors
Hilli Ciavarello, Christopher
Erbin, Chris Garfield, ÌX
Hays, Mary Wood
Staff Reporters
Megan Butts, John Cam
ng & Katie Carnahan, Katie Ca:
Malia Chong, Mike
Sachie Hopkins, Danielli
Levine, Kira Matsuoka,
McGinnis, Joseph Miller,
ren Pak, Ali Peterson, Jes___
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Photographers
Sarah Chicoine, Chris
Jon Helmkamp
Adviser
Ann Breyne
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II
m inutes is an extreme
amount of time.
Now, I'm sure people
would say that w aiting 20
minutes gives more time
to w ait for tardy students.
But w hat they don't tell you
is that attendance is taken
electronically and can be
accessed from any computer
in the school. So even if
someone is to walk
in late, it's just a
few clicks of
the mouse to
k send in the
attendance.
I can see
not letting
students go
to bathroom
or getting
drinks during
this time is
reasonable seeing
as they just had the
entire passing period to
do this. But I don't think
attendance should interfere
w ith actual class work.
Because of the
im portance of the need to
take attendance, I'm not
advocating the elimination
of an in-class rule. I'm
sim ply saying that maybe
the idea should be re
evaluated. I think a 10
minute rule would make a
lot more sense. It would give
teachers enough time to take
attendance, but wouldn't
take away from class
activities. Or perhaps, classes
that need to do activities
outside of the classroom
could be exem pt from the
current rule, i.e. classes
signed up for a computer
porch.
The 20 minute rule was
created with noble intentions
but lacks the necessary
flexibility to remain in its
current form. This part of
our school's guidelines needs
review.
something—like putting on
another mask of makeup, or
maybe acting a different way,
or dressing differently. The
actual goal of this is to create
a clown out of the singer, who
has no idea that he or she is
actually being brainwashed.
For those who are accepted
to the next two rounds before
the "real" judges, they are
told to dress the exact same
way. They are asked ask to do
many ridiculous things at the
auditions so they can take clips
of these and then compile them
at the showing of the judging
round with the Three Stooges.
This is how the montages are
made when we watch the
auditions on TV (like the ones
where the "singers" sang "Don't
Cha" to the cam era).
Then, not only does the
show encourage this of the
singers, but the viewers as
well. A web site called www.
votefortheworst.com takes a
poll for who its members think
is the worst singer. Then they
announce who was thought
the worst, and then they tell
everyone to vote for that
person. One of the popular
singers on the site is Sanjaya
Malakar, the one who perms
his hair and is a professional
hula dancer. This web site
is also to be blamed for the
tragic win of Taylor Hicks last
season. The web site does this
because the producers only let
certain people in and they try
to keep the worst singers in
since the good singers aren't
even on the show.
However, with "American
Idol" being the brainless, dope
show that it is, it manages to
increase its viewers each year,
making it to the top of Fox
ratings. How is this possible?
Why do people watch this
show?
It was originally thought
that people watch reality TV
shows because they can relate
to these "normal" people, or
they watch these "normal"
people struggle in order to
make themselves feel better.
But a new research from
P sy ch olog y T oday uncovered
some new material on this
topic. They ran a research
study where they observed
people who watch reality
shows. From their research,
they found that the people
who care for status and power
seemed to watch reality TV. -s9
Also, these people were on th ^
unintelligent side who were
not engaged in extracurricular
activities.
continued on page 6
Awareness raised, paper saved
a Au P eterson _____________
Staff Reporter
The No Print Day has
been an eye opener showing
students and teachers the
superfluous amount of paper
used at WLHS. The statistics
were astounding. So far, we
have used enough paper to
total 33 trees. The No Print
Day will occur every second
Wednesday of the month as a
reminder to be environmentally
conservative and to restrain
from printing anything
unnecessary.
Portland's local news
channel KGW showed up
March 14 to cover the No Print
Day. The action was on Channel
8 on the 6 p.m. news the next
night. The Green Team along
with ASB and Leadership
organized the effort to shut
down all the school printers
and copy machines to make a
statement about the waste.
I believe that it's an awesome
idea that raises awareness.
Education and awareness
are some of the best ways to
decrease a problem, but alone
cannot solve one so huge.
Action is needed by everyone if
we want to change our wasteful
habits. This is vital if we want
to stop the unnecessary waste
we create today, so we can save
our environment for tomorrow.
But there have been some
noticeable changes as a result of
the No Print Day. For instance,
the Amplifier Staff switched to
turning in assignments such as
story ideas via the computer.
This saved roughly 70 sheets
of paper. Another example is
allowing field trip permission
slips to be approved by parents
by e-mail. Other teachers saved
files using the K drive and had
students save projects into the
class common folder.
A very effective new way
of saving paper involved an
online survey that was e-mailed
to the staff, students and
parents. The responses are then
e-mailed back saving thousands
of sheets of paper. This new
method is organized and leaves
little room for error.
To make sure we won’t
forget the significance of No
Print Day, maybe it should
occur more frequently.
Perhaps we should have it
twice a month. Another way
to energize the effort could
be to have reminders on the
electronic ROAR.
We need to stay aware,
protect ourselves and preserve
our environment.