Throughout the pandemic, Aragon students have reported high levels of stress due to the complications of online school and a lack of social interaction. To remedy this, students Stray Tays and Cahm Psy created the application Soothe, which contains hundreds of validating voice recordings from Aragon staff members for students to listen to, curated to their needs. “Every night I lie in bed and listen to Ms. Thurtle tell me that she thinks my essayis ‘insightful’ while staring at my ceiling,” said freshman Gru Stick. “It’s really the only way I can feel calm enough to sleep anymore.” Since its release on April 1, the app has been downloaded over a thousand times. Popular sounds include “You’re a pleasure to have in class," “I’m going to miss you so much next year” and “Thank you for your lovely comments during the Socratic!” Students often find these recordings comforting or meditative in nature. “When I found out I got rejected from every college I applied to, I immediately turned ...
College Board has been criticized for years regarding equality in testing fees and accommodations, particularly during last year’s online Advanced Placement tests. As a result, College Board has decided to eliminate fee waivers to place everyone on an equal “paying” field. Upper-class parents have complained about how unfair fee waivers are as they discriminate against the rich. College Board, as a not-for-profit organization, relies on test fees and extraneous services for profit to benefit their students. Opponents of fee waivers cite that revenue is necessary for the organization to provide valuable resources to students in preparation for the test. “I am disgusted by those who use fee waivers,” said aspiring millionaire Orville Tootenbacher. “College Board is an honest organization that needs money to support our students. I really don’t understand the purpose of the waivers — just pay the fee!?” In past years, College Board has used their extra money to inflate the wages of senior...
To help students better adapt to in-person learning, the Aragon administration has adopted a new remote learning policy for students in Cohort C. Drawing inspiration from the student-made Minecraft server replicating campus, the school opted to host classes on the server to provide an immersive environment for students. Teachers utilized the asynchronous days from March 24 to 26 to create Minecraft accounts, watch hours of Technoblade streams on Twitch and build their classrooms. The district also allocated funds towards gaming chairs, noise cancellation cat ear headsets and RGB keyboards to accommodate teachers. “It’s a more hip and chic approach to teaching that I’m not too familiar with, but I didn’t get my teaching certificate at Stanford for nothing,” said history teacher Jimothy Kennedy. “I really look forward to mingling with the students in this new way.” In addition, some teachers have migrated from Zoom to popular streaming platform Twitch to fully embrace the experience of b...