I lost some of the weight once in my freshman year. I started going to Weight Watchers meetings, pushing my workouts harder and eating less. I lost 12 pounds at the height of this process.

However, my thirst for theater and acting soon left me unavailable to attend meetings with her anymore. Without my partner in crime, I was soon beaten and eating like crazy again.

This year I started a wellness blog with my new partner: my girlfriend. Together we both set out yo drop some weight so we’d be looking good for prom and through the summer.

From the start of the year, we both started keeping a blog and advertising to our friends on our plan to get healthy.

Just like that, on determination alone, we started eating less and more healthily and working out with the exercise equipment in our basement. We pushed one another, we motivated one another and by three weeks in we’d lost 35 pounds between us.

Losing weight can be a stressful process, and should be handled as such. It’s hard to know when to stop eating when everyone’s having seconds. Remember to drink eight glasses of water a day and work out when you’re just feeling lazy. Determination is a big part of getting into shape.

Neither of us are where we want to be yet and we both know that weight fluctuates much more easily at the beginning of a process than later on, but we’re both still determined. We’ve lost a lot already and between the two of us we plan to be that one good looking couple at prom.

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Since then this fine privilege has been evoked, reducing the level of incentives for students to do well in their classes or attend class regularly and on time.

The new tardy and attendance policies were set in place to try to train students and improve their overall performance. Instead these policies have forced teachers to punish their students by assigning detentions, in-school suspensions and calling parents.

As an alternative to such strict policies that waste the time of students, teachers and parents, the administration should bring back the privilege of opting out of two finals.

The conditions of this privilege are simple. Students can only choose two finals to opt out of. Students must have either an A or B in the class. And finally students must have no more than three tardies and two unexcused absences.

Schools across the country and even within the district are currently using this system or one that’s similar to this as an incentive for students to do well in their classes. The big shocker is that it actually works.

It doesn’t take a brainiac to realize that students respond better to incentives rather than punishments. Punishments take time and paperwork to carry out while incentives are quick and painless.

The substantial number of students in the school who don’t care about their education will benefit the greatest. They’ll finally see some reason to pay attention, be on time or come to class. They’ll also learn more by the end of the semester from trying to keep their grades up.

Not only would this easy incentive work wonders in the decline of tardies and absences, it would also increase student morale—a huge win for both the administration and students. Students might even start to show less hostility toward the ridiculous tardy policies.

If the administration is smart, it will allow this school to rejoin the thousands of schools across the country with this valuable privilege.

The Hoover Challenger voted 6-1 for this editorial

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Class disruptions can come in many forms, but the most common is in the form of a student.

There’s at least one student lurking in every classroom, waiting to spring up at the most inopportune moment to cause utter disruption. He or she has no regard for the teacher they are disrespecting or even the classmates from which they are taking time away.

Certain oafs decide to challenge a teacher’s authority. They sit and argue simple instructions and create situations that often snowball into detention, a referrals or even suspension.

Other oafs decide to challenge classmates. They stir up controversy that can ultimately result in physical aggression.

And finally some oafs decide to challenge themselves by not completing their coursework or paying attention and wasting other students’ time by asking pointless questions.

To put it plainly, all of these disruptions suck.

Most students come to school to learn. Most students want to do better and strive to improve themselves. But the minority of students who are disrupting classes are putting an abrupt halt to the needs and wants of the majority of the school.

The sad part is that this smaller group of students is out voicing the majority. Teachers, administrators and counselors are forced to sit and listen to all of their arguments so they can find some means to remedy their problems.

The truth is that they don’t deserve to have a voice and they don’t deserve to have attentive teachers, administrators or counselors. Disruptive students forfeited that right the second they decided to steal the education of their entire class.

The “obedient” kids who do their work and everything that their teachers ask of them deserve twice the amount of attention as any problem student. These are the kids that deserve to have their teachers, administrators and counselor listen to them more, not the other way around.

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It is not a teacher’s responsibility to change and force opinions onto students. While some teachers strongly believe and know that you have to get an education to be successful, students will commonly disagree. Having confidence in dreams and knowing that one can accomplish them is all a person needs to be happy and successful with life. Students have noticed a big change in bad behavior consequences this year. After working a new code of conduct, staff members have taken the extra step to punish students, playing more of parental aspect in students’ lives than a mentor aspect.

For example, one tardy leaves students with a warning. Two tardies leave them with a detention. Skip that detention, and students are left in a cold room with a busted heater, serving a full day of in school suspension. It was never the norm to find a student in this position, but the new policy hasn’t done many favors for students.ISS has its perks such as getting homework done in a timely fashion or meeting a fellow troublemaker.

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Ever since elementary school, schools have tried to put an emphasis on students doing their own work. In a lot of cases, copying from another student could earn a failing grade if caught, and colleges once had a strict policy to expel any student caught plagiarizing. But in today’s society, a lot of those opinions have begun to change.

While cheating is still widely frowned upon throughout schools, the stigma attached to it seems to have disappeared in a great number of students. Students are pressured by their parents and teachers to get good grades and at one point some decide to do just that, just not in the way anyone else hoped.

According to www.classroom-issues.com, as of 2007, 75 percent of students in a study admitted to cheating on a test in the last year while another 90 percent admitted to copying on a paper.

Cheating is also common because it’s become easier and easier to do over the years. There are entire websites where students can download papers on virtually any subject for a nominal fee, or even higher other students over the internet to write and send a paper for them. Since the introduction of the internet, a seemingly endless supply of information is just seconds away for many students and it makes cheating all the easier.

Apart from the pain of pressure from their teachers, family and peers, some students also do so just to get the assignment done more quickly. Many schools enforce a policy against allowing students with low grades to participate in sports. That in mind, trying to juggle sports and school work feels like an impossible task for some athletes, and to stay in the game, some feel like there’s no where else to turn but breaking a few rules.

Of course parts of the world itself have turned to cheating and it only proves for the better in many situations. In the business and work world, cheating past a few things and not getting caught is the way to actually get yourself ahead.

Still some students manage to retain their idea of honor and hard work. Many students choose not to cheat, weather through fear of getting caught or a pride for what they do, plenty of students still remain studying and genuinely trying to do the best work they can. Even if it isn’t perfect, it’s still theirs.

We do live in a world where it’s becoming difficult to keep up with everything that’s changing and all too easy to fall behind. But if students can’t retain some integrity and originality in their work, then all they managed to learn in school is how to slip past the hardest of work while picking up the credit for something someone else made.

If the world was full of cheaters, the people who work hard and deserve to be recognized will become little more than faces in the crowd. Without some decency and honor in school work, students won’t know how to properly function once the time comes to do something on their own or just go down with the ship.

Cheating is still constantly on the rise, and it doesn’t particularly look like it’s ending any time soon. Still, it can be hoped a stigma and hesitation can inevitably be returned and the ideas of honesty and hard work preserved.

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The president of the United States should be chosen because of his political views and Barack Obama is no exception.

With just about two million spectators viewing Obama’s inauguration, he quickly caught the nation’s interest in this troubling time.

Obama won the election through careful planning, great initiative and mind-blowing speeches.

Having an African American president is a great feat for America but it is over-rated. Having an African American president doesn’t get a country out of a recession. A good president is a good president no matter what ethnic background they come from. Students want fair gas prices, a stable stock market and to go to college at an affordable price. Obama will do all that he can to help the people in this time but it’s not due to the fact that he’s African-American; it will be because he passes laws, makes sure those laws are enforced and follows through with those laws.

Obama will bring change-much needed change- into this time of troubling economic status with inflation and unemployment rising. He is relatively young but he’ll do whatever it takes and citizens just need to be patient.

Barack Hussein Obama is part African-American and this fact is why some people voted for him. This is ignorant. Citizens should want a president who is capable of maintaining and even building the country to higher extent. This can be done by a person of any ethnicity: Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, African-American- but the important thing is that the men or women in office can do these things.

Obama can do all these things and many more; not because he’s black, but because he believes in the people. He wants to help and sees a better United States of America.

Obama did not campaign for being black. He stood for more important things besides ethnicity such as economic status, abortion, immigration, war and many other top issues. Not once in his campaigns did he say being African-American made him a good president. Now more than ever citizens need to be confident of who is elected to office; not only president but also governors, senators and even school board members.

There are people of many backgrounds all doing great things for this amazing country. Obama will be an amazing president who hopefully accomplishes many things during his time in office but it will not be due to the fact that he is African-American, but because he knows what needs to happen in order to fix many problems, and he will do everything in his power to get the united states of America out of this recession.

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Humans have destroyed much of the habitats that many animals used to live in.

Also there are ozone wholes that are human caused.

Because of all the harm done, the last few generations have been considered the worst caretakers of the environment. But this generation is a lot less ignorant about the harm and dangers to the environment. Many people have also raised awareness through protesting and getting all the facts out there.

Thanks to the environmentally conscious companies that defend animal rights, such as PETA, who raise awareness to the damage humans are doing to animals and their environments, this generation is now slowing and decreasing the damage done to the planet.

Companies make products that are in demand by the public so they are not far behind on this new environmentally conscious trend.

Before, having hair glued down with hairspray was what was in. Now having hairspray that doesn’t harm the ozone layer is the new thing. Hairspray companies aren’t the only companies that have come up with “green” products.

It is not uncommon to see labels on tuna cans that inform the public that they don’t catch dolphins with their fishing nets.

Many makeup companies also promote their products by saying that they don’t test on animals. Many other companies have come up with new, creative and eco friendly  products such as air fresheners, and bathroom and kitchen cleaners. Car companies, who have come up with electric cars, haven’t fallen behind on the new trend.

These are a few of the products that companies now offer for the environmentally conscious consumer.

Thanks to companies who are making an effort to help out, and who are doing a better job of supplying the public with “green” products, consumers have more opportunities to help slow the effects of global warming.

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Due to increasing pressures on college applications and various volunteering requirements, the true motivations and desires to volunteer are being questioned.

Due to the faltering economy, college tuitions are rising and scholarships are becoming more competitive. High school students are taking it upon themselves to volunteer more and take on community work in order to impress colleges.                                                                                      

Much of it is done for the right reasons, but enough of it is done for the wrong reasons, which questions our society’s morals and ideals.                                                                                          

 Incentives like Hoover’s Silver Cord program and a boosted college resume are a few factors that drive students toward completing volunteering hours. Factors like these pose the question whether students would actually volunteer if there were not any direct benefits or requirements.                                                                                                                            

Dowling High School and various other high schools around the nation have mandatory community service hours. It is positive in the aspect that it increases the awareness and engagement young people have in the community.                 

It also provides organizations with the labor they need, but people feeling forced to volunteer almost defeats the purpose. It is found sometimes that we are not volunteering for others, but are actually volunteering for ourselves.                                                                                            

 It is being debated whether or not these students are actually volunteering out of the kindness of their hearts without expecting anything in return. The disappearance of the principle behind volunteering is reflective of our highly narcissistic society.                                                 

Successful volunteering can only come out from the true desire to help the community out. If someone is not clearly motivated in their volunteering, it affects both the volunteering effort itself and the surrounding community.                                                                                  

Often, students will forge their hours due to requirements, which make the true ideals of volunteering harder on those that actually want to volunteer. Volunteering should be made out of a person’s interest and ability.                                                                                                             

Like employers, heads of non-profit organizations can tell who is serious or not. It is a hassle toward hard working directors of organizations who have to deal with uncommitted volunteers.                                                                                                                           

Volunteering requirements do have positive effects too. It allows the student to expand their interests and it improves the character of the student and the community around them.                      

 By volunteering, it raises self-esteem, gives a student a bit of a reality check, responsibility and a bit of direction in life. Youth can learn valuable lessons and it is the younger generation that will have a significant impact in the near future.                                                        

 The point of volunteer work is to feel a sense of involvement and to feel like a difference has been made in people’s lives. It can provide career prospects, satisfaction in receiving respect and enhancement to ones life.

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Forty-five years ago, President Kennedy signed into law the Equal Pay Act of 1963, prohibiting employers from paying workers less solely based on gender. From then on, no employer could “discriminate…between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees…at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex.”

1963. Rewind to a time when Neil Armstrong had just landed on the moon. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his “I Had a Dream” speech. The Beatles released their album “Please Please Me.”

Women were making 58 cents to every dollar men were making.
Forty-five years later, women are making 79 cents, according to Timemagazine.

Forty-five years later, it is 2008. Micro technology, fiber optics and the internet have revolutionized society. Information has become available to almost anyone at almost any time in almost any place. Yet there is still some disparity between the wages that men receive and the wages that women receive.

Granted, it is difficult to measure exactly how large or small this disparity is. Some studies base calculations on men and women with different ages and experience, which doesn’t lend itself to the most accurate comparisons.

However, there is no doubt that there still remains a gap between men’s and women’s wages. In a new study by Kristen Schilt, a sociologist at the University of Chicago and Matthew Wiswall, an economist at New York University, the work experiences of transgendered men and women are compared.

The study found that men who became women earned, on average, 32 percent less than they did as men. In contrast, females who became male earned 1.5 percent more, according to Time.

Some of the study participants stayed in the same careers after their transitions, and others changed. But the pattern is clear: men still make more money than women.

A 2000 study by Harvard professor of economics Claudia Goldin and Princeton professor of economics Cecilia Rouse revealed another discrepancy. In “Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of ‘Blind’ Auditions on Female Musicians,” auditions for symphony orchestras were performed behind a screen so that appearance and gender could not be a factor in hiring, if gender was proved to be a hiring factor.

According to the study, “the weight of the evidence suggests that the blind audition procedure fostered impartiality in hiring and increased the proportion of women in symphony orchestras.” When the musicians’ identities were concealed, sex ceased to be a factor, and more women were hired.

The White House’s report, “Explaining Trends in the Gender Wage Gap” concedes that “there still exists a significant wage gap that cannot be explained by differences between male and female workers in labor market experience and in the characteristics of jobs they hold.” It also mentions that the gap for black and white women has narrowed more quickly than the gap for Hispanic women.

In this world of prominent female figures like Hillary Clinton, Lolo Jones and Oprah Winfrey, girls have a lot of role models to look up to.

But they still have to worry about sexism.

Forty-five years after the Equal Pay Act, pay should be equal.

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I, along with all my fellow class of 2009 seniors, have finally made to the last lap of the race where we glance around, look back at how far we’ve come and just enjoy the moment. We have all done so many great things during our high school careers. This should be the moment where we all come together after surviving the bottom of the food chain and ending up on top.

The problem is that ever since the first pep assembly of my freshman year when I stood in front of our class as a cheerleader, with the mission of getting everyone fired up, I realized that it just wasn’t going to happen. Half our class was sitting down and at times I felt like my voice was the only one cheering which was only because it was my job.

As a result I abandoned all excitement along with every shred of school spirit because I believed that the class of 2009 would never really come together and to be honest I knew I would never really care.

At this year’s first pep assembly I walked in with a sort of defeatist attitude about the whole charade of being a senior. For the first time I didn’t even bother standing at all, something which I’m sure contributed to giving underclassmen a negative impression of the entire senior class.

We all know how that spirit stick competition turned out that day but the truth is we weren’t just loosing a decorated stick. We were losing out on a huge opportunity to see the best in each other and work together to turn around our reputation of being a disinterested class.

I’ll admit I’ve never been the first one to be in the front row of every school event and cheer with enthusiasm, but I have recently been inspired. Something has definitely changed with this year’s senior class. We killed at the powder puff game and showed more school spirit in one week than we have in three years. With victory and laughter came strength and unity. I can personally attest to the fact that I didn’t sit down once during the homecoming assembly and it was because I was surrounded by so much excitement. The only thing to be seen and heard in that gymnasium was a wave of powerful senior pride.

Although our senior Husky spirit was way past due, it made for some tough competition for this year’s juniors. There were class signs and outfits of green and gold on both sides which I know set a great example for sophomores and freshmen.

What underclassmen see from us is what will carry on for years come. The school spirit the senior classes show set the standard for future seniors. The class of 2009 stepped it up during homecoming week and brought new meaning to the word seniors.

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Since there is no physical danger in allowing teens under 18 to vote, then the danger must be the reality of teens having political interest and a passion for change. The danger must be in the lack of knowledge that students attain while sitting, for over six hours, in a government funded classroom receiving a government approved American education.

Teens in the United States are allowed to have jobs and receive paychecks at age 14. At the same age the government is allowed to take taxes out of those paychecks. The term “taxation without representation” was first used by the British colonists in North America because they were being taxed by the English government, but had no direct representation in Parliament.

Having taxes deducted from each paycheck makes teens as young as 14 a part of our government system and yet they have no say in who runs that government. This is a contemporary illustration of taxation without representation, which is just as unconstitutional as it was in the 1760s.

It is astonishing that after democracy has broken countless boundaries in the world, present day government taxes young people, whose views have been deemed insignificant and in some cases non-existent, without giving them proper representation.

To these teens the government is seen as a force which controls what happens to the money they work so hard to earn. Young Americans need to know the significance of their voice so when they become adults they have a strong belief in the power of the people as opposed to the power of an inaccessible government.

In today’s society, teens have become comfortable with the rights that the government allows them to have, but many of them have yet to see how they can affect positive change by fighting for their vote.

The choice that leaders of this country have in front of them is whether they will enable teens to remain silent and uninterested, which will inevitably result in minimal political interest as adults, or enable them to have a strong influence and therefore have a strong knowledge of government.

With news stations tracking the presidential race of 2008 and campaign ads on every other television station, teens are exposed to the credentials of each candidate on a daily basis. Also, each high school senior is required to take a semester of government and economics which are the two main issues that are addressed during elections.
The voting age requirement should be lowered to at least 17 to include all high school seniors, not just the ones who happen to have their 18th birthday before a cut off date. Ideally though, the voting age will be lowered even further in the future since the constitution supports a vote for all citizens who pay taxes.

This current election has sparked interest in young people under 18 on both republican and democratic sides. Not every teenager cares only about the small issues in their lives, some keep themselves constantly educated on world issues and have developed a passion for going against their ignorant stereotype.

It can’t be argued that teens are completely experienced in the world, but it is that inexperience that will give them a fresh and positive outlook on government. It can, however, be argued that appealing to young voters has pumped life into the campaigns of both Barack Obama and John McCain.

Presidential candidates are speaking publically about reform and changing Washington. Reforming the voting restrictions will bring a wave of rapid change in the way politicians deal with issues in Washington.

Allowing the under 18 vote to count at the polls will force candidates to focus more on a new way of communicating their political beliefs and ideals to the American people.

The result of this election will have an affect on the lives of teens who will graduate and become adults during the next four years. If they must live out the decisions made by the next president of the United States, then they should have a say in which candidate will make those decisions.

The founding fathers fought for the creation of a free government, African-Americans fought for freedom and women fought for equality. History proves that the right to be heard has been important to Americans for the past 200 years. The same determination is required in today’s society in order to ensure that every citizen, regardless of age, has the right to cast a vote that counts.

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I’ve been looking forward to many things that come along with being a senior; senior board, homecoming, prom, release periods, block scheduling, but there is one thing I’m dreading about senior year.

I still have to take gym.

Every class before this year was not required to take at least a semester of it every year. Why did it have to start with us? I, along with about 260 other seniors, have been taking physical education since kindergarten. Is it really necessary for me to have to suffer another year? I can honestly say I have accomplished nothing by being in P.E. If someone walked into the gym during class they would probably mistake the class for a social gathering. No one dresses, no one participates, and no one cares to be there.

I don’t think actually having to take gym is the problem; the problem I have with gym is the way it works at Hoover.

First off, we have to dress in those repulsive locker rooms. I can’t count all the times I’ve jumped on the bench to escape a mouse running through the locker bays. And I refuse to even set foot in that bathroom. There is rarely any soap in the soap dispensers, or the soap dispenser doesn’t work at all. Which means anyone coming out of there probably did not wash their hands properly after using the restroom. I don’t even want to imagine what is growing in the back where I think about how there used to be showers once upon a time.

Second, I haven’t gotten through one gym period without some idiot coming in the gym from the student center interrupting the few people doing their best to participate. Seriously, don’t they have anything better to do then come in the gym, since we’re all required to take it anyway? Wait your turn. If you’re going to skip school, go somewhere, don’t stay at school. Some of us truly try and participate and make gym somewhat productive, but that is literally impossible with all of the ignorant interruptions.

Third, I’ve had my four semesters! I’ve put in my time, not including all of the physical fitness I encounter all on my own. With six hours of practice and conditioning for competitive cheerleading every week, plus the nights I spend on the treadmill at Aspen, I think I’m good. I really don’t need to be wasting my time in gym, when technically I’ve done the time.

And last, isn’t there another way I could take gym? Last year I was told I could do contract P.E., where my time outside of school being active would count for gym credit. But when I mentioned it this year I was told the school got rid of it. Why? I think it’s a great idea. It would give me an open block to fill with another class, and encourage me to work out even more since I would be getting credit for it. The Gym God or whoever decided I have to be stuck in gym class another semester should seriously consider having a contract P.E, even if it was only for seniors or athletes.

I do give credit to the brave gym teachers. And I truly mean brave. I physically and emotionally could not put up with the kind of behavior they have to deal with on a daily basis. Kudos. The way gym is at Hoover is not their fault. It is ours, the students. The locker room situation, all us, and our refusal to put trash in a trash can. Idiots interrupting class, all us. Being required to take four years of gym, well, not us, but I guess there’s nothing that can be done, so suck it up.

If every single student put a little more effort into gym it probably wouldn’t be so bad. But if second semester I walk into gym and nothing has changed, I might not graduate.

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