Today the topic of pride in Moorestown came up at the end of class and we didn't get much time to discuss it. Personally, I feel that once Money Magazine declared Moorestown the "Number One Town in America," pride skyrocketed. Everyone was proud to be from the best town in America. But since then things have changed and I think we are now about 80th on the list. I feel that people are less proud because of what has happened in our school such as incidents with drugs and other things on our school's record and also we feel less proud because of how other people stereotype our school. Jen brought up the point that if you go somewhere and say you're from Moorestown you most likely receive a dirty look or some other sign of disapproval. People generally view kids from Moorestown as rich and snobby which is not true for the entire population of Moorestown High Schoool. So, the question being asked is, are we proud to live in Moorestown?
Another thing I found interesting was that we really have no one symbol that unifies us as a whole and we focus mostly on competition. I had never thought of that before and when Laz pointed that out today I realized that its true. But is that a good or a bad thing?
-Melissa
17 comments:
First of all, I'll reveal a little truth. That "Best Town in America" and all those insanely hyperbolically titled surveys mean nothing at all. here's how they come up with it all: pretty much a bunch of marketing types sit at a bland corporate discussion table and thoughtlessly choose any decently acceptable town label it something eye-catching like "Best Town in America" and go on with their lives. It's a worthless poll and I find it funny that anybody takes it seriously. I mean come on, how many times do you go to a grocery store in Moorestown and find grocery carts lying around the parking lot. I wouldn't expect this in "The Best Town in America", maybe the "Laziest Town in America." No place is perfect, but please, the bragging must stop. I've lived in better places in the US. This school isn't even as great as it's made out to be. How does a school not have a German class? Before I went here I never imagined a school lacking such a common class. A lot of potential classes are also relegated to student led clubs as well here, my friend in California, for instance takes a Philosophy and Film class at his high school.
Personally, I reserve my pride. Really I'm only proud of two things that my hometown Graz is also the hometown of Arnold Schwarzenegger and that it's the only city outside of Geneva that I've been to where virtually all of the girls are of great attractive value (that's not an exaggeration, by the way). My life and heritage is so diluted that I can't really claim any group as my own. I'm an Austrian citizen and have to take part of mandatory military training, put I don't really have any more allegiance to Austria than any other country that I've lived in. People in my family have up to 5 passports, so very global. I suppose that I take pride in being cosmopolitan.
But in general I think that people identifying themselves with a group is a good thing. Man is essentially a social creature, and has accomplished more working together than alone. Those groups who have instilled pride and zealousness have usually accomplished the most.
I am very thankful that through the hard work of my parents, they were able to buy a nice home in Moorestown so that I could attend the public schools here, that are known for providing students with wonderful educations and getting them into good colleges, but, I must say, after almost 3 long years at Moorestown High School, I am not proud to be a student here.
From the moment I walk into school I feel as though I have entered a competition with the rest of the students here. Everyone is trying to beat out fellow students for the best grade to get into the best school. There is also competition between grades, especially during spirit week, when we should be united, like Mr. Lazarow said in class. Instead of having other classes as rivals, we should have other schools as rivals. Only a few sports teams really get support from the student body.
I am also not proud to be a part of a school that cares more about its reputation than its students. I agree with Alex that it is ridiculous that this school does not offer students a better variety of language classes or more interesting electives. They have already started doing that at the middle school.
By talking to kids from other schools, I feel like their schools offer them more freedom and Moorestown High School feels more like a prison. The administration is constantly coming up with policies and rules but they are never trying to come up with ways to make their students happier and more proud to be there.
-Julie S.
I have to agree with the 2 posts above, I have no pride in going to Moorestown High School. I would have to think that most of the student population in our school, and even the administrators arent happy with the current situaition of the school district. Just look at the fact that MHS has had somewhere around 8 different principals in the last 10 years. For the amount of money that the taxpayers of Moorestown put into the school district the state of the district is ludicrous. Its ridiculous that we can afford to put up a shrine to the girls lacrosse team and completely remodel the baseball field but we cant afford to buy tissue boxes for every classroom. The administration is a joke. All they care about is trying to make Moorestown look like its some sort of macho educational powerhouse when essentially the core of education is nowhere to be found.
The student population only cares about getting into a good college which translates into "who cares about education only the grades matter." Mr. Lazarow hit the nail on the head earlier in the year when he said education has sadly become a competition for grades and not about learning. It is really sad that students complain about getting into classes that are "harder, and unfairly graded" because i have found that these classes are typically the ones that you learn the most from. Mrs. Lipinsky's freshman english class is a great example of this. I had been told that her class was extremely hard and it was impossible to get a good grade. The class was hard work but we learned great skills such as how to analyze a text in depth and how to write a good 5 paragraph essay.
Its sad to see MHS in such a state of disarray and in my opinion we only have ourselves to blame. There is so much pressure put on the students by society that you have to get into an "elite" school in order to succeed in life. This simply is not true and there are millions of successful Americans who's careers can prove that point.
I have more pride in the fact that I went to Baker Elementary School than this high school. It certainly was alot more fun and there wasnt any pressure on the students. In my opinion the reason Moorestown High School doesnt have anything that unifies us is because students care more about their own resume than the school as a whole. Thus nothing unites us as a student body because every other student simply is a competitor to getting into that "elite" school. We cant blame that fact solely on Moorestown though because the whole college admissions process is flawed in my opinion. Who is more suited to benefit a corporation the person who studies 6 hours a night, has a 4.3 GPA, but lacks any social/business skills or the person who has lesser grades, works a job after school, and has a keen business sense?
-Tyler H.
It is hard for me to decide if I have pride for Moorestown High School because I don't really know what emotions or feelings that this pride should raise. I have gone to Moorestown since I was in Kindergarten, and there are definitely aspects of the school that make me proud, but I think that if I had pride for the school I would know it.
I look back and I am proud of things I have accomplished while I have gone through the grades and I am glad when people talk about Robert's School. But, this is more of a connection with other people- "we both have gone to this school district since we were five and we both share the same memories."
I think that in the end I want to be proud about our high school, but there is not enough to unify us. We, as students, are too concerned with our individual achievements and we are wrapped up in this continuous competition which is reflected in the pep rally. Rather than the pep rally and spirit week brining us together, it is just like our approach to academics- a competition that drives us apart.
-Kelsey
I also wanted to mention that I think it is pretty sad that the only time the student body really comes together as one is when we are trying to go against the administration. For example: Unlike the pep rally he food fight at the end of freshman year was one of the only events I have witnessed throughout my high school career here where everyone worked together in unison no matter what grade they were in.
-Julie S.
It is also hard for me to decide whether I have pride in Moorestown High School. I went to Westfield Friends School (Pre-K through 8th grade with about 20 kids a grade, and only one class) up until 8th grade so I’ve only been here a grand total of three years. In my old school everyone knew everyone and people actually CARED about helping you. So far in this school I have only come across few teachers who actually wanted to HELP and not just finish the lesson for the day. So needless to say the education part of adjusting wasn’t so easy. Socially, I knew a few people and I played a fall sport so that made making friends much easier; and generally people were nice, but like Julie said there was an overwhelming feeling of competition. Especially since I played field hockey I had this feeling over nine hours a day and it was extremely stressful. Everyone in Moorestown has to be the best, which could be a good or bad thing. Striving to be the best can allow you to reach your full potential and achieve great things; however you would have to do it for the right reasons. I feel that a lot of people in Moorestown are determined to be the best, simply for the title of being the best.
People associate Moorestown with rude, rich and snobby but when they started hearing about the tragedies of last year their opinions changed. They now felt sorrow and sympathy for what our school had to endure. Some people only have pride when they are “supposed to”, like when Moorestown is rated number one town to live in America (even if that title means nothing, people still read it Money Magazine and they will believe it). That is not true pride. Having pride in something means you support it whether it is at the lowest-low, or highest high.
Moorestown is associated with rich and snobby because those people being accused have nothing to say back to the accuser. Honestly, if you take a look around Moorestown, the mansions, the restaurants on Main Street where dinners are ridiculously overpriced, and the overall welfare of the town, you’d agree with them. It is being extremely stereotypical but no one tries to sway the accuser otherwise. If we had pride in Moorestown then we would defend our town and maybe people wouldn’t have such strong preconceived ideas. I also find it funny that people take more pride in Moorestown’s lacrosse and field hockey teams than they do in their education at this school. Psyche parties can last until nine o’clock, and then we have to get home and do their homework. We miss full days of school to go play a sport, and this is accepted. Shouldn’t education be more important than a sport? Which brings me to unification of the school; soccer, field hockey, photography club, lacrosse, etc all have their own cliques, but there is not one thing that commonly unifies them other than the fact that the GO to MHS. Just because you GO here doesn’t mean you are a part of something here. But by saying “I go to Moorestown High School” you feel like you are part of a group and belong there. People like to feel like they belong, and by being a “part of” MHS makes them feel comforted, whether they have pride in the school or not.
-Sammi
I feel some pride for living in Moorestown, but it doesn't compare to how lucky I feel to live here. Especially when just a few miles away in Camden the standard of living hits rock bottom (for this country atleast). Moorestown being named the "Best Town in America" never really meant anything more than a sarcastic "Isn't that great," for me. More ridiculous was that block parties were supposed to be set up to show our pride.
Concerning school pride, I have almost none. Spirit week has always seemed to be a joke, it's one redeeming quality being the shortened periods of the day of the Pep Rally, which I would much rather skip than have my ears blown out. I don't care whether or not our sports teams win (with the exception of the tennis team) or what academic awards the school wins.
I DO take a great amount of pride in being American and living in America; the "land of opportunity." The principles that it was originally built on can't be beaten. (Or perhaps saying the Pledge every day for the past 11 years has made me a well-brainwashed citizen.)
Ok so I'm pretty much the opposite of Michael. I love Spirit Week and supporting our school. I do have pride in Moorestown High School becasue I feel privillaged to go here. Moorestown is known as being a nice town with great schools and sports. Maybe that's why the competition is so high; we feel like we need to stand up to the standards people have of our town. I agree with Sammi, in that the competition makes people strive to do their best, which I don't think is a bad thing.
-Callie
p.s. Sorry this is kinda late.
I definitely think this school just like all other communities has its ups and downs. I agree that nearly everything that goes on happens to be a competition. That may be viewed as a good thing or a bad thing. For instance, education should never become a competition but how often do you hear people discuss what they learned compared to what their grade was? I think that ratio would be about 1000000:1. On the other hand though competition motivates some people to accomplish their goals and push that much harder.
I also agree with Callie about spirit week. I think that Spirit Week is the only legitimate actual fun event that our school runs all year. It does pit us against each other as a student body but at the same time it also unites us. It gives us pride as a grade. Also at the end of the day, we should appreciate the competition our grade encountered and in turn have respect to those competitors. Doesn't that somehow show pride in our school as a whole?
Joe
Regarding whether or not having no symbol that unifies us as students of Moorestown High School, I agree with Alex that people tend to accomplish more through teamwork than anything else, and that most of us do enjoy and need companionship - not to mention that it is virtually impossible for us to survive in this world as self-reliant individuals. I guess one of the 'bad' part about it that I can think of is that by being included in such a large organization, one would have to adjust accordingly in order for the group to function properly, thus making compromises and losing some of our individualities.
But even so, do you think it's necessary to have a symbol that unites us all in order for us to be all united? (does that make sense?) Like, even if everyone is not given the same school jacket or any other material things that carry the same value and meaning, would it still be possible for us, the student body, to be amalgamated as students of MHS?
Callie, but sometimes too much competition is a bad thing. It can mean stomping on people to achieve their goals and not caring because they're ahead (putting people down to make yourself feel better). I think that people should be able to get ahead simply because they are capable, not because they pushed other people down to get there. Usually people work better as a team and sometimes people get so wrapped up in being the best they forget that.
-Sammi
Oh and I also agree that Spirit Week is a good thing at MHS because the grades unite together. Usually people unite when bad things happen (like the Seniors last year after Evan and Eric), but Spirit Week is a good example of us uniting for fun and good reasons.
-Sammi
I don't see how different classes in our school competing unites us. In fact, I would say it does the opposite. It segments our school into different factions, rather than unites us into one full group of students.
But do you really NEED to be united as a school? Is it enough to be united with your grade, the people you are spending all four years of high school with?
-Sammi
As nice as it is to be united as a whole school, I just don't see that happening at MHS. We may unite a little bit during pep rally, but our school is just too seperated by competition to ever think that we could truly unite as one on a constant basis. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing like Sammi said. Being united with the people in your grade gives a feeling of unity with the people you move through the school with. Things like pep rally allow us to unify with our grade, so I think that they do help school unity even though they may also hurt it a little.
Also, if it is really necessary to unite as a whole school, shouldn't saying that we are students of Moorestown High School be enough? We are unified by the fact that everyday we come to the same place and spend hours together. Grades are mixed in classes and friend groups often mix grade levels as well. I feel like MHS is unified slightly just because we are all students here.
-Alexis
A point was brought up that the adminitions process for college is flawed, a statement with which I agree for the most part. However, how else is it possible to weed throught thousands of applications. Although acceptance into certain universities may, in some cases, be lucky and whatnot, the person who studies for hours every night in order to acheive particular goals instead of expanding on their business sense or social skills may only be studying so that his/her abilities in business or social situations can be utilized in the future following the recognition that he/she is after. Who is to say that one's transcipt or GPA demonstrates one's greatest talents, or even approaches those areas at all. I see those late night study sessions as just another mode of trying to find a deeper understanding in oneself as well as providing more resources from which to draw in the future or getting that golden transcript to look as desired.
-Jen
Post a Comment