SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Marcus Diemer

Are students free to speak their mind at SLA?

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Marcus Diemer

Staff writer

Discussions can be a great tool for students to learn and talk about different ideas in their classes. They give everyone a chance to voice their unique perspective, which is what makes them such an important tool. However you lose some people’s unique point of view if they are too afraid of being ostracized to speak their mind. 

Personally, I have almost always felt comfortable speaking my mind at school. People are generally respectful even when they disagree which is an important part to making people feel safe in what they are saying.  Teachers have always emphasized the importance of attacking the idea, not the person who has that idea. This was especially true in my sophomore English class, where we were doing a mock mock trial and we had to talk through our constitutional reasoning for why we thought each case was right or wrong. My teacher, Mr. Kay emphasized the importance of refuting the argument, not attacking the character of the person. This kept the discussion respectful and civil. 

The conversation was  difficult at times, especially because people were discussing something they are passionate about. However, learning this skill now as a student will be important for the rest of our lives. 

I can definitely understand why someone would feel intimidated or even scared to share an opinion that may be unpopular with the class. Even if people are only attacking your idea if enough people do it it could start to feel overwhelming. 

There is more to being uncomfortable than people just disagreeing though. It is a difficult skill to master, but actually listening to other people’s ideas is just as important as being respectful. You are not actually gaining anything from the discussion if you don’t really care what everyone else has to say, you are just waiting your turn to speak.

 I’ve noticed this can be a problem in many discussions when people will just say stuff seemingly just to have “participated.” This happens most frequently when students have not adequately prepared. I distinctly remember a friend who had not prepared at all for a discussion of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaids Tale.” His plan was to just sort of go along with what people were saying, but this did now work as well as he hoped. All of his points, though mostly true, did not really add to the discussion since there was nothing that had not already been said. I think the criteria for participation can be a bit narrow when we say you have to talk a certain amount of times, because then people are just trying to get their turn to say something, and do not care as much what they actually say. 

Participating is about much more than just saying your sentence you wrote down in your notebook, it is about seeing other people’s perspective and learning from it. If you don’t feel like anyone cares, you might not even feel inclined to share your thoughts either. 

When I go to college next year, I hope that my professors will place the same emphasis on including different perspectives and being respectful even when there are disagreements. This is an integral part of education and I think SLA got it right. 

Upcoming High Schoolers Challenged By New Lottery Admissions System

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Marcus Diemer

Oskar Glahn

Staff Writers

Lottery admissions team at work. Photo by Jacob Farell

This school year, the School District of Philadelphia has implemented a new, standardized system for the admission of upcoming high school students — including SLA.

While theoretically open to anyone, many Philadelphia selective admission high schools have become less socioeconomically and racially diverse in the past decade. 

In response, the district has constructed a lottery system for admissions with the goal of creating equity and giving students who had less access to learning resources an equal chance.

“The district looked at the data and saw that there were inequities about who was getting access to certain admission schools, and felt a need to design a system that leveled the playing field and allowed more access,” said Principal Chris Lehmann.

Parents’ responses to this new system have varied. Many parents feel like this system is quite unfair; giving students with lower tests scores and grades the same chance to gain acceptance to a selective admissions school as higher-achieving, honor roll students. Over 2,000 parents have signed a petition calling for the district to reconsider its plan. They claim that the school district has brought about these changes in an “unduly rushed manner”. They want to make a plan that will both promote equity and meet the educational needs of the school district students by working with the community and the school district.

However, many other parents’ opinions are quite positive about this change in the admissions system. Education in Philadelphia closely correlates with poverty levels in certain neighborhoods, meaning that if a child grows up in a poor neighborhood and goes to a neighborhood elementary and middle school, they would have much less of a chance at getting a quality education than a child growing up in a wealthy neighborhood public school.

Impact At SLA

The debate about the changes is ongoing, but the new system is already here. What will this look like for SLA, starting next year?

The school does not expect a major change in racial demographics, due to the already-existing commitment to diversity.  In the 2021-2022 year at SLA, 65% of the student body was made up of African American, Hispanic, Asian, and other ethnically diverse students, where the other 35% were white students.

Principal Lehmann also feels confident that the school will still attract students who share the school’s values.

“At SLA, we have always looked at the whole child through the interview process and through multiple measures, which created a process that is difficult to standardize.” 

Working with the district, the school was able to keep some elements of the interview process.

“I’m very happy that the district allowed us to continue our project-based presentations, and I think that was a recognition of what we do and why we do it,” said Lehmann.

Although the interview process will still be maintained, the central office of the school district now makes the final call on admissions, which is making many students wonder if their chances at SLA would have been different under the previous system. 

“I understand why they’re doing the lottery and that there weren’t many other options, but I don’t think it was fair at all,” says 8th grader Henry Blakelock (brother of Senior Max Blakelock), who applied to SLA. “There were straight A students who didn’t get into any of their schools. It’s strictly based on luck, which isn’t fair at all.”

Looking Ahead

The main goal of this new system, according to the district, is to fight against this imbalance. The fact that it is much more difficult to get a well-rounded education while growing up in a rough neighborhood is completely unfair, and many feel like this is the solution we’ve been waiting for. 

“The goal is equity. The goal the district has is making sure that the most number of kids get into the schools that they want to go to, that they can thrive in, and that are set up so students have the opportunity to have really amazing high school experiences,” says Lehmann.

Dealing with family during lockdown

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Marcus Diemer Staff Writer

A lockdown caused by a pandemic was not how I expected my sophomore year to end. Being inside all day might have seemed fun at first, but I quickly realized it was actually terrible. With the lockdown came a lot of problems for many different people such as being anxious about the pandemic or being unable to work their job to  make money and pay their rent. Being inside all day every day definitely caused many problems as well. Going outside and getting exercise are important things for your mental health and wellbeing, so after not having much access to those two options I was not in a good place mentaly. 

If you lived in the same house with your family during the lockdown, you probably had your rough moments. Personally, I usually get along with my two sisters, but being constantly around each other during the lockdown did cause some problems. I mean it shouldn’t be that surprising considering the sheer amount of time we spent in close proximity, trapped inside. 

When the lockdown started, like many people, I wanted to work on personal goals like improving my health and learning new skills that I would normally not have the opportunity to explore. I started out on these goals in the first few months, but lost a lot of motivation to do anything once the school year started on zoom. Because of this, I was spending more and more time with nothing to do in the house, which inevitably led to arguments and disagreements with my siblings. 

After the weather started improving, as well as the covid situation, I started going outside more. I got back some of my motivation to exercise and started working on learning new skills again. Doing this helped me and my siblings a bit more space away from each other, which in turn meant we didn’t have as many issues when we were together. 

I think my biggest takeaway was that it is good to be working towards something, to be improving yourself or learning in some way. I found especially for me when I am not working towards a goal or even just trying to improve at all, it is easy to develop bad habits, which negatively impacts both your physical and mental health. 

With another lockdown possibly in the future, or at least totally virtual school, I am hopeful that I will be better able to deal with not only the problems that I face personally, but also problems between me and the people I am in lockdown with.

Rock Climbing Club Climbs in Popularity

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Marcus Diemer

Staff Writer

Rock climbing: it may seem intimidating at first, but SLA has a new community based around the activity. The rock climbing club is not only dedicated to sharing a passion for climbing, but also to meeting new people and making new friends. 

Meeting after school on Mondays and Thursdays, students make their way to The Cliffs at Callowhill, a climbing gym, and are allowed to stay for as much or as little time as they want. Most students participate in bouldering, a type of climbing where climbers do not wear a harness, instead just  just droping down onto a padded mat when they complete a course, rather than be let down using a rope. There are many different courses to try with varying difficulty and they get changed every few weeks to keep things interesting. 

While rock climbing may seem inaccessible or intimidating for a variety of reasons, history teacher Daniel Symonds, the teacher sponsor of the club, wants students to overcome their doubts and just give it a try. 

“Rock climbing is a far more open-ended, accessible sport than its reputation might indicate,” Mr. Symonds remarked, “almost invariably people’s experience is, wow this is a lot more fun, a lot more accessible, a lot more forgiving, a lot less judgemental than I thought it would be.” 

The climbing community is generally very supportive and encouraging, while also being willing to offer tips and advice to newcomers. People who are not even affiliated with SLA and are just climbing at the gym will applaud or congratulate you when you finish a course and give you suggestions on what you can do differently if you don’t. Everyone there understands that failure is a part of learning. 

“People are not jocks,” observed Mr. Symonds. 

Another benefit to the club, as put by Mr. Symonds is “we’re not a team, come when you have time, you get a membership to a great gym, you decide when you can do it.” 

The freedom and choice is something that is valued by many members of the club. Senior Mira Young, a member of the club, agreed that “it’s nice to just be able to go when you feel like it.” 

The rock climbing club is open to all grade levels, but there are noticeably fewer seniors than there are students in the younger grades. 

“I think that maybe the primary reason is that the seniors themselves are just so old that maybe their health has deteriorated at this point that they are unable to physically climb,” explained Mr. Symonds. However, Mr. Symonds wants to encourage seniors to join and remember that “just because they’re in twelfth grade doesn’t mean they’re too old to climb.”

 Not all seniors agree with Mr. Symonds’ thinking. . Senior Oskar Glahn remarks, “word on my momma, I didn’t even know climbing club was a thing.” This could present an alternative explanation to Mr. Symonds’ as to why there are so few senior participants in the club. 

The rock climbing club can be a lot more than just an enjoyable sport for many people. It can help them make new friends, get some exercise, and build their self esteem and confidence, no matter what grade they are in. If you are interested in joining, contact Mr. Symonds or Ms. Ustaris.