Alright, here we are. 2022. A new year, a new hope. Hopefully.
2021 completely caught us off guard. Not only did we enter the second year of the pandemic, but we also saw new variants emerge from the blue: Delta and Omicron. These two virulent strains of COVID-19 pushed back our plans to enjoy what could have been one of the best Summer Break and holiday seasons ever. When we paint a picture of 2021, we see MAGA rioters, space-bound billionaires, the Afghan flag flown for the last time, missing supplies and toilet paper everywhere, and China, Russia, and the US and Ukraine angrily staring at each other. What comes in 2022? Nobody knows. Only God does.
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Nevertheless, it’s crucial we reflect on the past three years, not just the chaotic 2021. In the book of 2019, we read about Mr. 45 “messing” with Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping, the Northern Triangle on the move, fires, and Nancy Pelosi adopting Article 1. Later on, the song of 2020 sings the melody of the rise of the virus, many more fires, the world chanting “I can’t breathe”, one step closer to Nuclear Armageddon, flies saying “shut up, man” to Mr. 45, and the internet zooming through the world.
While the world continues to blow up, digitize, and polarize, high-school students persist with their studies, commit to their various extracurriculars, and help out their communities one way or another. Now entering February, they hope to obtain enough knowledge to perform well on their final exams (or AP Exams), or just finish the year and relax for Summer Break. But
whether it’s February, late July or “Mariah Carey Month,” it’s always important to look back on our lives.
This month, I reflected on my 2½ years in high school and my current junior status. Personally, I have thoroughly enjoyed junior year so far, but I wasn’t always in this gleeful state of mind. When I began my four-year journey at Alexander Hamilton High School back in Pelosi year, I had no idea what to expect or what legacy the Class of 2023 Humanities Magnet would leave behind for future generations. In fact, during the year of moving triangles, the only tidbits I learned about the school came from my older brother, who attended Hamilton several years ago.
Halfway into junior year, I now have my answers.
This school created a great social and educational environment where I can challenge myself and prepare for university. Meanwhile, my class will leave a mostly positive legacy behind.
In this article, I will explore the pluses and minuses of the Humanities Class of 2023.
As with any review of anything, let’s begin with the positive aspects of our class. Our class has done an excellent job creating a wonderful social environment for incoming students. This is the first year incoming freshmen and sophomores are on our campus, and our class founded clubs and established an incredible and welcoming social environment to help them adjust more to in-person high school life. While I haven't personally attended many of these clubs, the tidbits I’ve heard about them express how remarkable and inviting they are. The welcoming social environment creates a greater sense of community in our Humanities Magnet. I am proud of our class for helping to create smiles, laughter, and friendships during the pandemic. 10/10.
In addition, our class brings plenty of joy, energy, discussion, and entertainment to our classes. Our class loves to chat with our teachers and start conversations that can lead to a great talk or barrels of laughter and happiness. Due to our diversity, we always add something to the discussion table, meaning our chattering doesn’t tend to be boring. I’ve noticed our class has generally grand amounts of positivity and energy they share both inside and outside class, even if some students get three or four hours of sleep a night. Despite this, I’ve heard many teachers comment how our class has brought so much entertainment. Thank you Class of 2023 for always having something interesting to chat about to instigate deep conversations about our history or our current situation, or light-hearted casual exchanges on general topics. 10/10 for conversations, 10/10 for energy, 10/10 for diversity, 6.5/10 for sleep.
Nonetheless, nothing is perfect. There are ways in which we can improve. Please remember, I include bias and my personal experiences in this review. Without further ado, I will now describe the negative feedback.
Hamilton's teachers deserve the credit and respect they work for, but not nasty comments.
The grand issue that frustrates me is that students don’t seem to realize how much they seem to disrespect some teachers. From what I have heard, they always seem to make comments critiquing various aspects of a teacher’s teaching style or personality. I hear nasty statements saying, “This teacher makes offensive comments towards one group,” “this one doesn’t spend enough time reviewing the subjects,” and “this one moves too quickly through the lectures without giving us time to take notes.” True, some teachers have better teaching styles and connections with students than others, but this is too much.
All I can state is “I am shocked.” In all my years at this school I have never heard such commentary. I know we are better than this. We don’t need to explicitly state why someone is bad, but just keep it to ourselves. We all must treat each other with kindness, and with some more understanding, we can achieve a better Humanities community. 7/10. If we can show less “teacherism,” I’ll raise this to an 8 or a 9.
In short, the Class of 2023 did a terrific job creating a splendid and energetic social environment, but lacked the ability to show respect to others. With a bit of work, we can end teacherism, and demonstrate the Hamilton Respect every student deserves. Thank you.
Works Cited
History.com Editors. “2019 Events.” HISTORY. A&E Television Networks. 5 Feb. 2020. Accessed 1 Jan. 2022. www.history.com/topics/21st-century/2019-events.
Lindsay, James M. “Ten Most Significant World Events in 2019.” Council on Foreign Relations. The Water's Edge. 23 Dec. 2019. Accessed 23 Jan. 2022.
www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2019.
Newman, Rick. “5 surprises to watch for in 2022.” Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo! 6 Dec. 2021. Accessed 24 Jan. 2022.
finance.yahoo.com/news/5-surprises-to-watch-for-in-2022-205548324.html.
Salo, Jackie. “2020 events: Yep, these things all happened in the year from hell.” New York Post. 31 Dec. 2020. nypost.com/list/major-2020-events/.
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