How much foreign language did you learn in elementary school? Unless you were committed to an after-school program, the answer is probably not much. After all, beyond the smattering of elementary schools offering a partial-immersion program, young FCPS students’ only in-class opportunity for foreign language acquisition consists of just twoContinue Reading

With Disney princesses breaking archetypes in their recent adaptations, they are shedding their damsel-in-distress image for independent and complex characters. In forgetting the traditional values of classic Disney princesses, is Disney making progress or is it getting carried away?  Movies Frozen, Brave, and The Princess and the Frog all have oneContinue Reading

After a two-year long hiatus, BBC’s Sherlock returned on Jan. 1 with three 90 minute long episodes. The long break between episodes gave fans of the show an extraordinary amount of time to hypothesis about the cliffhanger ending of season two—something the primary writers of the show, Steven Moffat andContinue Reading

In 2008, Barack Obama was elected president with an impressive 66% of the vote amongst 18-29-year-olds. Boasting endorsements and support from stars like Oprah Winfrey, Usher, and Scarlett Johansson, Obama was highly popular with young people–in November of 2009, a Harvard University Institute of Politics survey found that 58% ofContinue Reading

While Marshall provides a wide array of traditional after-school sports, some teens find their interests leading outside of the typical activities provided by FCPS.  Beyond the constraints of school guidelines and budget, students can explore their passions for different, alternative sports, especially during winter months. Though there are not manyContinue Reading

Rape jokes are a problem, and they’ve become far too commonly used among high school students despite the fact that there is nothing funny about violating someone. Beyond this, a complaint about these frankly disturbing jokes can be seen as overly sensitive, and not as a reasonable argument. The critiqueContinue Reading

In a world of war, political turmoil, oppression and upheaval, one might question the relevance of nail art. Covergirl begs to differ, as evidenced by their release of a cosmetic line based off of the violently dystopian society portrayed in Suzanne Collin’s bestselling Hunger Games Trilogy. In honor of CatchingContinue Reading

Whether you’re just a casual moviegoer or a fan of the book, the second film installment of Tolkien’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug was major a disappointment. The biggest problem is that director Peter Jackson drags out the story by creating unnecessary conflict and adding more to the plot of theContinue Reading

The primary goal for student tutors, many of whom are in honors societies, is primarily to help less-advanced students understand and grasp a concept in a class. In addition, since all the students in a class learn the same material, student tutoring is helpful because it can strengthen the understandingContinue Reading