141,667 is a big number. 141,667 is also the number that is currently displayed on the big blue screen inside the Westchester County Center below the words “VACCINATIONS TO DATE!” The Westchester County Center, which was once used for local events, has been turned into a state-run mass vaccination site that is less than five miles from Scarsdale High School. Since then, the building has been one...
A century ago, the Spanish influenza of 1918 wreaked havoc on the education of children across the United States. Most schools closed for four months, with only New York City and Chicago remaining open. Scientists grappled with their task of analyzing the limited information on infectious diseases and trying to manage the crisis without antibiotics. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures...
As COVID-19 vaccines are approved and become more accessible, teenagers who are sixteen and older now have at least one option for a vaccine. However, this may worry parents and students as no vaccine has yet been approved for those that are younger than sixteen. Some are concerned that with the vaccine, students aged sixteen and over will start to act recklessly and become superspreaders of the virus....
As a year has passed since the pandemic started, people all over the world still continue to wear masks and follow COVID-19 prevention guidelines set by government officials. However, as time goes by and even throughout the course of the pandemic, certain people have been discontent with having to wear masks and social distance and some people have been unable to see its benefits. As of Tuesday,...
As COVID-19 cases in the United States rapidly decline and the vaccine rollout continues, a new sense of hope is in the air. Moving along this path to recovery, the FDA approved the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use on February 27th, the third COVID-19 vaccine to pass the rigorous testing process in the United States. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s approval is a crucial...
Almost one year after the nationwide switch to online learning, Scarsdale High School plans to have students return to full day in-person classes starting from March 8. Many people have mixed opinions about this change; they have concerns ranging from increased exposure to COVID-19 to the loss of synchronous zoom instruction. An email was sent to students and parents on Friday, February 26 confirming...
For almost a year, Scarsdale High School has experimented with various schedules, techniques, and platforms for learning. From cross-cohort live streaming to half-days, Zoom classes to a full virtual model, the administration, teachers, parents, and students have learned a lot about what does and doesn’t work in our pandemic environment. For the majority of this school year, families and faculty...
Inertia, as I learned during my in-person physics class, is the tendency of mass to resist acceleration, or, more broadly, the tendency to resist change. Right now, too many Scarsdale High School students are victims of inertia. When I walk into class in the morning, if I’m lucky, the group joining me is barely large enough to form a basketball team. In some classes, we’d be stuck with a doubles...