Aarna Pal-Yadav
September 22, 2022

The Mirror Editorial, First Edition, 1923
Every student in Bronxville High School is an integral part of the school and as such has, within the school, certain rights and certain responsibilities. And what is the part of this high school student? He should have some ideal toward which he is striving. He should be active, not passive; alert, not dawdling; led or piloted, not driven; and always aware of the value of co-operative discipline. He should not try only to do well as the other fellow but he should strive to do more. He should strive to do more. He should strive to work himself to his full capacity. If the school lacks something he thinks it should have, he should not wait for someone else to undertake to supply the need but he, himself, should start the ball rolling in the desired direction. His own convictions should possess some merit but if they are found to be faulty then he should seek the opinions of others and inculcate them into his own ideas. We simply mean to say that an affirmative student is the one who “gets on.” The real student is the one who can raise himself over some of the elements of the school which are not quite in harmony with these ideas. If we have enough of this type of high school student we will have a high school in Bronxville that will make an educational name for the Village. Let’s be one hundred percent behind a good stiff school program.

The Echo Editorial, Centennial Edition, 2022
A century later, many of the same ideas hold true. It is the role of Bronxville School to provide a welcoming environment in which students can thrive, and the students’ prerogative to take advantage of the many opportunities provided to them. A school is like a garden. Our amazing faculty and staff are attentive gardeners, dedicating themselves to creating an environment in which students can grow. And what is the part of this high school student? Certainly not to be passive or stationary as a plant. He/she should take charge of their education, availing themselves of the many opportunities to engage in learning both inside and outside the classroom. They should push themselves beyond what they perceive as their limits in an attempt to expand their boundaries. They should adamantly defend their beliefs, which should develop as they learn more about the issue and other people’s opinions with an open mind. They should not keep their education within the boundaries of the classroom, but rather apply their learning in the broader community. As the Bronxville Promise so eloquently summarizes, Bronxville students—past and present—should innovate, lead, think critically, and engage the world in all their educational pursuits. I’d wager that in another hundred years, these tenets of Bronxville School will still stand strong.

Leo Nevezhin
March 2, 2022

“The one thing that I thought we all could agree on, was that the earth was round,” says Dylan Dubeau, creator of Inside a Flat Earth Conference. He’s right. With so many issues—including those that seem to have an obvious answer—becoming unclear, it’s unbelievable to see something as seemingly apparent as the shape of our Earth become a debate. In fact, official statistics report that over 3 million Americans believe that the Earth is flat, despite scientific evidence repeatedly disputing this claim. 

Civilization first hypothesized the notion of a spherical Earth during the 5th century BC, when it is mentioned in the writings of Greek philosophers. The hypothesis was proven by Hellenistic astronomy in the 3rd century BC when the Earth’s circumference was calculated for the first time. In the 17th century, that statement was edited to describe the Earth as an “ellipsoid” by Isaac Newton, and its flattening was recalculated most accurately in the 1960s. Most recently, space imaging has contributed to photographic evidence of the Earth’s spherical shape, originating with the first photo of the Earth in 1972, depicting it as a perfect sphere. 

So why then, if the fact has been so well-established for thousands of years, are believers stuck on the Mesopotamian-era belief of a flat earth? Well firstly, I’m happy to report that according to a 2017 national survey, only 1% of Americans believe that the Earth was flat and an additional 6% indicated they were uncertain. Therefore, it’s not a large population of Americans, but still an approximate 3.1 million people. 

Surprisingly, the answer does not lie in political affiliation. There was no evidence to show that this stance is politically motivated. The difference between Trump, Clinton, and third-party voters fell within the poll’s 3.2% margin of error.

However, there are two theories that can be posed for these approximate 3.1 million United States citizens. 

Some of the believers could be accounted for by the popularity of flat earth-related satire that became popular on the internet in 2017, sparked primarily by celebrities who began to believe in the theory and the media capitalizing on a basic human intrigue in mystery. Soon, the discussion hit social media, where satirical and serious discussion mixed, re-invigorating the movement. After reaching peak popularity, these discussions became the center of attention for further articles and conversation, eventually catapulting “flat earth” to become one of the most searched terms according to Google Trends, peaking at #1 in November of 2017. 

Furthermore, a short documentary by Dylan Dubeau Inside a Flat Earth Conference can provide rather unique insight into its origins. In November of 2018, Dylan attended the second annual Flat Earth Conference, interviewing presenters, members, and advocates of the theory. He concluded that believers hold an unusual perspective; if the Earth were spherical, it would mean that there is a scientific explanation behind it: The Big Bang Theory. However, this would further imply that there is no God. They hold true that if the Earth were flat, then it would have no sound scientific explanation – meaning that the only way Earth could be created was through the powerful creator that placed humans in the center of it. It’s an interesting approach, one that not many of sphere-earthers consider. 

Therefore, these 3.1 million people who indicated their support of the Flat-Earth Theory were either individuals who did so sarcastically, inspired by social media discussions, or very religious individuals who have a unique belief in the creation of our world. 

Regardless, the Flat Earth movement is quite an interesting conspiracy theory within our country. Not only has it gained traction for its mysterious yet reasonably scientific and sound thinking, but it ties into a broader debate between religion and science that’s been plaguing societal thought and nature for thousands of years.

Cate Spitz
February 6, 2022

Midterms— a word in itself that has an undeniable stigma of stress and fear. It is an uncomfortable test, and by that I mean the time of year seems off because it isn’t a final exam where you can rest or have a break after but a week in the middle of the year with no break right afterwards. It builds no incentive, no fuel to propel you through the tests without a defined break afterwards. Instead, the year moves on to the second semester, leaving behind a semester of unacknowledged achievement. 

There is, however, an unavoidable incomprehensibility of the benefits that midterms serve in the long-run for the miserable test takers. Midterms allow students to gather materials of their notes and tests from the semester for each subject, which allows students to learn how to be organized. Organization is extremely important for students to learn, as in college, work, and life. Organization, no matter an individual’s system of it, can enable them to be most efficient and successful. 

Midterms, as stressful as they are, create a reinforcement of concepts and terms within the different subjects, which reestablish forgotten concepts within the semester. This benefits the student, as they will teach themselves to relearn old concepts. It also helps reestablish those ideas so that when finals roll around, students will feel less pressure to relearn all the concepts, as they will already have learned the material twice. 

The more testing a student does, the less stressful testing becomes. When students have less opportunity to test, they will be unable to know their best methods of large-scale testing. More testing can prepare students for other tests and college finals. 

In terms of student and teacher preferences, teachers would have enjoyed having their planned midterms, as their grading systems and lesson plans had to shift in accommodation for the midterm cancellations. The student preferences about midterms are split: some believe that they were more stressed with school work and a unit test than they would have been with a midterm, while other students feel the unit test was the best alternative to a midterm—and the more preferable option. In general, it seems that most of the high school students would have benefited from—and may have even preferred—midterms week.