Opinion

By Khoi Hoang Nguyen 

As equality and social justice have become significant values in our communities and our nation at large, it is important for us to scrutinize, change, and perfect policies that were implemented with the intent of enshrining these ideas. One of the areas where these ideas have been applied is in open enrollment admissions for AP classes at Abraham Lincoln High School.

Open enrollment has been touted by the San Francisco Unified School District as a way to “eliminate barriers… for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underserved.”  

On the surface, the policy seems to create a level playing field for all students, as it completely randomizes the application process into a lottery and does not take into account any attributes or accomplishments a student may or may not have. However, this is far from the truth, as open enrollment falls short of the lofty ideals it claims to sanctify in several key ways, and in fact unintentionally perpetuates injustice and hinders meritocracy. 

The most glaring flaw with open enrollment is its astounding failure to reward merit, talent, and hard work. This lottery-based system makes no distinction between those who have worked diligently and tirelessly to earn their place and those who have not. Most universities and nearly all jobs evaluate their candidates on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and contents of their character, because doing so ensures that their organization is filled with the most qualified, motivated, and well-rounded people possible—and selective enrollment in AP classes would reflect that in preparing students for the real world. 

On the other hand, not only does open enrollment not reward hard work, it discourages it. In this system, students have no incentive to prove their interest in a subject or do well in prerequisite courses, because regardless of how much effort and diligence they put in, their chances of getting into an AP class remains the same. Highly motivated and academically talented students are left disappointed as less prepared individuals may secure coveted spots purely by chance. Zero incentive exists to strive for excellence, to become outstanding. 

Furthermore, because open enrollment does not consider any attributes or characteristics a student may have, it is unable to treat applicants as full individuals with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. It lacks the clarity that a holistic approach to admissions would provide. Many students apply for APs because of genuine interest in a subject, or because they intend to pursue a career in a certain field, but open enrollment robs them of the chance to make a case for themselves and for their future.

Proponents of open enrollment cite a research study from the consulting group Equal Opportunity Schools, which claims that students who take an AP class, even if they don’t pass, are generally more prepared for college than those who don’t. They argue that because open enrollment (at least, in theory) maximizes the amount of students who are college-ready, it remains the ideal system. 

However, this analysis fails to consider the highly negative effects of failing a class for which students are unprepared, namely the mental suffering they might go through and the blemish a bad grade leaves on their transcript for college applications.

None of this means that the goals the district strives for are unattainable or impossible, because they are possible, just not under open enrollment. One of the key tenets of open enrollment is to motivate students who might not feel up to taking an AP class to do so, and this should continue under holistic review. Equality is a fair and just concept, but open enrollment is not a fair and just system. 

While a surface level evaluation of open admissions can make it look like a quick and easy fix to inequality and disparity, this system falls short of its stated goals and has major unintended consequences. To truly give all students a fair chance and ensure equality for all, Lincoln should consider a holistic approach to AP admissions that takes into account all aspects of a student’s life, one that humanizes students and treats them as a person, instead of just a number in a jar.

By Justin Chen

High schools employ outstanding teachers, but that does not mean all are free of flaws. Many students greatly value their education and time spent at school. However, some students lose faith in their teachers because they feel that their approaches to learning are not compatible with theirs, and they worry they are not learning as much as they wish to. With 62% of high schoolers in the United States being college-bound, a teacher who strives for quality education inside of class is imperative for the learning and success of students. 

Students often discuss how they feel their teachers are not doing enough to help them learn during class. Students voice their various concerns about the education system and their educators, expressing frustration with teachers who are unable to support the learning of their classes.

According to “Yale News,” in an article about how high school students feel at school, 79.8% of students report feeling stressed, and 69.5% of students report feeling bored. “Yale News” states that these negative feelings have an impact on students’ academic performance as well as their overall health and well-being.

Khoi Nguyen, a junior at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, shares his thoughts on why students sometimes lag behind in school and what teachers can do to address that issue.

"At times, teachers educate classes with super long lectures, which is uninteresting for most of the class. This results in students not paying attention and not wanting to participate," Nguyen says. “I believe that teachers should conduct class wellness checks or surveys. When teachers receive feedback, they will know what they can improve to benefit the learning style of the entire class.”

A major responsibility of teachers includes making sure all students understand the content being taught in class. High school teachers, especially, should put more emphasis on keeping everyone on the same page so students will not be left behind when learning. To make sure students do not fall behind, teachers should always teach with empathy and offer their classes opportunities to ask any questions they may encounter.

Mr. Aaron Marestaing is a first-year AP U.S. Government and Politics and AP U.S. History teacher at Lincoln High School. Many students describe him as a kind and empathetic teacher who actively strives to promote learning within his class. 

Marestaing states, “I try to make engaging lessons with different modalities and modes of expression. I like to afford myself the opportunity to try out different things, to try and see what works or doesn’t work with each of my classes.”

Teachers adapting to the educational needs of their students is not the only way they should support high-quality learning, though. Teachers should also be encouraging their students’ academic success and well-being, establishing healthy relationships with them. 

According to an article published by “The Education Trust,” a strong bond between teachers and students provides a foundation for student engagement, belonging, and learning. 

In an ideal teacher-student relationship, both sides can understand and share each other’s feelings and personal values with respect. This way, students will be able to connect with teachers at a deeper level, being able to comfortably spark a thoughtful conversation with each other.

Marestaing, who enjoys getting to know his students better, constantly aims to be as inviting as possible. “I do believe that making students feel welcomed has a lot to do with how much you can get to know them as people and how much of a community you can build as a classroom together,” he states. “It [the class community] can also just look like saying hello and goodbye to students or putting in the time to really read their work to show that you value and care about what they are putting into the class.”

Quality education comes from a teacher who can adapt to the ever-changing needs of their students and is enthusiastic about what they teach. The skill of being able to effectively work with and collaborate with high school students, many of whom are oriented towards success, is an imperative step in being able to effectively teach. Additionally, a teacher's ability to create a positive and inclusive classroom environment plays a crucial role in fostering student engagement and motivation. By promoting a sense of belonging and respect, teachers can ensure that all students feel valued and encouraged to participate actively in their learning journey.

By Mason Ngo 

Students who are trying to keep high grades find that easier classes are more suitable for them. These classes may feel easier because they offer study halls, discussions on material outside of class, extra credit opportunities, and more. They may also provide extensions and retakes for assignments and tests. 

I believe that more student flexibility in providing such accommodations should occur, although a larger issue that creates the need for these accommodations is also present in my eyes. Modern schooling is often oriented towards pushing students towards higher education in college, which is often viewed as the best path to take. To achieve this, students work hard to receive and maintain high grades to show that they have been successful in classes. However, this dedication to maintaining grades makes me concerned over the education system’s main purpose of being a learning environment.

The grading system is not meant to show student effort, instead demonstrating how well a student understands the course material for a particular class, almost always based on a standard for that class. Grades however do not not inherently take into consideration how much effort a student put in for that work or if any outside factors impacted their performance in a given assignment. Despite this, students often equate getting relatively lower grades, sometimes even a B, to failing a class or subject.

The current system of grading is important for the school system however. Brendan Furey, an AP teacher at Lincoln, said, “Grades are effective at getting students to work on material that they may not work on otherwise.” 

For him and other teachers, having to provide accommodations such as retakes or revisions is a time consuming process and can be seen as a retroactive band-aid to students not understanding the material. 

Furey, and likely other teachers too, try to take a more proactive approach to the understanding problem. He mentions, “The trick is to offer a lot of assessments, so if students perform poorly on one, they will have opportunities to bring back the grade.” 

Of course, all teachers will, and are required to, provide accommodations to select students, such as those with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 plan. He also noted that for his classes, he provides essay models, ungraded pre-tests and other forms of aid to help all students to succeed in quizzes and tests. This is also something done in other classes too, for instance in some math and science classes where “cheat sheets” are allowed and encouraged in quizzes. 

Some teachers who do offer test revisions, altered coursework and other accommodations do so to help students progress and keep up with learning in class. However, accommodations such as extensions and abridged assignments are only offered when a student can’t complete an assignment due to circumstances outside of their control, such as illness or a family emergency.

One teacher who offers some of these opportunities is Lorraine Schulz, a chemistry teacher who often provides test retakes and extra credit opportunities. 

“I like to give students a chance to look at their mistakes and learn from them. By completing test corrections, it shows me that students are actually learning from what they got wrong.”

She is quick to note that this policy does still encourage first and foremost to answer correctly, as correcting answers during test corrections only yields back half of the lost points. She acknowledged that, “It does take time when teachers give out correction opportunities, as they have to regrade the exams. However, for me it is important that my students learn from their mistakes.”

Some teachers are against providing some of these accommodations, especially if the accommodations are requested on short notice. Almost all teachers do not allow a student to retake a test again and again, with the concern that this may end up turning the test into a memory game, rather than a check for understanding. 

Even those who provide test revisions may not do so consistently, for instance being available for shorter quizzes but not for unit tests in some classes. Revisions may also not be given for quizzes or tests that have more than one part, or that span for multiple days, because there can be breaks in between test sections where students can study. Schulz said, “Recently, we had a three part quiz, and because it was multiple parts spanning multiple days, I did not apply this policy because students can earn more points.”

I do believe that test revisions, extensions and other forms of flexibility for students is good for students in moderation. It should be provided when needed, however there should be more support to begin with in order to still promote student growth. 

With so many students being encouraged to go to college, it forces everyone to try to compete and over perform on paper, which has worsened youth mental health and stress. I feel that we should not prepare every single student to attend a 4-year college, especially when only 43.3% of high school graduates actually enroll into a 4 year program, according to the Education Data Initiative.

I ultimately believe that to improve student life at Lincoln and other high schools, we should diversify the paths for students graduating high schools. Opportunities such as internships, hands-on training, and similar non-college career starters should be shown and encouraged more heavily than it is now. This and changes to how we view grades would remove the long term need to provide what detractors to giving students accommodations see as “too many opportunities.”

By Darren Yee

When was the last time you caught yourself spacing out? Whether it was at school, work, or in any other setting, we are all guilty of it at some point. I personally am guilty of spacing out all too often as well. I believe that spacing out has really helped in refreshing my mind and broadening my attention span.

Two direct causes for spacing out could be boredom and stress. I’ve had my share of both throughout the years at school, and it was the aftereffect of spacing out when I realized that the spontaneous thoughts that popped up in my head turned out to be the most creative ones. 

Whenever I feel bored, stressed, overwhelmed, or a combination of all, I feel the urge to pull away from the activity or task I am engaged with to reset and refresh my mind which balances out my productivity levels effectively. From my experience, the longer the span of work that I actively engage in without a mind-break, the slower and less effective my mind processes information. A quick and simple session of spacing out could make the difference in completing a task with focused effort compared to lacking in creativity and attention span. 

Letting your mind drift while being disconnected from a task or assignment could spark a moment of insight or discovery that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. In an article written by Koa Foundations, an organization dedicated to the mental well-being, they state, “recent studies have demonstrated that daydreaming can improve performance on repetitive tasks, increase creativity, divergent thinking, and novel ideas and could even make some people feel happier as they indulge in pleasant, off-task musings to distract themselves.” 

All the benefits mentioned above are what students and workers are expected  to improve when on task. However, being able to reap those benefits while you’re spacing out is also good for your mental development. 

More often than not, I subconsciously come up with creative ideas as opposed to forcing myself to come up with an idea in a fixed amount of time. As stated by Richard Sima of The Washington Post, “One study of more than 1,100 respondents reported that their moments of insight came during mind-wandering in the shower (30 percent), in transit (13 percent) or during exercise (11 percent).” Maybe that’s not surprising to some people, but over 50% of individuals came up with thoughts when they weren’t actively focused on coming up with ideas, but instead subconsciously disconnected from an intended task. All of those tasks are relaxing from my point of view, and being in a comfortable environment could be a catalyst for mind-wandering that influences our imagination and thoughts. 

According to “The Swaddle”, a health, gender, and culture magazine, “Our minds spend up to 13% of our waking time in offline mode.” This suggests that our minds wander more often than we think during the time that we are awake. I’ve noticed that I tend to fall into “shower thoughts” quite often when I’m idling. Shower thoughts are essentially ideas that occur in one’s mind during disconnected dull activities. Being relaxed in a state of peace of mind allows you to concentrate inwards and mentally, and that can put us in a positive mood for playful and curious imagination. 

Students, like myself, who catch themselves spacing out should understand that there is a natural trigger that sets them up to space out or zone out. In my opinion, spacing out should actually be seen as a mental break or even a quick 5 minute walk. 

Moreover, it’s as if the brain’s attention span is sloping downwards to the point where it can’t focus effectively enough and is asking to be recharged so that it can function properly again in a cycle. 

All in all, spacing out could provide cognitive benefits, mental recharge, and stronger attention span which students like myself need much of to stay engaged on tasks and in school. In addition, the enhanced creativity during subconscious mind-wandering allows for the most creative ideas to be organized. I’m personally glad that I space out for the reasons mentioned above, so that I can perform at my best at school with peak levels of engaged performance.

By Aneyah Wolridge 

If you were to tell me that in the beginning of my Junior year, I would have had the opportunity to go to Japan in the summer, I would’ve never believed you.

On June 12th, 2023, I found myself at the San Francisco International Airport hugging my mom goodbye before going off with my group. When our flight was called, I remember boarding the plane, getting to my spot, and thinking “It’s finally happening. I’m going to Japan.”

We landed soon after and got on the bus to our hostel in Kyoto. But before that, we had to get some food from the convenience store. After getting our food and going on the bus, we finally settled down at the hostel in our assigned rooms. I was finally able to sleep after having a really tiring day traveling. During our stay in Kyoto, we stayed in a more rural area, so we weren’t allowed to go out after we came back to the hostel. We mainly visited the many temples and shrines they had since Kyoto is mainly known for its traditional architecture and atmosphere. It’s also known as the capital city or the cultural heart of Japan.

Every temple and shrine we visited was beautiful because it holds many years of history, and preserves traditional Japanese culture. On one of the days, we even visited the deer park in Nara. The deer were very cute but feisty when they saw that you had food for them. To be honest, I almost got lost in the park because of its big size and adorable deer.

A week later when we went to our hostel in Tokyo, we went on the Shinkansen, or the bullet train. It felt weird to go on a train that was going 200 mph, but we got to our location quicker than I thought. And unlike Kyoto, Tokyo was a more bustling and busier environment being a more urban place with many famous tourist attractions such as Harajuku, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and the Shibuya scramble. There were also many stores nearby where we were staying, so we were allowed to go out of the hostel to get food or just explore.

During our time in Tokyo, we got the amazing opportunity to go to a high school for a day. I was surprised to see how high schools in Japan were, they had vending machines and shoe lockers. High schools in America don’t usually have these and that was a big culture shock to say the least. The students were extremely kind, they set up presentations which we went around and listened to. A few other people and I even ended up playing card games with a group of students.

  We all got to go to a homestay family for a weekend, the area I stayed at was near the beach, and it wasn’t very urban like Tokyo. When I first met my homestay family, I was very anxious because of the major language barrier. But despite that, I still managed to have a great time. I met some friends of my host family, and they were all very kind to me. We played card games, went to the convenience store and went to the mall together to take some pictures. At the end of the day, we went to the beach to meet up with more people.

  There were many times when I had a culture shock about Japan, despite hearing about them online. We had to walk quite a bit every day, normally I wouldn’t walk a lot in San Francisco because of the amount of hills there are in the city. But in Japan, we walked almost everywhere if it was within walking distance. Another huge culture shock I experienced was the cleanliness of the streets, although there weren't many trash cans the streets managed to stay clean. There was even a much deeper organization of sorting trash with bottles and cans having their own trash cans compared to just being thrown in the recycle bin.

When I initially heard of this opportunity to go to Japan, I thought my parents would never let me go; however, the reaction I got from them instead was different than what I was expecting. It’s a trip to another country, and I’ve never been abroad before.

My parents asked me why I never told them about the trip, it was because I was hesitant of asking and being denied. When I got the approval to apply to be able to go on this trip, I quickly started asking friends and family to donate money towards this trip while my parents started the application process.

How was I able to go on this trip you may ask? The requirements to be able to apply for this trip were that you had to have taken Japanese at Lincoln before, and the priority was seniors and juniors since these trips happened every other year.

Overall, this trip has exposed me to a culture that is very different from my own, opened me to many great opportunities, and I believe it’s beneficial to have these trips and experiences even though it’s a lot of work and really expensive. There’s a difference between just learning about the culture in class, and actually going to that country and experiencing the culture firsthand.

I think it’s important for students to learn a culture that’s different from their own so that we aren’t so closed minded to other perspectives and cultures of the world, since there are many different perspectives, and cultures in the world.

By Matthew Tran 

A hungry stampede crashes through the cafeteria doors to wait in a line that almost never ends. Swarms of students cluster together in groups to get their free lunches. You would think this was a 2018 Black Friday but unfortunately, this is a daily occurrence at ALHS. 

Since the addition of the lunch PINs in January 2023, lines have been slower than the path of a dehydrated snail. The lunch PINs are a setback for students that get in the way of an efficient lunch line. Instead of quickly grabbing lunch and leaving, students stop to enter a five digit lunch PIN which takes approximately three to five seconds to enter. It does not sound like a long time, but considering the amount of hungry students waiting, it adds up. 

With the issue of long lines comes the trend of lunch line cutters. Students are left with the decision to either wait in line and get ten minutes to sit down and eat an unpreferred lunch, or cut the line, getting their preferred lunch and even spare time. 

Additionally, with flu season and COVID still around, large crowds and compact lines put student safety at risk. Especially around food, students are vulnerable to illnesses and the chances of illnesses spreading increases.

When I spoke to lunch lady Jessica Patzan, she made a really good point about how the lunch PINs make her job a little easier. 

“It’s easier with the PINs, because we cook a little bit less.” 

She explained how, before the codes, some students would return to the line to get an additional two or three lunches. But since their addition, the workers prepare about 80-90 less lunches. 

“I don't have [leftovers] . I prepare…a little more than 400 [lunches a day],” she emphasizes. 

Although the codes are convenient for the lunch workers, it prevents students from having enough time to eat and socialize. Yes, it makes their jobs easier, but at the end of the day the main priority should be students.

A possible solution could be putting the codes on halt until the school finds more staff. The main issue for students is the amount of time it takes to wait in line; whereas the issue for lunch workers is being understaffed. If we halt codes, lines will run faster, which could possibly eliminate the issue of line cutters. The codes can be brought back once there's enough workers to work the third line, which was closed due to the issue of being understaffed. 

Another possible solution could be barcodes, rather than manually entering PINs. Instead of stopping to enter a five digit code, scanning a barcode would swiftly provide students their lunches, and maintain a system useful for lunch workers.

In a school meant to serve students, the lunch system should not be inconsistent and inefficient. This process is detrimental to students and must change.

By Richard Kuang 

Lincoln, a school that supports more than 2,000 students, has faced the issue of teacher vacancies for a significant portion of the past two years. In total, fifteen classes have not had a year-long dedicated teacher for some or all of the school year. I’ve experienced three instances of missing teachers being replaced with short- and long-term substitute teachers who didn’t provide consistent learning, leaving me hopeless and disappointed in my education and academic career.

This poses problems for students in retaining material.

My Spanish 1 class did not have a teacher last year during my sophomore year. Throughout the year, the class had substitute teachers shuffling in and out of class, attempting to give us Spanish work to do, ranging from paper assignments, Google Form quizzes, and even Duolingo. Still, it was never really helpful, as there was never consistent learning with a curriculum, and it was on and off.

This continued until Marco Mendoza, a Spanish Honors teacher, started to provide online work in addition to teaching his regular classes, resulting in pure self-study for the rest of the year rather than nothing.

While consistent work was helpful, I felt that it wasn’t enough to ensure academic success because of the lack of enforcement and the lack of a teaching figure when learning a foreign language. From discussions with my peers, I learned that the majority of the class ended up receiving low grades due to no one knowing the material.

Going into my junior year, I felt happy with my Advanced Placement classes, specifically AP Computer Science Principles. Sadly, I was shocked to see in my schedule that I had been placed in Biotech, which is currently being taught by a new teacher, rather than my confirmed course. While seeking clarification, I met and talked with my academic counselor, Lisa Westlund, who, if I remember correctly, said it was due to the school not having an AP-CSP teacher for the year, although Jessie Davidson, an English teacher, teaches the subject during sixth period.

Mason Ngo, a fellow junior at Lincoln, described his time with the teacher shortage as an academic setback and a negative experience altogether. “There was no permanent teacher for Spanish 1 and Physics; however, they either assigned us a substitute teacher or [had] us go to the library every day,” says Ngo.

Without teachers for these classes, students have a gap in their education and material retention. Ngo states, “It negatively set us back a lot, especially for physics—we had to catch up, like, a lot, and, as a result, our learning was rushed, and we didn’t learn that much."

He describes the experience in physics where he felt the new teacher rushed to cover what had been missed during the vacancy. “It’s easier for me to engage in learning outside of school than to have teachers rush to get stuff done."

Another student, who decided to remain anonymous for personal reasons, talked about their experience with their physics course last year and how it affected their academic career and grades. Similar to Ngo and me, they had substitute teachers throughout the year, which led to their inability to learn the subject for an extended period.

Later in the year, Eric Bringas was hired to teach physics, and he now teaches health and history. The anonymous student mentioned that the experience ultimately affected their academic career plans for the future, creating an unstable foundation to continue into AP Physics 1.

I feel that Lincoln does not have enough teachers to support its student base that wants to learn, which ultimately puts students at a disadvantage. Without teachers being present and fully able to instruct and teach the curriculum, the pacing of the workflow and material is affecting those involved in the class. Despite the efforts shown to support students with the ongoing teacher shortage, it isn’t enough to give students the quality education that they deserve, and the current state of the shortage is a disaster for those involved, including me.

By Bunny Orr 

Lincoln treats students dealing with addiction as delinquents, rather than victims.  Instead of being seen as vulnerable youth navigating their own relationship with substances, faculty patronizes students and puts them under the category of “caught with drugs”, rather than “caught struggling with drugs”, not only punishing the student but the entire student body by enforcing rules such as the infamous bathroom-locking.  

It’s natural for us teens to be interested about the world and what our bodies and minds are capable of.  There are other underlying factors like living in a big city, going to a big highschool with more chance of exposure to drugs, and the drug industry itself.  

More discrete, and easily addictive substances like THC wax pens were not invented until the early 2000’s, and nicotine vapes were not popularized until about 2010.  This puts a disconnect and a level of misunderstanding between the adult staff and students, for staff don't get what it's like being surrounded by such things as curious youth.  

What appears to be happening is that whenever the school “catches” a student- it's more about getting them in trouble rather than understanding experience.

Why is it that most other public schools in SFUSD have rehabilitation programs they refer students to when they’re caught with drugs?  Meanwhile, at Lincoln the course of action is to search you, call home, and suspend if it's a recurring problem.  Maybe you'll be given a pamphlet.  

Mason Ngo, a student at Lincoln High recently toured Balboa High School over the summer and compared Lincoln to Balboa High Schools mental health programs available.  

He states, “Although Balboa and Lincoln both have well organized wellness centers, Balboa had another program that wasn't really affiliated with SFUSD that the school would give to students as a resource to help with their issues. Like they had plan B, testing strips (fentanyl), and stuff and seemed really persistent on the education part of it all, which I was impressed by.”  

This demonstrates how completely feasible it is for schools to prioritize education and most importantly support for the youth they observe using drugs.

Lincoln seems to only be fueling its issues with drug usage amongst its students.  It's common sense that most of the time, punishing people for doing drugs won't stop them from doing drugs, especially if they're addicted.