Editor's note Record numbers tune up for band Collecting can be fun

MATT ROSS Capital-Journal

Insights into the pride of accomplishment is illustrated here by the many journalism students in "Making the Grade," a spotlight on 12 area schools over 11 days.

Along with area high schools we have included Kaw Area Technical School, which offers vocational and technical training to high school students as well as older students.

The Making the Grade partnership combines efforts of The Topeka Capital-Journal and each school, including students and faculty members. The focus of this edition is "Look at Us in 2000."

It could not have been done without generous support of various sponsors involved in "Celebrate the Year of the Child" project.

Partners in "Making the Grade" are Stormont-Vail HealthCare, Koch Industries and Commerce Bank.

These sponsors support the individual sections, as well as making a commitment to the Newspapers In Education program, purchasing more than 30,000 daily newspapers for classroom use.

We thank the students and their teachers for a job well done, and we thank the sponsors. We hope you enjoy each of the sections.

--- Linda Laird, special sections coordinator

STUDENTS SPEAK

What will you be doing this summer?

"This summer, I hope to further my study of music by taking classes at Washburn, and prepare for college by catching up on some reading."

--- Aaron Martin

"Work so I can move out of my house and be on my own."

--- Andrew Clark

"Spend time with my mom and go to World's of Fun."

--- Sherry Prato

"I am gonna skateboard, play my computer, work, and play soccer. Don't forget though, I will get lots of sleep."

--- Philip Poore

"I will work a lot and whenever I have a chance, I'll go on vacation."

--- Lesli Clark

"Play softball at Lake Shawnee, work as a life guard, and go camping at the lake."

--- Sara Charboneau

"I don't have any plans for right now. We may travel to see family, and I may get a job. I plan on hanging out with friends and sleeping in. It won't be a very eventful summer."

--- Jenny Girard

"I will go back to Hong Kong, and get to see my friends again. I plan on going to the beach every day to swim, starting a diet and losing 15 pounds."

--- Yeewan Lee

"Go to summer weights in the mornings. I also plan on playing basketball in MAYB league in June. I hope to get a job, and I have a few vacations planned for this summer."

--- Charlotte Larson

"This summer I will go to El Paso, Texas, to visit some relatives. I am also hoping to get my drivers license, and get a car for my birthday." --- Angel Morgan

"I plan on sleeping in all day for the first two weeks. Then maybe I'll consider finding a new job for some spending cash."

--- Liz Young

The most significant thing that happened this year was:

"I got to play soccer with a great team, and won the MVP award for the second year in a row."

--- Josh Uhl

"Really, it was turning 16. I got a lot more freedom after that. Plus I got my car and my license."

--- Missy Anderson

"The most significant thing that has happened to me this year is personal growth. Finally I have realized that individualism is good and not evil. I will only become what I well allow myself to."

--- Amber Gilmore

"Graduation."

--- Jennifer Bahret

"Graduation, knowing that I never have to come back to high school again."

--- Andrew Clark

"To be an exchange student in Silver Lake, and to study in a very small school."

--- Yeewan Lee

"I bought myself a new car with the money I made working. We built a new house, and moved into it."

--- Trent Hanni

"The most significant thing is that I finally realized that I am going to be a senior next year. It will come sooner that later and I hope that I'm ready to go on to a bigger level."

--- Matt Flores

"I think the most significant thing that happened this year was losing to St. Marys in many different sports, over and over. In my opinion it's significant because it will give us more desire and drive to win next year."

--- Ash Urban

By MATT ROSS

Special to The Capital-Journal

The Silver Lake High School band has almost 80 people in it this year --- the most it has had in a long time.

But numbers don't necessarily mean that the band is going to be good. Players still have to put in hard work and dedication.

This year, you could walk down to the commons area during first hour and you can hear the band perfecting the songs that moved the crowd at half-time, brought spirit to the teams, and honored the school with a one ranking at league.

The rating system is on a scale of one to five, with one being the best. No matter how well you think you played the notes or dynamics, you have to keep in mind that the judge is also looking at the little things --- the way you sit, if you are in tune, your posture. After the band is done playing, the judge talks to the band and works with members on a few spots that he or she thought that the band could improve.

For league competition this year, the band played two songs --- "Celebration for Woods and Percussion" and "Pantheon." Pantheon featured a solo by senior Ryan Freed.

To be good at something, you have to practice. And the SLHS band had to find time to practice a clarinet quartet, a woodwind ensemble, a percussion ensemble, a sax quintet, a brass choir, a few solos, and to top it all off, practice as a whole. In order to do this, some of the ensembles had to find time outside of school and during seminar to practice. This is hard because everyone has other commitments like work and sports.

But if you work hard, you know that you will have fun in the end; in April, the band went to Florida for three days, visiting Cocoa Beach and MGM Studios.

By GREG YABSLEY

Special to The Capital-Journal

Have you ever wondered if the stuff you used to play with when you were a little kid is worth something? I am here to tell you that without a doubt it is. There are toys from the early 1980s that are worth upwards of $500.

This doesn't mean that all toys are worth a lot, though, so beware what you buy if you decide to get into collecting. A few of the people in my classes, to my amazement, are not into collecting. They find that going out and searching for a specific toy or other miscellaneous item is not worth their time.

Collecting does not have to be based entirely on the value of the item. A lot of people collect things based on sentimental value or looks.

The recent craze was a little thing called Pokemon. It is a collectible card game involving little creatures that evolve into bigger creatures with better powers. The collectible value of these things to me is zero, but to the millions of kids who are rampantly collecting them they are priceless. In my mind, the only collectible card game is "Magic the Gathering."

There are a lot of things to collect, but what I collect are Hot Wheels and Star Wars figures. Collecting these toys is based mostly on value and a little on looks. My collection consists of around 2,000 Hot Wheels, and 50 to 75 Star Wars figures. The time I have spent on collecting is a mere fraction of the time someone else might spend watching TV, or another such frivolous activity.

Collecting can be an expensive hobby, but it can also be profitable.

If you have something that you like enough that you would like to dedicate some of your time and money to it, I highly recommend it. Chances are if you have something that you like enough to collect, someone else does, too, which puts value on that item.

By MISSY ANDERSON

The Capital-Journal

Tommy Hilfiger jeans, an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt and a pair of Doc Martens. This is what a typical teenager wears on a normal day. But the school board has been tossing around the idea of school uniforms.

To give a little background, Long Beach, Calif., was the first public school district to require uniforms. It reported a dramatic decrease in school violence and discipline problems. Was this due to the uniforms?

Many people believe Silver Lake High School doesn't have such problems. More than half of the disciplinary problems viewed at SLHS are caused by kids being kids and, in most cases, are not a real concern for action.

But would uniforms force new problems to surface at Silver Lake?

"What problems are they supposed to solve?" asked sophomore Trevor Morrison.

Junior Paul Musselman suggested uniforms would mean "an easier morning preparation; the student body as a whole would look more unified, and separation of student (cliques) maybe lessened."

There is also a down side to school uniforms. Junior Grant Gibson said, "There would probably be a decrease in student individuality and an increase of rebellion and trouble."

Sophomore Ali Ladner says, "We have a lot of expensive individuals here that would sooner die that wear a school uniform."

Would uniforms decrease individuality?

Freshman Rusty Bolan thinks they would. "You sacrifice freedom of style for unproven theories," Rusty said.

"I think a person's individuality comes from their personality. Clothes just reflect that, so a change in clothes would not change someone's individuality," argues sophomore Jenny Girard.

Many people would agree that anything that puts an end to the expensive competition to keep up with the latest fashion is a good thing. But many students find themselves comfortable in these popular clothes. These students may not find the uniforms quite as comfortable.

"It wouldn't affect me because I would probably incorporate the latest fashion into my uniform," junior Bri Kowach said. "I think a lot of people would."

By MIRANDA POLLOM

Special to The Capital-Journal

Today, the need for a good visual appearance ranks right up there with air for many students. Everyone wants to look good and to impress the people with whom they come in contact.

Usually people play it low, but some people go to extremes --- extremes that are becoming more and more prevalent as time goes on.

When it comes to appearance, girls are the ones who struggle the most. Girls usually obsess with things such as their weight, hair color and curves. Why do they do this? Because the figures they base themselves on are those of models in magazines who looks as though their measurements are 36-24-34. There are 3 billion women who don't look like supermodels and only eight who do. Also, models 20 years ago weighed 8 percent less than the average woman; today they weigh 23 percent less.

A psychological study in 1995 found that 3 minutes spent looking at models in a fashion magazine caused 70 percent of women to feel depressed, guilty and shameful. But, the models who are making them feel this way are not as they appear.

The women who are looking at the magazines could just as easily look the same way, if they too had a little tool called an airbrush.

Often girls tread dangerous territory in order to achieve a certain physical appearance. They don't eat, or they allow themselves to get rid of what they do eat.

One out of every four college aged woman has an eating disorder. If she doesn't go to these extremes, she often will invest in some form of dietary supplements. Diet pills are thought of as an easy weight loss miracle.

Herbal supplements can actually mess with chemicals in your brain that can cause you to increase your breathing rate, your heart rate to deadly levels and your blood-pressure. Add all of this up and you come very close to death. Is your appearance and what someone else thinks of you, really worth your life?

The average American woman weighs 144 pounds and wears a size 12- 14. Marilyn Monroe wore a size 12, and she didn't look fat. If Barbie were a real woman, she'd have to walk on all fours due to her proportions.

If you do need to lose a little then exercise and eating right is the only way. Don't let the fake images you see in a magazine get you down or make you feel insecure in the human race.

Most guys actually prefer girls that look "normal" unlike the ones in the magazines.

By JOSH UHL

Special to The Capital-Journal

The time that all students can't wait for in high school is to be seniors.

They look forward to being head of the school, opting out of finals and only going half days. All of these things are fun, but seniors also have to think about what they want to do in their future --- going to college, working and other plans after school. Some seniors let it go by, and then there are those who go to college visits or get information on the colleges they want to go to.

Most of the seniors at Silver Lake High School are planning to go to college, and some of them know where they want to go or have a rough idea.

What they want to major in is a different story. This is a big decision, because it deals with what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Just because you major in something though doesn't mean that the job you get will deal fully with what you majored in college.

Some jobs would just like for you to have a college degree, and what you majored in may or may not help in the job you applied for.

With a recent survey, I found out that a majority of seniors plan to attend Washburn University. Among their interests are sports, acting, psychology and business. Other colleges of choice include Benedictine in Atchison and Sacramento State in California.

The sports that people want to go out for are baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball.

Most of the seniors are planning on working while in college and that is a good thing because sooner or later they will have to learn to work for money and it's better to start early than late.

Most of the seniors aren't sure what they want to do after college, but it doesn't matter because they have to wait and see what the future holds for them.

Many seniors are ready to graduate and move on with their lives. Most of them are excited about getting out of their parents' homes and moving into their own places. They also are looking forward to finding new things about life, meeting new people, and getting new information on themselves and other people around them. I'm sure that seniors are counting down the days until graduation so that they will finally be able to move onto these bigger and better things in life.

If a senior has plans made for the future, he can be successful, get a good job and have a good life.

By BRANDON EDWARDS

Special to The Capital-Journal

Almost all of us have at one time or another taken a woodworking class. Many students think that woods is one of the best classes our school has to offer.

Students like it because it gives them a hands-on learning instead of just sitting in a classroom reading out of books. Students can also learn a trade, maybe even getting a job in a cabinet or furniture shop after high school.

So far this year, Silver Lake High School's shop has been productive. Instructor Keith Karlan says that by the end of the year the students will have turned out some 300 projects. Prices on these projects range up to more than $200.

The time taken to complete these projects varies, too.

"Each student's ability is as different as the projects," Karlan said. "We build projects that take under a week to complete and several, such as a rolltop desk or a triple dresser, can take up to a year."

Some of the more common projects include candle sticks, cedar chests and coffee tables.

The shop plans a project fair today to show some of the projects made this year. The public is invited. In addition to shop projects, video, photography, and art projects will also be on display.

The students who have taken shop have good things to say about the shop.

Senior Shawn Vogel has taken shop all four years of high school and says, "The best thing about shop is that Mr. Karlan treats you like a person, not just a student."

Of all the projects Shawn has made, his favorite is his chair. Shawn says the only thing he would change would be to get a larger variety of wood.

The shop has also been made safer this year by the addition of a new paint job.

Karlan and Rick Blush worked this year to make the shop a safer place to work.

"One of the things Mr. Blush and I have done is paint the interior walls white with a safety yellow stripe," Karlan said. "The student feedback has been very positive to the change."

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