Techno Titans

Jonah Chadwin, Delisa Troupe

In this episode, host Delisa Troupe follows the journey of Techno Titans as they develop as a team and express their hopes for the upcoming competitions. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music. 

Delisa Troupe: Hello, and welcome to Point of View, where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I'm your host, Delisa Troupe, and today we're going to follow the journey of Techno Titans, Northview's robotics team, from when it was first created to becoming one of the biggest clubs at Northview today.

Theresa Dixon: So it started in 2005. I think it had been around for two or three years, and then a teacher by the name of Jason Weinberger had taken it over, and that is who Howard had been working with, was Jason. And then I came in at that point. And then they were basically a school club for about 10 years. In 2015, I was involved then. In 2015, we decided to become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and by doing that, it allowed us to be financially free from the school.

Delisa Troupe: Techno Titans was founded in 2005 around the time that Northview opened. However, it's not just a school club. In 2015, they became a 501(c)(3) organization. Coach Theresa Dixon joined years later to help her current husband with the team.

Theresa Dixon: It really was a matter of, my boyfriend at the time was actually one of the mentors with the team. And I never saw him from January to May because that's when he was up here working with the kids. So after a while I have no technical experience whatsoever, but I found that the team also needed people who could order a pizza, who could make their hotel reservations, who could take care of the books. So I volunteered to do that so that I could be with my friend as well as help the kids out. Howard, he actually is now my husband as of two weeks ago. He was approached by the school. He works at Nordson and Nordson is one of the leading industries here in Johns Creek. When the team was formed in 2005, they approached the industry leaders and said, do you have any technical mentors who can help with the robotics program? He volunteered. So now he's here and he's the lead mentor on the team. And then, like I said, I help out too.

Delisa Troupe: To ensure that they can get the materials and supplies they need on time, the robotics team reaches out to sponsors that help them with their financial needs.

Theresa Dixon: So for example, we're building a robot and we say, oh my gosh, we need these parts right now. We need this. A typical situation if you were still with the school club would be, you'd have to put in a requisition to get funds. It could take a week before all the paperwork and everything is done. By being the 501(c)(3), we were able to then we can do our own finances. So if we need a part, we can order it right now, get it tomorrow. So, and that allowed us us to, by having these big sponsors and the foundation, we can operate more freely. We can afford to have the workspace. If you have something you need to do, you pretty much have to finish up by eight o'clock at night when they lock the building. We can be at the workspace as long as the parents will allow their children to be there.

Theresa Dixon: So it's just, it's a nice thing, and honestly, we cannot do it without our sponsors. And we have some very, very generous sponsors. Well, Nordson is our biggest sponsor and that's where Howard works. They were one of the founding sponsors of the team. This year actually, they upped, they granted us $20,000. So we just put words out. A lot of it comes from sponsors, parents of the students, wherever they're working, we say, Hey, can you just give us a name? That's all we ask. We'll do the work. Just give us a name of somebody to contact and see what we can do.

Delisa Troupe: Just this year, Techno Titans had over 200 people show interest in the club with 92 standing members as of today. After they recruit people through orientation and Club Fair, they spend the first two weeks explaining what the club is about and allow people to decide whether or not it's for them. For the rest of the semester, they divide into sub teams and do boot camps where they hone their skills for the FRC competitions in the spring.

Theresa Dixon: We have several subteams. So you can choose if you wanna be on the team on fabrication that actually builds the robot, if you wanna be on the electrical team that does the wiring, or if you have no desire to even touch a robot, but wanna do our social media, you can be on the business team. So during first semester we have that whole time where you can learn about your sub-team and what your responsibilities will be then. And then another thing we do during the first semester is we mentor younger kids in a program called FLL, First Lego League. So they're using the Lego Mindstorms and we help them learn how to program it as well as they do a project.

Delisa Troupe: During the second semester on the first Saturday in January is the big kickoff. FIRST, a robotics competition for high school students, releases a theme or "game" for that year. In the 2021 to 2022 season, the theme is transportation. On their website they explain further, "From the shipment of packages in rural and urban areas to disaster relief delivery and high tech air transit, teams will reimagine faster, more reliable, inclusive, and sustainable transportation innovations that better connect and grow communities and economies around the world." They are given six weeks to build a robot, which is around 120 pounds. After those six weeks, they start their competition cycle. This past weekend, they went to their first competition in Dalton, Georgia, and at the end of the month, they'll be going to Albany.

Coco Lu: I'm honestly really, really proud of our team making so much progress this season so far. All of our practices have been going pretty well. If we will win, I hope so, but then again, robots have a mind of their own pretty much. Yes, we control them, but sometimes things do go beyond our control and something might break or something might, you know, malfunction. So it's hard to tell if we will win or not. We don't know what other team's robots are like yet, but knowing the competition in the Peachtree district, it will probably be pretty tough. But since it is one of the first competitions, I expect other teams to pretty much be on the same level, maybe. But I do think that our robot is pretty solid. We can climb, we can shoot, we can track. So I have confidence in our team's abilities. Yeah.

Delisa Troupe: Junior Coco Lu is the business head of Techno Titans. She oversees the outreach and communications and marketing and media sub teams. Although she originally wanted to join the fabrication team, after a certain incident with the saw, her hopes were diminished. Thankfully, she believes she fits in much more with business.

Coco Lu: Tell them basically what the tasks are for the week, and then we all work together to get the rest of the business team, to go with our activities. So usually we oversee like our team social medias, we apply for awards. We also maintain relationships with our sponsors through the forms of email blasts and thank you cards, stuff like that. And we overall just do pretty much everything that's not on the technical side of engineering.

Delisa Troupe: Other prominent members include Kenneth Shen, Vice President and Siya Deshpande, Engineering Head of Techno Titans. Kenneth, Siya, and Advay Pampattiwar are the main designers of the robot. With their many years on the team, they've also had a lot of memorable moments.

Siya Deshpande: My freshman year I drove into the table and I was like, it was kind of like my thing. It was like, whenever we see that table, now it was a brand new table. It was the first time anyone made a dent in it. And so whenever we like see that table, we're like, oh, that's my table. It's my mark. So it's like, but I've heard that like, it's actually really been useful to connect things together.

Kenneth Shen: This is, I guess one of my biggest memories from robotics and kind of the point that I feel like really sense that I really wanna do this was back in my freshman year, I was really bad at box. Every time I was like, oh, this is off. This is wrong. Oh, it's not within like this thing. It's not gonna work. You know? And then we kind of iterating and iterating, iterating. And at that time I wasn't really that good at computer and design either. So I was like making a lot of mistakes too, with computer design and modeling. I guess my most memorable moment is when we actually built it. I felt so satisfying. To finally see it like done and like completed. We still have it, still use it today. So it's like, not like kind like a legacy. It's like, oh yes, that is gonna be with our team for hopefully a long time after I go.

Coco Lu: The first thing that comes to mind is definitely competitions. I feel like the energy at competitions is just immeasurable compared to everything else. Usually during the season, things can get stressful or things can be very, very time consuming, but once we get to competitions, we just let go of all of our fear and worries. We try to live in the moment and just enjoy the competition.

Delisa Troupe: Competitions are fun experiences for members of the team to earn awards, meet new people, and have fun competing against others in a safe environment. Many of the members also engage in fun events like dance offs. Although robotics is competitive, the FRC, First Robotics Competition, encourages high quality work, emphasizing the value in others, and being professional and respectful to competitors and the community at all times.

Coco Lu: The thing about robotics is that there's a sense of gracious professionalism. Basically that means when you go to competitions and stuff, you are basically representing your team and your fellow teammates, and it's looked down upon if you say anything negative about other teams, judges, the first program, which is what we fall under. So we basically just try to stay professional at all times, and competitions are just really a way for all of us to just enjoy the competition, enjoy the robots, make friends, stuff like that. And our team is really, really good with like team spirit. We do cheers, dances, stuff like that. And yeah, it's overall really fun, and it's just the energy of everyone in the venue or the area. It's great.

Delisa Troupe: The club has grown exponentially throughout the years, not only in number, but also in female representation.

Coco Lu: In 2017, we had like seven girls. Now we have around 20 that's like a 186% increase. So I'm really happy about that. And also I'm really proud of us girls too. Like we have like our own girls channel in our Slack and we plan like girls hangouts sometimes, and we just do a lot of things together. I'm really, really close with the girls on the team now just because we have been able to hang out and talk so much.

Delisa Troupe: However, there have been times where the girls on the team have felt isolated due to their gender.

Siya Deshpande: Especially being like the only girl in the room at times, it felt like everybody else knew things that I just didn't know. People will be like, oh yeah, I know programming and then be like, oh. I feel like a lot of times boys will say they know things even if they don't and girls, at least me, I'm like, I won't say I know something unless I completely know it. So I always, I always felt like I was like, oh, everybody else is smarter than me. I was like, oh, how am I ever gonna learn? You know, how am I ever gonna learn this stuff? But I feel like you spend more time and the more you learn, the more confident you become.

Delisa Troupe: With 92 members on the team, Techno Titans is open to anyone hoping to learn more about business, robotics engineering and more. However, the club was not always this welcoming. In previous years, they had a cut system where they evaluated members on their performance and decided who should be removed from the team. During the summer, they focused on improving their robots to prepare for GRITS. GRITS, or the Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase, is during the off season and takes place around October or the first semester of school.

Coco Lu: And we used to have a cut system. So basically the October season, basically first semester, we call that the GRITS season because at the end of October or early November, usually somewhere around on that time, there's a competition that's called GRITS, so we call that the GRITS season. In previous years, we allowed anybody to be on the GRITS team. Basically, if you paid your dues and then if you were engaged, we would let you go, and we would let you be on the team. But then for FRC, which is like the second semester season, we used to have a cut system. So we evaluated people's behaviors, and if they acted like they didn't wanna be on the team or they weren't focused at meetings, they would be pretty much warned or booted. This year, it's gotten a lot better. It might have been due to COVID, but we started being a more open team. So we open up our team. It's no longer a cut system, basically, if you're interested and you are committed and you're engaged at meetings and you step up to lead side projects and you do your part, we let anyone join the team now. So that's why our team has been able to grow so much in size.

Kenneth Shen: It was 15 people who applied and only like three got in. So it was like 20% who really got it. It was kinda the same for like all across all sub teams, and we had to cut a lot of people and now we're like more like open we're like okay we accept everyone right. My personal opinion on this and we still have disagreements on the team on this or at least previous leadership definitely didn't believe this was a good method. They thought a more seclusive team was a lot better. I think that people on the team who disagree with me as well, but this is my opinion on this. I feel like having a more open and letting everyone who wants to join, join. I think that's a better system than having a cut system.

Delisa Troupe: Members of the robotics team have expressed positive feelings for the team and leadership. Shriya Mahakala, the safety captain and a programmer for the team, believes that this year, especially with the new workspace, everything is very organized.

Shriya Mahakala: It's been a little hectic, but I think we've been managing it well. Especially this year, I feel like our leadership is super organized. We have schedules every week with designated people at designated places, like some people would be at the workspace and some people would be at the media center for set intervals of time. So it's definitely really organized this year, but then there's always just some stuff like the robot breaking. I think it was like Monday, we were supposed to test on the robot, but then the robot broke. So then that kind of like delayed it. But there's always unexpected circumstances, but I think our leadership this year has been doing really well with managing everything.

Delisa Troupe: With rising hopes and challenges for the upcoming competitions. It is easy to forget that for some members, this may be their last. Kenneth Shen, senior and Vice President of Techno Titans, hopes that people will continue doing the club because they genuinely enjoy it. For him, it was never about leaving a legacy, making a huge impact or looking good for college. Rather, robotics became his passion.

Kenneth Shen: I really hope generally to inspire people to continue doing what they want and what they find meaningful. So I feel like robotics, if you do robotics for college, I feel like you're kind of an idiot in my opinion, because you spend so much time on it, you spend so much effort, and it's just like one thing on your resume. Do things because you want to, because you find them meaningful again, and keep on inspiring others, keep on mentoring others and helping others. You know, helping the community. Our team is very community centric. You know, we go to STEM nights, we do outreach and everything.

Delisa Troupe: For those interested in engineering, robotics, or even business, Techno Titans could be the perfect hobby throughout high school. Although it comes with hard work and a competitive environment, it's a way to make new friendships and explore something you never believed you would've enjoyed before. Their hard work will pay off as they compete in different competitions around Georgia and possibly the world competition in Houston, Texas.

Siya Deshpande: So first time I saw the Techno Titans was at orientation. I saw a really cool robot and it looked really complicated to me and I was like, wow, there's no way that I'm gonna figure out how to do this. I don't know anything about robotics. I had no background in engineering or anything like that. So I was hesitant about joining, but after some encouragement with friends who were on the team and then my family, they encouraged me to join. So I joined and I was really impressed with how inclusive the team was. It didn't matter that I didn't know anything, they were willing to teach me and that's all that mattered. So, that's why I joined and it's a lot of fun in competitions and just the culture of learning is something that I really appreciate within the team.

Delisa Troupe: This concludes our episode with Techno Titans. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the Point of View tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook @nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. I'm your host, Delisa Troupe, and this has been Point of View.

Book Bans - Into Darkness

Jordan Anderson, Jonah Chadwin, Rachel Everett, Caleb Smith, Orelia Thottam, Delisa Troupe

In the second episode of our two-part series, host Caleb Smith explores how book bans affect students and the authors who hoped to spread representation, connection, and understanding with the characters and experiences in their books. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music.

Ashley Perez: Out of Darkness was published in 2015. It received a Prince honor it won the Tomasi better Book Award. It won the America's Book Award. It was a School Library Journal and a Kirkus review Best Book of the Year. It was named by Booklist, one of 50 best YA books of all time, like, you know what I mean? It's been around, and so I think it was like, a bit startling because I think when I first wrote this book, I wondered, how will it be received? You know, will people be ready for it? And initially for the first six years, it was well received, you know, overwhelmingly in positive ways and only in 2021 did it start being banned.

Caleb Smith: Hello and welcome to point of view, where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I'm your host, Caleb Smith, and today we are back with part two of our series on book bans, where we will dive into the implications behind the recent surge of book bands in America. Specifically, how it affects our youth and the authors who are working to help our students learn and grow through their books. Please note that this episode references sensitive topics, including sexual violence and racism, and may not be suitable for some listeners. This is author Ashley Hope Perez.

Ashley Perez: Out of Darkness is set in 1936. And it's a love story. It's about a Latina named Naomi who moves to this community in East Texas, from San Antonio with her two half siblings, so she has younger siblings, and she falls in love with a boy named Wash or Washington. One who’s black.

Caleb Smith: Wash walked the girl out of the yard and down the road away from the house. She could hear their laughter and wondered if he was telling this girl the same jokes he told her down by the river. Once they were gone, Naomi tore down the path into the woods trying to outrun the sob that was Connor’s throat. without remembering the steps in between, or the light in the woods, or the sound of the river. Naomi found herself in the back steps of Henry's house.

Ashley Perez: And this is a sort of the kind of relationship that has no place in this time and in this community.

Caleb Smith: Wash tried keeping his voice calm. But he felt his fear creeping in the stories he'd heard from his father's growing up days in the country. All the ways a black man could die.

Ashley Perez: And so they really kind of create a little family out in the woods, and it's a space of joy and possibility for her and for her siblings. But there are a lot of things set against them.

Caleb: Naomi didn't need to be told she felt safest in the room with the sleeping twins. She did not want to see her mother's empty face, her strange, swollen body drained of color. She did not want to be out in the part of the house where Henry walks.

Ashley Perez: Naomi has an abusive stepfather. And then the book leads up to a real event. The New London School explosion which killed 300 students and teachers, and that event triggers like a downward spiral for these characters.

Caleb Smith: On March 18 1937. A gas leak led to an explosion that destroyed the London School in East Texas. The school had cost a million dollars to build. It was located in one of the wealthiest school districts in the country. And yet a leak had allowed natural gas to accumulate in the basement, killing almost 300 students and teachers. This tragedy known as The New London School explosion is the deadliest school disaster in American history to this day. The content of Perez’s books mirror reality in modern day and in historical texts. The novel tackles racism, classism, and segregation during the 1930s. At the center there's a love story between Naomi and Wash. He reveals the challenges they face from sexual assault to overt racism and fear, real things that real people face. In fact, she writes most of her books with her previous students in mind. She writes about their experiences and their struggles in the same setting where she used to teach.

Ashley Perez: I was a teacher in Houston starting in 2004. And this book What Can't Wait is my first novel which is set in our school. It's about you know, it's about places that all my students recognize. And it was really focused on my students experiences, specifically, their feelings about how complicated it was to figure out how to help their families meet the needs that were coming up every single day, while also finding a way to navigate towards their own future. So college or work or whatever, out of darkness is the historical novel I wrote, for my students, the one I felt what will make them want to keep turning the page, what would make this matter to them. And it matters both because you start, you really come to care about the characters, but also because it shows aspects of our history, like a lot of people know about school segregation, as it affected black Americans. So having, you know, quote, unquote, colored schools, but a lot of people don't know that in places like Texas, there were three ways of segregating students, there was the well, the better funded white school, there was the quote, unquote, colored school. And then there was the Mexican School, which was not for people who were actually from Mexico, but for Latinos, or anybody brown, but not black, not white. And in places like San Antonio, by the time kids were in sixth grade, they were basically pushed out of school. So they were, they had, you know, huge classes, and they didn't have the resources that they needed to learn. And the whole goal was, basically to get kids to drop out. There weren't Mexican high schools there. So you have to be wide enough to go to the white school, or find another way, if you're going to continue in education in many cases.

Caleb Smith: Parent associations or school boards advocate for banning books, they take away real experiences that students may have faced, or will face, they take away literature that is meant to educate in a safe space for open conversation. They take away students’ rights to learn about the different circumstances that people live through, and these students deserve to read literature that they can relate to.

Ashley Perez: To think about all the times that I walked into our high school library with my classes and worked with them to find books, and how excited my students back in 2004 would have been to find these books. It really makes me…, what do I say? I'm not very good at being angry. I don't do anger. It makes me really sad. It does, but it also makes me feel indignant, because we've worked so hard to bring more representation, a wider range of experiences, more of the untold stories into high school libraries, and these actions are all about pushing back on that progress. I know as a teacher, and as a parent that students are the ones that are harmed.

Caleb Smith: Out of darkness a novel by Ashley hope Perez, a Latina author. Was one of the novels targeted or removed in Georgia, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Texas. It had challenges in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas as well. The book was first banned in Texas schools when Kara Bell interrupted a school board meeting to voice her opinion on the now controversial book. She read a passage from the book pertaining to sexual content and explained how it was unsuitable for kids to be reading. She finished her argument by stating that the school board should focus on education and not public health.

Ashley Perez: And the passage that gets read over and over from my book, as proof that it shouldn't be in schools is about a Latina, arriving to an all-white school on her first day. And it's what the characters that the kids in the class are thinking about her. I'm not endorsing that perspective; I'm showing that it happened that young people had to endure those circumstances and somehow find a way to maintain their dignity at the same time.

Caleb Smith: Miss Perez is not the only one who has fought back against the book bans in the most diverse high school in the state of Missouri, North Kansas City. 10 students condemned their districts and the Northland parent associations attempts to ban books, many of these associations author Perez is familiar with.

Ashley Perez: So there's a bunch of right wing groups like No Left Turn in Education, Moms for liberty, there are some that are specific to Texas, and then there are tons of these some of them private Facebook groups and online groups were basically you know, spreadsheets where folks who are looking to signal I'd say their objections to certain identities, queer identities, non-white identities. They target the books as a way of sending a signal historically, book banning has been focused in banning in schools has often focused on you know, one or two texts, and they were very local challenges like a parent finds a book in their kids backpack and is shocked because books like that weren't in school when they were kids or whatever. You know, this is how like… There were times when authors like Judy Blume were being banned for talking about having your period. So, you know, there's been fights over what kids should read for a long time, but these are really different because it's actually not about the books.

Caleb Smith: The Northland parent association is a nonprofit organization whose goal is to, quote, make a positive impact by protecting our children's educational experiences and fighting for American freedom in the classroom. For the students at North Kansas City High School, this meant banning books from their school, including All Boys aren't Blue, a coming of age novel by George M. Johnson's life growing up queer and black, as well as Fun Home a graphic novel about the author, Alison Bechdel’s childhood and complex relationship with their father.

Aurora Nicol: The NPA which is the Northland parent association, they came to speak at my school district's board meeting and they read some and the president of it Jay Richmond read excerpts from four different books. Well, he read excerpt from three, but then when it came to the fourth book, he just said he was refusing to read an excerpt from it because it was from a gay black man. And apparently that means he didn't have to read the whole thing.

Caleb Smith: Jay Richmond, the head of MPA, along with other supporters of the book bans believe in the right of parents to decide what is best for their kids. They advocate against topics like mask mandates, and teaching critical race theory, emphasizing the importance of choice.

Kate: The book banning was initiated by the Northland parent association. I had been following the Northland parent association for a while. They started gaining popularity last school year at the end, and then this summer, they held a conference that was basically just a bunch of these angry, far right wing parents like rallying together, and they were all upset about masking and critical race theory and, you know, exclusive topics in schools.

Caleb Smith: This is why it's so strange that the supporters of MPAA, the parents may not even have children in the school district they are rallying against.

Phedre: Because it's a giant parent association, the speakers that go and speak up at districts may not necessarily be parents of any children that are in the school district, Miss Kraft, went and spoke at my school district board meeting, but her kids are currently enrolled in a Liberty school. So they're just one giant association, and they go and speak about books and masks, because they want, they claim that they want to take care of their children and make sure that they're the ones that are seeing their children, because they you know, seeing what their children learn about and all that because they're the ones that have the right to take care of their children, and that is true, but the thing is, is that their actions don't match their words, because if they cared for their children particular, they would not overreach the rights of other parents, because that's one thing, one parent may not want their kid to read these books in particular, and that's fine for you to want that for your own child, but when you go into school board meetings, and you're like, No child should read all Boys Aren't Blue, because it's got, you know, it's got gay people in it, and it's like, okay, but other parents may actually want their kids to read that other parents may be indifferent towards that. And it is kind of hypocritical of them to go parents’ rights matter and then completely forget that other parents exist and may actually want their kids to read these things.

Caleb Smith: The NPA made a list of over 25 books, they want to be removed from the district. That same week, the North Kansas City School Board banned four of those books from their school libraries.

Aurora Nicol: I was so surprised to see those on a list like Perks of Being a Wallflower was on there, and I was just like, what nothing happens in these books except for sex or racism, like characters experiencing racism, and by that mark, there are quite literally like thousands of books that need to be removed.

Caleb Smith: In response students Aurora Nicole and Holland Duggan started a petition against the book bans which received over 1100 signatures, but Aurora and Holland are the only students to speak up against the banned books. During the North Kansas City School District Board meeting in November of 2021. 10 students from the North Kansas City High School expressed their opinions on the issue. These students included presidents of the woman's empowerment club, the Asian student, union, and more.

Aurora Nicol: I made eight copies so each board member could get one, and I gave each one of them one, and so I and it literally just said, like every person who signed it their name and then if they made a comment, and I'm guessing those board members probably threw them out, but I really hope some of them kept them.

Caleb Smith: North Kansas City High School is the most diverse high school in the state of Missouri. And yet, it's still easy for students to feel like they don't belong. When books such as all Boys aren’t Blue were banned. It excluded people who would have been able to identify with the author and remove the representation they deserve.

Lynh: A lot of times it was just like, I was identified just on my race and I wish I could have been more than just an Asian, like, girl at the school.

Caleb Smith When right-wing conservative groups such as the Northland parent association, or Mom's for Liberty advocated for removing these books on the basis that they include pornographic or sexual content. They're not acknowledging the true meaning or themes behind these books.

Ashley Perez: It also is clear that these are folks who aren't reading, even if they're not reading these books, they're not reading a lot of other things to, you know, they're not paying attention to the fact that it's not just authors with marginalized identities are writing about marginalized characters who we’re writing about, you know, frankly, about sexual experience or violence are those themes have been in literature since Shakespeare since Chaucer, way before that, the Bible which I've taught as literature at the university level, and I grew up in a Bible Church. So, I know the Bible really well. The Bible is full of graphic depictions of sex, right? Male genitals, incest, like really harmful sexual encounters, murder, like vivid, you know, not, we're not just talking about a mention that it happens. So, these things things exist even in books that we go to as a source of wisdom, the politicians and the political organizations that are pushing the talking points that provide a handbook on here's what you should say, I mean, they're all over online, you can find all the passages that some people think mean Out of Darkness as a terrible book for young people, and you can find the talking points, you never even have to read the book, to be able to make a challenge.

Caleb Smith: Rather than the actual content of the books. Several of the students from North Kansas City High School believe that the MPs decision to censor these books wasn't due to the content, but the refusal to center a white male perspective.

Lynh: If you can change the way that children learn, if you can change what they learn as well, then you have created a new generation of people who think just like you, they use the word pornographic as just the reasoning, but books such as like fences, the only mention of like pornography really in there is just the main character cheating on his wife, which I find it very interesting, because most of these book came from people of color. So I think it's just a facade to their real intentions of banning books that provide a different perspective on marginalized groups.

Caleb Smith: Due to stress from these books, the North Kansas City school district passed over the formal process of removing these books from libraries exacerbating the issue.

Lynh: They're getting really frustrated, because they're supposed to get notified that books are being you know, taken off the shelves, and they didn't get any notification. So it was really frustrating at the time, because it definitely showed that our district was susceptible to that kind of rhetoric that says, you know, oh, these books need to be banned, because this and this, but I am so proud of our district's ability to bounce back from that and to go, No, we're going to keep these books.

Caleb Smith: The books ended up being back on the shelves within the same month, the morning the North Kansas City High School students spoke up at the board meeting.

Aurora: They took away those books for a month in my library. But during that month period, when I you know, the petition was going, my friend Holland reached out to the to the ACLU. And the ACLU also threatened our district that they were going to sue them for removing the books. So they put the books back in the library, kind of the same day that my classmates and I went to speak to our school board.

Caleb Smith: Although the issue was resolved in that school district book banning is still a nationwide problem. For students without easy access to a free public library. Taking these books off the shelves could restrict them entirely.

Ashley Perez: And in fact, the students who most rely on school libraries for access like my students in Houston, some of whom did not have the time or resources outside of school to go to the public library and check out something if it had been removed from our library. So, it was really important that they could find things in the school library.

Caleb Smith: Of course, parents have the right to oversee what their kids read in order to protect them. However, district-wide book bans are not necessary for individual parents to protect their own children. They're already methods in place for parents to accomplish this.

Lynh: I have met some parents, I talked to some parents who don't want their kids to read that. And I think that those parents should just abide to like the regular library rules are already set in place where if you don't want your, you know, kid to read the material, then you can go on to the school website, and, you know, block your kid from checking out those things. That's always been, you know, I thing you could have done but these parents are completely ignoring that and that just speaks to how discriminatory they are.

Caleb Smith: By letting a group of people decide for other parents with their children can read. It takes away the rights of many parents to decide what they want for their children to have access to, and even when books are put back on shelves, it can have lasting effects. This can include both soft, and self-censorship.

Ashley Perez: Self-censorship can be more like a principal making comments to the librarian to signal we don't really need more books like X, Y, or Z, even though those books may be important for young people in the library, and the librarian’s job is to fill that library with the books that you all need that meet your needs, and no book is going to be for everybody, right, but if someone needs that book, it needs to be in the library.

Caleb Smith: Perez is an established author and a professor, she does not have to rely on her bookselling to make a living, but for many newer authors, book bans could be their downfall.

Ashley Perez: In my case, I'm a university professor. So I have a job that helps me feed my two kids, even if none of my books sell or I never get asked to do another school visit, which would break my heart, but I haven't done a single school visit since all of this started, because schools don't want to create controversies. Um, but I will be okay financially. However, there are authors who depend on book sales for a living and there are new authors like this is my third book, I have two books that are under contract, so I don't have to worry that my next book is not going to get published because of this book ban stuff. People who are publishing their first book and having it banned, could be the end of a career.

Caleb Smith: As parents and schools implement these bands, they turn a blind eye to the meaning behind these books, and their impact on the students that read them. Books like Maus teach important historical themes relating to the Holocaust, resonating with a great number of Americans.

Aurora: Maus is a story written and illustrated by Art Spiegelman. It is the only graphic novel to ever win a Pulitzer Prize. And it follows the story because it was originally presented between the seventh 1970s and 1980s in a series of chapters, but it follows the story of Art Spiegelman's father and his father's life as it was in the Holocaust from like, just before the Holocaust to when the war is over, and they were able to come to America. And it's, it's this really just, like, heartbreaking tale. And it's, it definitely, it plays on the trope because during the Holocaust, Jewish people were primarily associated with vermin. So like as an there are, there's a direct quote from Hitler in mouse that equates Jewish people with vermin. So Art Spiegelman takes that and uses that and all of the Jewish people in the book are depicted as mice.

Caleb Smith: If sweeping book bands related to these events continue, then the new generation cannot learn from their mistakes that we have made in the past.

Lynh: I'll admit, I had no idea why Jewish people were stereotyped as being like money, hoarders like that whole stereotype until I read Maus, and then when I read Maus, I was like, Oh, dang, that's why because when they were in the Holocaust, they had to use their personal objects and items, like that's why they had to be, you know, smart about how they got their money, because they needed to be because if they didn't, they wouldn't survive, and I didn't know that. Had I not read Maus, or had I not, you know, actively gone out and go, I want to read Maus or I want to learn more about this. If I had not had that mindset of wanting to learn, I would never have gotten, I'd never had deepened my perspective, and it changed what I knew. It's a very excellent book, and I it definitely made me like helped me learn a lot and it helped just paint this bigger picture because when we learn about Holocaust in our history classes, it's often this nebulous idea of terror instead of something personal and the book definitely brings how horrible it was, it brings it personal and it brings it close.

Caleb Smith: Fences. A play by August Wilson is centered around the life of Troy Maxon, and his complex relationships with other characters. It explores his thwarted dream of playing in the major leagues for baseball, as a black man and his conflicted relationship with his wife and son. Troy is a tragic hero, someone who displays how the long standing division between black and white affects future generations of black Americans. explicit content happens everyday in the real world. These books are in elementary school libraries, and rarely are the they in middle school ones. These books are meant for high schoolers, who may be months away or years from becoming an adult. Even if readers are not able to relate with these characters. Reading gives them the opportunity to learn from them.

Aurora: All Boys aren't Blue like I am queer myself. So that has a personal connection to me and I know that queer stories are very graphic and dark and that we don't we shouldn't hide those aspects of queer stories or you know, any other types of stories because it is reality that people face this and people should learn about it. These kids who don't get that type of support at home and don't get that type of support other places. can't access them, and so you know, school is a safe place to talk about those types of topics. In all honesty, like those types of topics should be discussed that schools like in our IB literature class, we definitely talk about like rape in books, and we talk about molestation and all these like hard topics because it's an educational environment where we can explain you know, the depth of them and what they represent, and I think that's an important opportunity that all kids should get out of.

Caleb Smith: Out of darkness, All boys aren't blue, Fences, Maus are just several of the hundreds of books being banned nationwide. They are under attack being called filth, disgusting, inappropriate, or pornographic, but books like these have had positive effects on so many students. Books like these allow students to relate to the characters to learn from their actions to understand the world from a different perspective. Books like these are more than the cuss words, violent explanations, or explicit material of the content inside. Books like these should be judged based on the intention of the author, and the message they try to convey through their writing. By keeping these books, it allows us as a society that is more inclusive and welcoming towards the decisions children make about their sexuality, race, status, religion, and identity. It helps us break the trauma and challenges children face today. When parents Facebook groups, school districts refuse to have these books in schools, when they call these books, filth, disgusting, inappropriate, and pornographic, they exclude people who may have experienced those things, they exclude people who may relate with the characters, and they take away the opportunity for students to learn.

Ashley Perez: It is a tragedy too, because there's a there's a lot of harm and hurt in this book. In spite of that, I hear from readers that they end the book both like heartbroken and hopeful because they see what that the family that Wash and Naomi and the kids make, should be given room in the world. Right, and maybe in this day and age, there's not the same level of negative response to interracial relationships that there was at the time, but there are other forms of love, that don't have space to thrive, and I think that it's really powerful to fallen in love ourselves with characters, and then want them to have space to grow and care for each other, and when they don't get to have that space. I think it makes readers and certainly makes me want to build a better world. I want a world where that love is possible. I want a world where young people get to matter and feel safe in their schools. And that's not the world that Washington, Naomi live in, and it's not the world that we live in either, and there's a lot of work to do.

Caleb Smith: As books are still being banned in several states and more soon to come. We hope the truth comes to light on what banning these books can truly do to society. Thank you for listening to our final episode on book bans. For a transcript of this episode, head to the point of view tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @nhspointofview for more updates and new episodes. I'm your host Caleb Smith, and this has been Point of View.

Across the Table - Superheroes

Rachel Everett, Caleb Smith, Jonah Chadwin, Dhruv Singh

In this episode, staffers Dhruv, Caleb, Jonah, and Rachel discuss their opinions on Spiderman: No Way Home, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and superheroes as a whole. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music.

Dhruv: Hello and welcome to point of view where we give students a place to listen and learn. We're your hosts, Dhruv,

Caleb: Caleb,

Jonah: Jonah,

Rachel: and Rachel.

Dhruv: And today we'll be talking about Spider Man, the recent movie, and superheroes as a whole. We won't be getting into spoilers until later in the episode, so I'll give you a warning when we start that. Okay, so recently, we're kind of been like, the biggest theme in Entertainment has been superheroes. Wouldn’t you guys agree?

All: Yeah.

Dhruv: So I like, at least for me, I feel like you can kind of see these like themes like, over history, like they're like cowboys in the 60s and like sci-fi mania stuff, like what you guys think like,

Caleb: Would you consider Indiana Jones like a super?

Dhruv: Yeah, There was like a point where like action movies and like, like, heist stuff was really popular, like Ocean's 11. Like,

Caleb: I never really got into Indiana Jones. But like, I've heard that that's been like a big thing, especially like, back in the day. I don't remember when that came out though. When did it come out?

Dhruv: Like the 80s.

Caleb: 80s. Okay, yeah.

Dhruv: So like, I think that if we're like, following those trends, we're kind of in like a big superhero. I guess renaissance right now, like superhero movies have been around a long time. But now they're kind of, they look a lot a lot different.

Caleb: They're very different from when they were before. But they're at like its peak right now. Especially with the animation and what they're including and kind of like their ideas of how they're forming these movies together is like, yeah, really crazy.

Rachel: It seems to be like they're interweaving each other. And it's not just like one film and then another one, it’s the entire story.

Dhruv: Yeah, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, like that's the term is like, I think it might have been the first to do that, you know, where you take different series. And you like, tie them together? And like, build off each other, like, tease each other and stuff. I don't actually know if anything has done it in that like regard before?

Jonah: I don't know. I don't think the DC has done it nearly as well.

Dhruv: Yeah, no, for sure. If we're talking, It also has a lot of like copycats. Yeah. Like, yeah, DC tried it. And then like there was a point where I think was universal was trying it with like their like horror movie.

Caleb: Like, stories can have sequels and like a like a movie after that. But they're, they don't really like connect, as well as what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is doing. Kind of like building off each other each, like each movie, and kind of getting better as they go.

Jonah: Yeah. And they have stuff planned out for the next I think six years. I think Kevin Feige said in an interview.

Caleb: Yeah, that's crazy.

Dhruv: I think it's, it's kind of like a TV show, right? Like, you get connected to these characters. Because you have so much time with them. Yeah. And like, you get to spend like several episodes with one character, you build them up, you like have like multiple conflicts and stuff. And like, a cinematic universe kind of does the same thing. It's just on a much larger scale, like bigger budgets. Yeah, like, I guess more fleshed-out stories and stuff. And like, I personally feel like there are some downsides to that. Like, I know, it's kind of controversial just to like, because I love Marvel movies and stuff, and I love superhero movies. They're some of the most fun like, they deliver themes and stuff while also being fun without like requiring too much thought and stuff. So I think they're like, really accessible by a wide audience. The thing is, though, that I kind of feel like when you have such a large amount of like entertainment right now being one thing. Like, I think Marvel is like 1/4 of the entertainment industry right now.

All: Yeah.

Dhruv: I feel like it can get like-

Caleb: Overwhelming?

Dhruv: Yeah.

Caleb: Um, I guess I could agree. But I think all the content that they're putting out is almost trying to build their fan base even more than what it already was. Yeah, Marvel has been popular for like, for what- decades? I don't know how long it's like been a thing. Like, even before, like, back in the comics, like they had a lot of fans and stuff. But I think that with all the content they're putting out, it could seem overwhelming, but I do love like enjoying seeing that. Because when movies come out they’re like two years apart, but if they're putting out the TV shows and the movies, like kinda like not back to back, but they're in close in proximity. I think that it kind of gets us closer to those characters in the story.

Jonah: Yeah, and in a few years, they'll have more than I think 40 projects and for new people that are just jumping on that's gonna be really hard for them to get into it.

Dhruv: It’s intimidating.

Jonah: But I feel like it's definitely worth it. There are a lot of stories that you can just like watch on your own and some series that you can watch on your own without needing to know the other things.

Dhruv: Yes.

Rachel: Do you also think that it's kind of getting oversaturated?

Dhruv: I think I think that like- I know I personally, before this most recent Spider Man movie, I was kind of feeling burnt out on it. Because I've been like a big superhero fan like I’ve loved Spider Man since I was like really young and stuff like all this. But you know, after like seeing Marvel so much over the last few years I saw those three shows they released like the Captain America and Loki and WandaVision stuff.

Jonah: Yeah.

Dhruv: And like after that I just kind of feeling burnt out. I wasn't that interested in like any new movies that they were gonna release. I won't lie, Spider Man kind of brought me back on though.

Caleb: Yeah, that was a crazy movie.

Dhruv: But I do think that like oversaturation and just like the sheer amount of content, like it kind of makes each one less special for me. At least, I can see like-

Caleb: I can see your point.

Jonah: I see your point. I just, I disagree, because I feel like it just, they all have their own thing about them. Yeah. And they are all so different. And I just, they don't get boring for me. I don't, I don't think they ever will for me.

Rachel: I think that like it's almost intimidating, but also at the same time, it's just so much and not enough time in a way. Like back in early 2021, WandaVision came out, then like a week later, Falcon and the Winter Soldier came out, and then Loki and then there was just so much other stuff. And it's like, you don't have enough time to catch up. Like, I haven't been able to watch all of Hawkeye yet. And I'm just like trying to find the time. It's just-

Caleb: But I think like with these, like TV shows, I think Marvel's aspect was that although movies take a lot longer to make, I think that with them putting these shows out, it's almost giving us this like leisure time where we can watch this at home, and then in that time, they're making movies that we can go see once those are finished. So that way we could like, I mean, not necessarily like kind of keep intact of what's going on in this universe. And like kind of how everything will connect once that next big movie comes out kind of like Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Jonah: Yeah. And I really liked even diving deeper into those characters that we haven't seen as often that might be overlooked like Hawkeye, Wandavision and Bucky and Falcon using them more, they've gotten more screentime than some of those other bigger characters because they've got their own series now.

Dhruv: I think like if we're talking about the characters specifically, like, we like zoom out a little bit to talk about superheroes. I think it's really interesting that they're like, they're having like, they're like seen in a different form now. And I think they're kind of like folktales if you think about it, yeah, they've been around for like, a long, long time, like since the 50s. Like somebody's like Spider Man's like the 60s and 70s and a ton of different iterations. But like, when you reduce it to its core, it is kind of like just like, it's something to like latch on to. It's like something to relate to. It's like a story that like a kid can like, really enjoy like learn lessons from. Dometimes there will also be like really goofy comic book like storylines and stuff, but the main like, essence is like- you guys have any thoughts on that?

Jonah: I feel like for all of us, there's a Marvel character out there that we can all relate to, probably a lot of them.

Caleb: Even like Kate Bishop. I think that kind of like storytelling, like if we were in Kate bishops position, like her looking at Hawkeye, I think well, this is kind of a spoiler if you guys haven’t watched the Hawkeye series yet, but just Kate Bishop looking up to Hawkeye and just seeing him on the side of the building. And like saving people, even when there's aliens, he had no powers like the rest of his, like the rest of the Avengers. She kind of took up that and was like, wow, okay, I'm gonna take this lesson. I'm gonna learn to fight people. And then she got really good at archery and knew how to find that sort of thing.

Dhruv: Yeah, I think that at their best, like superhero movies are just, they go deep on a character or they show you like a character that you can kind of relate to. And then there's just like fun action on top of that stuff. Like it's fun movies. I think that the core though, is that character, like, when they're my issue with them is that sometimes like, a movie will come out and that character is missing. It feels like it's just part of like the cinematic universe and stuff.

Caleb: What example would you give?

Dhruv: I'd say something like, like the first Dr. Strange, right? I love him. I think he's super cool. But that first movie, I feel like he's kind of bland. At least in that first one. But yeah, I think he's coming into his own. I'm really excited for this next one.

Jonah: Yeah, I feel like at the beginning they sort of had to experiment with that character and get to learn him better and as it goes throughout I feel like they're doing better. And with Multiverse of Madness, I feel like they're gonna do better and make it his movie.

Dhruv: Yeah, like that's what I'm saying. Like, I think that when they are just using like a character or like a movie as a piece of a larger thing to like, build up to something. I think that's when I feel like okay, maybe the cinematic universe is detracting from like these individual pieces. You know what I mean? Also, sometimes like, something interesting about the cinematic universe, right, is the concept of like a bunch of different artists or directors coming and like making their own movie, and like their own unique style and then like, fitting into this larger piece and like you get like this like tapestry of a bunch of different styles and stuff. But the thing is, is that I feel like that's a missed opportunity because like sometimes these Marvel movies end up like looking the same. There's like not much unique voice in each one. I don't know if you guys disagree.

Jonah: Yeah, I feel like recently I feel like they've gotten better. Eternals felt really different than the other movies, Shang-Chi felt really different. And with all the new stuff they're putting out, I feel like they're all diving deeper into different sections, like, the Agatha show that they announced will dive deeper into the magic, like, just Multiverse of Madness and into that reality kind of thing.

Dhruv: Like making each individual piece pop more. Yeah. Like, I'm glad to see they're doing that a little bit more.

Jonah: Yeah, in the earlier days, they all had that same sort of tone. Yeah.

Caleb: Would you say they did that with No Way Home?

Jonah: I would say yeah.

Dhruv: I did think that No Way Home had a little bit more of like an individual voice. I think that like, I'll just leave like one last note on like, something. There's like, what was it- Martin Scorsese said something about Marvel movies- which gets thrown around a lot like every interview with a Marvel actor- they're asked like, “What do you think of what Martin Scorsese said?”. He said like that Marvel movies aren't cinema. He said they aren't cinema because they're like, theme park rides.

Jonah: Yeah, I've heard that.

Dhruv: And the thing is, is that that's like, really, it's pretty pretentious. And it like comes off really self-like dramatic and stuff. But I kind of see what he's saying sometimes.

Jonah: I kind of see it.

Dhruv: Because here's the thing, right? Okay. Okay. I see you nodding.

Rachel: I think Caleb and I agree. Or don’t understand.

Dhruv: Let me explain myself. Let me explain myself, right, because I get what you mean, it is really pretentious. And I think the way he said it was kind of like “They aren't cinema.” like is really like up his snooty. But when you watch an individual movie, right, it's like, it's a whole story. There's like a lot of thought that goes into it like, let me think of a movie. If I'm watching, like, shoot, give me a second.

Caleb: Dune.

Dhruv: Uh, well, that's also like a part of a franchise and stuff.

Caleb: Oh, is it actually?

Dhruv: Yeah, well, there’s like going to be sequels like, but let me think like, this movie, like Blindspotting. It's just a random movie. It's like its own story. It like has some characters when you watch it at the beginning and like, by the time it comes to the end, you've seen what like the people who made it like intended, like, it's a full story, there’s characters, like all this stuff. With a Marvel movie, you're watching like a piece. It's like a cog, you know, it's not like its own, like full machine, or at least sometimes it might feel like that. Yeah, instead it comes out as like, one piece that's building up to something larger. And also, they're like, sometimes they can be like, very corporate, or it can feel like it or something. It might not feel like personal. And in that regard, I can kind of see what he means by like, they're not the same as like a full singular movie.

Jonah: Yeah.

Caleb: Is that what you consider cinema?

Dhruv: Well, okay, I disagree with what like, what he said, but I can kind of see like a point. I mean, I don't want to come off as like- I still love Marvel Movies I'm like a dude. I see Spider Man, I’m like Oh!

Caleb: Yeah, every Marvel movie I get hyped.

Dhruv: I love them to be clear. I just like I think that that it’s an interesting point. There might be something to be said there. You know what I mean? Yeah, like, I don't know if you guys still disagree.

Jonah: I mean, not many Marvel movies have like, they all have really good acting. But how many Marvel movies have really won Oscars? Like Black Panther was, I think the only one?

Dhruv: Or it was nominated.

Jonah: Or yeah, it might have been nominated. Did it win any?

Caleb: I don’t think so.

Dhruv: I don't think so. No, it was GreenBook, which I don’t know was as good, either. But like, you know, I just, I think there's an interesting idea there. But where some people take like a stance, like, oh, all Marvel movies, they aren't on the same level and stuff. I think that's… With some of these Marvel movies, there's a lot of love that goes into them. You know, you can really tell like, I'm not trying to take away from that at all. I just think, I feel like it's a little bit different. Yeah.

Caleb: It's definitely different than a lot of the movies that we see today. I think they're doing their own thing. And they're succeeding at it, too.

Jonah: Yeah. I don't think they really care if they like win Oscars.

Dhruv: For sure.

Jonah: I feel like they just care about making the fans happy, giving the fans what they want to say. I feel like they've done that pretty well.

Dhruv: I think when they're at their best, they're just making like, just putting love into like a fun movie that you will really enjoy.

Rachel: I kind of like that whole aspect of not trying to win Oscars. Because you definitely can see movies that are like trying really hard to.

Dhruv: For sure. they're always pretentious.

Rachel: Yes. They're like trying to be so like dramatic and so like insightful and then you just go to a Marvel movie and you're just like let's have a good time.

Caleb: It’s just good entertainment.

Dhruv: Yeah. Sometimes you forget that like sometimes you need something simple.

Caleb: Yeah, you need something with like a bunch of different aspects of the storyline. Have you guys ever seen Cherry?

Dhruv: Cherry?

Jonah: With Tom Holland? Yeah.

Caleb: That movie, I feel like was trying to win an Oscar. Yeah, it just had a lot going on, it was actually really crazy. Watch it, but it's a long movie. But the question I have for you guys is, what do you think your favorite Marvel movie is? Or superhero movie?

Dhruv: Favorite superhero movie?

Rachel: Don't start with me. I’ll have to think about it. You go first.

Jonah: No Way Home easily.

Caleb: Okay. Ah, I might have to agree with you on that one. That movie was really good.

Jonah: I like the big climatic ones like Infinity War and Endgame.

Caleb: I would say it's either No Way Home or Endgame.

Dhruv: I like those but, well this is me. Like I love those like, bombastic super big stories. But for me, like my favorite is definitely Spider-Verse. I love that movie.

Caleb: Yeah? I’ve never seen it. Never seen it.

Jonah: If that was live-action that would be everybody’s favorite. I feel like some people take away from that because it’s animated.

Dhruv: Dude, the fact that it’s animated makes it better though.

Caleb: Makes it better?

Dhruv: Yes, it makes it better! You’ve got to watch this movie.

Jonah: The style of the animation is so great.

Caleb: Okay, maybe I gotta watch it before I say anything. But like, real life? I don't know if it could ever compare to animation.

Rachel: I definitely think Caleb should watch the movie before he comments.

Caleb: Alright, I’ll watch it.

Dhruv: The reason I like it, right, is because it has the essence of this character that has like, it has a really good interpretation of Spider-Man in my opinion. And then it's like, the style is like, it's incredible. It's like unique, which is so much fun to see. It's like I was watching it and I just like couldn't believe what I was seeing. The music's incredible, like, the visuals. And the story is like, it feels like contained and I kind of like that sometimes I kind of like a personal.

Jonah: Yeah, it really feels like kind of like a comic book come to life because they have like, comic book catchphrases like BAM, WHAM like, in the art. It's so cool to see that.

Rachel: It definitely felt like it just flew off the page like left the pages.

Dhruv: Yeah, I recommend that movie if you're curious. If you haven't seen it.

Rachel: I cannot decide on a favorite Marvel movie more so because I follow characters rather than movies.

Dhruv: I see.

RacheI: I think Dhruv- just all of y'all- you have such an amazing eye for movies and like seeing them into depth. I just like characters and actors.

Dhruv: That's fine.

Caleb: What did you say your favorite character was?

Rachel: Either Bucky or Dr. Strange so I would say either.

Caleb: There's no way! You just said Captain America yesterday.

Rachel: No! My favorite movie is Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Doctor Strange.

Dhruv: I’m sorry for like trashing Doctor Strange.

Rachel: You're okay, I can kind of understand where you're coming from.

Dhruv: I like the visuals. I like the movie. The actual stuff is just the character.

Jonah: Yeah, that was the best part of Doctor Strange.

Rachel: The visuals are very, very impressive. But I like the magical element of Dr. Strange. I feel like seeing those possibilities is so… and seeing them delve into those possibilities in the magic. And even, actually, I can't say that. It's from Spider-Man so we will talk about that later.

Jonah: I like the side characters that steal the show in Marvel Movies. Like Karun the cameraman in Eternals. Morris from Shang-Chi, Yelena from Black Widow.

Rachel: Loki. The younger brother. Bucky.

Caleb: Yup.

Jonah: I love seeing those.

Dhruv: Okay, so two of us mentioned that No Way Home was our favorite and stuff and that's the one that just came out so let's talk about that one.

Rachel: But let's put a little spoiler warning.

Caleb: Yeah, let’s put a spoiler warning.

Rachel: If you have not watched the movie, do not listen. If you want to get it spoiled, then listen.

Dhruv: Go watch it and then run back and come listen.

Caleb: Let's just talk about our initial thoughts. You can go ahead Dhruv.

Dhruv: So, I love it. I think, you know if I'm looking at it like as a celebration of the character, like as a Spider-Man fan and just like a superhero movie. I think it's perfect. I think it hits all the notes like I would want it to and I had a ton of fun watching it.

Rachel: What notes did you want it to hit that it did hit or some examples?

Dhruv: Well like, I think it nailed the character. I think like- I watched it and I felt like there's like a story it wanted to tell, emotional beats it wanted to hit and it hit all those and I loved it. Like, it made me feel something and I think that's like the best thing a movie can do you know.

Caleb: I think that with this Spider-Man I think he's finally really become like Spider-Man, especially with the decisions that he made and then kind of the loss that he suffered. I feel like he's finally turning into the Spider-Man that is in the comics.

Jonah: Some people have criticized Tom Holland’s Spider-Man for being like IrOn BoY Jr but I feel like after this I feel like nobody can really say that.

Dhruv: You know all Spider-Man fans we love this. We do not want to see him winning we want to see him be at the worst point in his life.

Jonah: I feel like we saw that.

Rachel: For me, overall it was just like a lot. I'm one of those people that like gets really into movies and like experiences a lot of emotions. So I was like-

Caleb: Did you cry during this movie?

RacheI: I surprisingly did not. I came close to tears. I came close. There were tears in my eyes. I did not cry though.

Caleb: I cried.

Jonah: I bawled.

Rachel: Because I had stuff spoiled for me. So there wasn't like-

Caleb: See that's where it gets bad, like if you're spoiling a movie, then you like take away all of like the good feelings that come along when you see it for the first time. So that's why I had to see it like, the first day.

Dhruv: Okay, so we're in spoilers right now. So why don't we talk about the- let's talk about the overall concept. Like what happens in the movie and then we could talk about like, specific moments we liked. So, regarding the fact that they brought in- spoiler, spoiler- they brought in like, characters from other like, cinematic universe, like other series that were not part of it before. Like, I think that was a really cool idea.

Caleb: That was amazing, like, I had seen spoilers but like, like, um, I don't know what you want to call it, like people saying that they were going to be in the movie, but I didn't really like. I was having hope. But I didn't know if I truly believed it. And then when I finally saw it, I got so hype in the movie theater. Everybody in the back was screaming loud. That was the experience. Like I think I had the entire Northview senior class in that movie theater, like screaming loud, but no, I really loved that aspect that they added into it with adding Toby and Andrew.

Jonah: That was a really great movie experience. Just seeing everybody scream for your favorite characters. The Daredevil cameo coming. Yeah, Andrew saving MJ that was all.

Caleb: That made me cry like so hard. Yeah, something about it. Just like it hit super close to home. I don't even know why.

Dhruv: It’s a well written scene it’s great.It’s shot well. The movie also I know I said this earlier And actually, I feel like the director has like a more of a style on this one, you know? Yeah. Like the other ones feel kind of like flat I guess. Like yes, but like, it was a lot of fun to watch. Like, it was interesting. Like, there was like cool shots like the the CG is like great, obviously. Yeah. You like, it's just it there. Although there is one aspect of like, bringing in other characters like a celebratory thing that I'm worried about. I wonder if people are going to try and copy it.

Jonah: In the Flash movie. Weren't they gonna like bring back some characters like Michael Keaton’s Batman.

Dhruv: Okay, following the patterns in the DC universe right now. I feel like they're not going to be able to do it. That being said, this because of this recommendation, Aquaman is so bad. It's hilarious. It's so much fun. It's like the best DC movie I really recommend.

Caleb: It's not even that bad.

Dhruv: It's my favorite. But I think it's very silly. I think it's stupid. But I like that. Okay, I was like, happy with that.

Caleb: How’d we end up at Aquaman?

Rachel: In terms of like you saying, you wonder if there'll be any copycats.

Dhruv: Trying to do celebrations of like movies.

Caleb: That’s if they can even get that actor back.

Rachel: I was more so thinking about bringing other people into like the universe, but I also like, I know in like DC TV shows they have crossovers that are so confusing.

Caleb: But I think with the now they've actually confirmed that. Andrew, Andrew will be back and then Toby might be back for some more cameos in the future. So they actually like super fully back.

Dhruv: if they're like in it like

Caleb: It was cool. One time I don't know about Yeah, I don't know. I would love a third movie for Andrew Garfield. I don't know if it'd be the same.

Jonah: There was a reliable leak that said that there's gonna be a third movie with Gwen returning from like another universe as Spider-Gwen. In her universe Peter Parker dies. So that would be I think I'd love it.

Dhruv: So another thing like this movie kind of made me like, think about revisiting the old ones, right? Like the Tobey Maguire movies are great. Like that. They're like stylistic and there's so much fun. They're like they they know what they are. They're silly. Yeah, just like I will say I think the Andrew Garfield is like the best actor to portray Spider Man. I think he's very charismatic. I think he was my favorite to watch in the new one. I do feel like because of this movie, people are revisiting the Amazing Spider-Man movies and thinking like and saying they're better then they remember them being. I think those movies kind of suck.

Jonah: Those movies suck but I feel like Andrew being spider man wasn't the problem.

Caleb: I just rewatched them from Toby Maguire all the way down to the second movie for Andrew. And Toby's actually the quality and the entire like he's got to be the worst Spider Man. But he's still like I still love him like yeah, I have a love for him as a like a spider-man, but he didn't portray it well enough. And like the whole storyline was him and MJ like their whole like she didn't love she only loved spider-man she didn't love Peter Parker like I didn't really enjoy the Tobey Maguire I love the Amazing Spider Man. I think I thought those are for me.

Dhruv: I think personally, I feel like I agree with you that Toby Maguire like kind of like he's a good actor, but I think his portrayal is a little bit like it’s not as interesting. Yeah, and I think Andrew Garfield just really I love I think he's like my favorite pick but I just I just think his movies are really silly.

Jonah: His dynamic with Gwen was the best part of seeing them. That was great.

Dhruv: You think you want to talk about the villains in No Way Home bringing them back.

Rachel: Before we go to villains I do want to say I really enjoyed. Spoiler! I've we've already given a spoiler warning but when they were atop the Statue of Liberty it was really.

Dhruv: The banter.

Rachel: The back and forth with everyone was so nice.

Dhruv: I wanna see deleted scenes for this movie now because I'm sure there's a lot of those that they cut.

Caleb: Especially them interacting with each other like. When Ned yelled Peter and then all of them responded like that sort of thing. That was really good as like like they did really well with the movie that's all I can say like 10 out of 10 for Marvel.

Dhruv: Yeah, I think it's a great Spider Man movie I think it like wraps up the character well

Jonah: Well talking about the villains I feel like Green Goblin was just wow.

Caleb: I can't believe they got him back. I thought he was too old to come back.

Jonah: He was scary. He was a scary villain to see when like Peter was punching him as hard as he can, he’s just laughing.

Dhruv :I feel like Willem Dafoe is like the best actor.

Caleb: I didn’t realize that he was that strong I forgot that Green Goblin could do that.

Dhruv: I think they do some of the characters. I do think that Sandman and Lizard they weren't like given as much development which makes sense because they weren't as big they weren't as big of favorites also, I don't know if they're actors were actually there. I’m pretty sure the live action shots of them towards the end of movie are actually just reused shots.

Caleb: That like there was no like speaking like and then the same for Curtis Connor. I think thats his name Lizard. Yeah, he didn't do any like it looks like the same faces he was making in The Amazing Spider Man. I know that they were there but like, it's crazy.

Jonah: Yeah, I know that Sandman his shots like when you just actually saw him as a human were from the other movie.

Caleb: So that’s confirmed.

Jonah: Yeah. Okay. I'm not sure if those are though.

Dhruv: I think they redeem Electro. I think he’s really goofy in the Amazing Spider-Man movies.

Jonah: I love him.

Dhruv: I like this version of him quite a bit better.

Caleb: You like this one better?

Dhruv: I like this one better. I think he's more like entertaining to watch. He’s just kind of mustache twirling. He's pretty evil.

Jonah: He’s more comic accurate too with the yellow lightning.

Dhruv: Yeah, it's cool.

Jonah: I feel like they really took us on a big roller coaster ride because you have like Aunt May’s super sad death. And but then like, maybe five minutes later. Oh, Andrew and Toby are here. Yeah, they're like so happy that they're but oh, no Aunt May’s gone.

Dhruv: I think. Um, if I've one criticism for the movie, watching it again. I was so excited for the second half that the first half drag for me. Yeah, I think it works well on the first watch.

Jonah: I just like I feel like the first parts really good, but I feel like the second part just blows it out of the water.

Caleb: They brought in Doc Ok pretty early, though. Pretty early.

Dhruv: Yeah. Well, he was we knew about him beforehand and I think he was great. Yeah, really good job. The actor Alfred Molina. He's just great. He's like a super good actor and stuff. So it's fun to watch.

Rachel: Do we have any final thoughts before we end?

Dhruv: Yeah, overall, I just feel like this movie serves as like a great origin for this for the Marvel Universe as like Peter Parker, I think yeah, sums up the character. I think it's like, it's my personal favorite of the three Spider Man movies.

Jonah: This trilogy really like is a coming of age story. And those next that next trilogy is really gonna dive deep into him being on his own.

Caleb: I do wish that we got like more of an origin story for him. But I like where I went.

Jonah: Yeah, there's an animated series that they announced called freshman year that's going to be an animated and like thing that's going to be its origin story. Oh, that'll be cool. To see more of them.

Rachel: I'm for my final thoughts for superheroes in general. Or I guess the MCU in general. I'm looking forward to how this will set up future movies. Yeah, it definitely set up multiverse of madness.

Dhruv: Yeah, also Sam Raimi is directing that but yeah.

Caleb: I can't wait to see what Marvel as a whole is gonna do. Because the entire MCU is doing a really good job. I hope they don't end up falling off anytime soon. For about the next few years, who knows? Maybe Yeah, I don't know. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Dhruv: This concludes this episode of Across the Table. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the point of view tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at @nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. We've been your hosts Dhruv,

Caleb: Caleb

Jonah: Jonah

Rachel: and Rachel and this has been Point of View.

Point of You - Tech Talk with Mr. Paul

Jonah Chadwin, Dhruv Singh

In this episode, staffer Dhruv Singh interviews Mr. Paul about his experience as a Media Center specialist, Assistant Director of the marching band, and Taylor Swift fan. Listen on Spotify here!

Dhruv Singh: Hello, and welcome to Point of View where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I'm your host, Dhruv Singh, and today we'll be interviewing Mr. Paul, the media specialist here at Northview. So Mr. Paul, a lot of people might have seen your face before, when you help with tech issues and stuff, but I'm not sure that everyone really knows what your role is. So do you mind going into that a little bit?

Mr. Paul: Okay. Which part of my role that's- I do a lot.

Dhruv: So like, what is the main job description for media specialists?

Mr. Paul: Okay. Well, job description-wise specific and official, Fulton County changed this to media and educational technology instructor a couple years ago. So that's a nice way to say that we're here to help with students and teachers' needs in media and technology. Media being books, internet, video, audio, pretty much anything, and then technology, the obvious things. We do everything from the personal devices. We have recording equipment, video, and audio, all that stuff that we check out and help people with. But in the media side of it, I get to curate the list of books that we buy, and I get to decide which books need to go, and which books need to stay. And by mean to go, I mean, old and not used- not 'this is controversial.' No, no, no we don't do that. So I get to do that. And that's really exciting. And I really like that.

Dhruv: So how did you end up in this position? Is it like you just liked media and just kind of naturally filled this role? Or was it something you actively sought out? Or?

Mr. Paul: It's, I kind of fell into it? My story is a long winding path.

Dhruv: If you want to go into that, we'd love to hear it.

Mr. Paul: Sure!

Dhruv: How did you end up?

Mr. Paul: Well, I graduated high school convinced I was going to be a doctor. And then Freshman chemistry happened and that was wrong. So no matter how easy and great you think chemistry is in high school, wait till college. Don't be afraid it's fine. So then I had already decided to major in history with pre med because pre med is not a major. A lot of people major in bio or genetics or biochem, something like that. But I loved history always did. So I majored in history. I ended up getting that history degree. And then the financial collapse of 2007 happened and there were literally no jobs for people with just history degrees. So I went back to school, my now wife, then girlfriend, and her parents convinced me to give teaching a shot. And you know, it sounds different. My parents have been telling me that since I was 14. And you know, you just got to hear it from somebody else. So they convinced me to give it a shot. And I got my social studies education degree. And I taught everything you can teach in social studies for two years. But by the end of that second year, I knew that in the classroom was not where I belonged. I love education. And I love to read, and I'm good at technology. And I like talking to people about books and technology. So I went for the media specialist role at a master's degree. And there it is.

Dhruv: So and then on top of the media specialist stuff, you're involved with a lot of extracurriculars. So do you mind going through some of those?

Mr. Paul: Yeah, absolutely. The one that I love the most and takes up the most of my time is marching band. I was involved in band from the time I was 10 years old until now. And I was lucky enough my second year here that I went and talked to Mrs. Dickerson, the band director, and asked if she needed any help, and she was like 'oh my god, please come help.' So I'm lucky enough toI'm one of the few folks that gets to be an assistant marching band director without a music degree, which is pretty rare. And it's an excellent situation. I'm very lucky to be here. And I love working with the marching band and doing that. So that takes up most of my time. And it's where my heart is outside of the library. But I also have sponsored a lot of clubs. I restarted Model UN here in 2014 and passed that on when I had a kid because it takes up so much time. And so do kids. Gosh, oh, I sponsored the book club here, which is natural for a librarian. We had one when I got here and I kept that going for a couple of years and it just kind of- interest waned. So just as you know, if students aren't interested in it, then it's not gonna be great. So I let it pass and then this year, a couple of students approached me and asked if I was starting another one, so I was very happy to do that. This year, we've also started a Makerspace club. Some students approached me that had obtained some 3D printers and other making equipment through a charity they were working with during the pandemic to make PPE. And they wanted to start a Makerspace club here where students can come and just make things with 3D printers, laser printers, CNC machines, all that kind of stuff. So we do that and we meet every Tuesday and just build things and cut things and burn things and it's great.

Dhruv: To go back to marching band, so assistant director, what exactly does it entail? During the season and stuff like that.

Mr. Paul: I do basically whatever Mrs. Dickerson needs me to do. We have instrument specialists for each instrument, so I don't need to help with that. But well, what we don't have are marching technique specialists. So we have Mike Rostin is a former student of Mrs. Dickerson, and so he is an alumnus of Northview High School and teaches music in Cherokee County, but he comes and helps us with visuals, but I do more with the one-on-one on the field, helping with marching technique and helping people do that. And then I do logistics, and just really anything that's needed.

Dhruv: Do you have any thoughts on the season as it has just wrapped up? How marching band did or any thoughts? The marching band or the football team? The marching band or we can stay away from that.

Mr. Paul: We had a really good year this year. We were actually very pleasantly surprised, because you know, after the pandemic, a lot of bands like Milton typically has 200 people in their band or more. They were down to 130 this year, and we usually march round 121, 140. So we were afraid that we'd be down around 80, 60. But we had 109 people come out. It was great. You could tell that everybody, directors, students, everybody was so happy to be there because everybody was so much more focused than we've ever been. And I think we had one of our best seasons we've had since I've been involved with it.

Dhruv: Yeah, you can really hear it come out when they are playing during games and stuff. It was a lot of fun.

Mr. Paul: Thanks!

Dhruv: And you said you have a background in playing music right? Did you play music during college?

Mr. Paul: Oh yeah, I marched in the marching band at UGA for five years, you know, super senior. Gotta get one more in. And I marched in high school and played in concert bands in elementary.

Dhruv: What instrument did you play?

Mr. Paul: Saxophone and French horn and bass drum.

Dhruv: Okay, woah, that's quite a few.

Mr. Paul: Yeah. I'm sure you could tell I have eclectic tastes, I could never pick what I wanted to do for a living because I couldn't decide what I liked the best and I couldn't pick which instrument I wanted to play because I couldn't decide which I liked the best.

Dhruv: Yeah, that's a big reason I thought interviewing you would have been fun for this because I've seen you around the school just doing whatever really you like helping out with devices and then one day you were like offering to help out with the Bolt and stuff like uploading to YouTube and then you were like doing 3D printing. And I was like, he probably has an interesting job. Is there a reason why you pick up so many clubs? Do you just like seeing students do this stuff? Or is it just some of your interests?

Mr. Paul: It's a good mix. I love the day to day of my media specialist position. But the thing I miss the most from being a classroom teacher is forming relationships with students. It's hard in a librarian role to meet and really get to know students because I see 1000 kids a day instead of 120 and maybe 150. Look at the other teachers in the room. So it's hard to get to know kids so that's one of the reasons I wanted to get involved in band and clubs and things. I enjoy the specific activities because I didn't seek out clubs that I would not enjoy participating with. That would be no fun at all. Why would I spend my extra time doing that? So I find the stuff that I like and kids that are interested in that too and it gives me- I really enjoy it. Yeah, it's a great way to connect.

Dhruv: And then some more like simple questions since you're a media specialist you'd probably have some opinions on this. Do you have a favorite movie or TV show?

Mr. Paul: Ugh, you ask the hardest ones. Oh gosh, favorite movie I mean can watch Star Wars over and over forever you know.

Dhruv: Classic.

Mr. Paul: I'm a librarian nerd for life.

Dhruv: And then a favorite band or musician? You have a background in music.

Mr. Paul: Favorite band- currently, man I love Jason Isbelle he's great. You know Jason Isbelle?

Dhruv: I don't know if I know on the top of my head.

Mr. Paul: Sure, you know he's more new age Southern rock kind of thing. A little country, little Rock that's great. Of course I listened to Taylor's version of the Red album cuz you know you have to.

Dhruv: It was great.

Mr. Paul: And it was really solid and Silk Sonic just dropped their album and that was really well done. And you know, I like a little bit of everything.

Dhruv: Yeah, exactly.

Mr. Paul: Outkast, love Outkast. Outkast might be my favorite group ever. They're timeless.

Dhruv: There's some good opinions here Mr. Paul.

Mr. Paul: I do my best.

Dhruv: And then do you have a favorite book as a librarian?

Mr. Paul: Favorite book? I don't know if it's a favorite. But I tend to read 6, 7, 8 books at a time.

Dhruv: Oh wow.

Mr. Paul: Just because when you're in a different place you want to read a different kind of book. I usually have two nonfiction, a couple of fiction, and maybe a biography or something going on. That's nonfiction but. Something I always have going when I need something to decompress and not think all that hard is the Harry Potter series. It's always going. I just finished seven for, I don't know, 100th time. Who knows? But I just read that because some of the stuff I read, you know, there's lots of heavy books out there that are very much worth reading, but they can drain you so you need something to lighten it up. So I guess that's probably my favorite because that's what I read the most.

Dhruv: Yeah, the fun Star Wars, Harry Potter the fun classic stuff.

Mr. Paul: Absolutely.

Dhruv: Always fun.

Mr. Paul: Oh, Harry Potter is classic. Oh my god. Might have made you feel a little bit. Oh, you came out when I was in middle school? Oh my lord.

Dhruv: Anything else you want to talk about? Any hobbies or interests that you dive into outside of school?

Mr. Paul: Really love to travel. Travel to hike a lot.

Dhruv: Oh, hiking.

Mr. Paul: Yeah, my wife and I love to hike. My wife, my brother in law, my mother in law, and I are on a quest to go to every major league baseball stadium. We've been to 22, getting there. Very close. San Francisco highly recommend their ballpark. Chicago and Boston are amazing too. And you know, Truist down the road's not bad either. But yeah, we're huge baseball fans, we do that. And 2017 was our big one. We did a two week road trip and hit five stadiums in the Midwest.

Dhruv: That's a cool hobby. It's a cool thing to talk about.

Mr. Pau: I recommend it. We do a lot of credit card points. We kind of game the system to travel on a teacher's budget. So I taught a course to my mother in law's friends one time on that. So I mean, once y'all graduate if you can be responsible with a credit card we can talk about how to game the system and travel. Travel is, I can't recommend anything more to anybody in their life. Make sure you see other things. Everything's different and it just enriches it.

Dhruv: You heard it here. Come to Mr. Paul, if you want tips for traveling on a budget.

Mr. Paul: Absolutely.

Dhruv: Okay, so this concludes our interview with Mr. Paul. Thank you so much for listening.

Mr. Paul: Thanks for having me.

Dhruv: For a transcript of this episode, head to the Point of View tab on our website nhsmessenger.org and follow us on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook at @nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. I'm your host Dhruv Singh, and this has been Point of View.

Culture Shock - Squid Game

Jonah Chadwin, Sofia Mang

In this episode, staffers Jonah Chadwin and Sofia Mang discuss the deeper meaning and themes in Netflix's most watched show, Squid Game. Listen on Spotify here!

Sofia: Hello, and welcome to point of view where we give students a place to listen, learn and lean in. I'm Sofia Mang

Jonah: And I'm Jonah Chadwin.

Sofia: And today we're dissecting Squid Game, the popular survival K-drama, we will be diving deep and unpacking the intricate themes and layers of the show.

Jonah: So, the series Squid Game revolves around a contest where 456 players are in deep financial debt, they put their lives at risk to play a series of children's games for the chance to win 45.6 billion won prize money.

Sofia: So, if we kind of just go into squid game and talk about the theme, I feel like something that's obvious is capitalism, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: And so, everyone knows that capitalism is the idea that the poor stays poor and the rich only get richer. So, it's just money equals power. And it's an ongoing cycle that just never stops, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: And I feel like in Squid Game, you know how they said that the whole point of the games was to keep everything fair.

Jonah: Yeah. They were focused on that a lot. Yeah.

Sofia: Yeah, but then like, in that, it just showed human nature because the people still created their own social hierarchy.

Jonah: Yeah, they all had their own little groups. Eventually, throughout, they were never just gonna be on their own, they had to form a society.

Sofia: They're always teamed up. And then when they were all killing each other that wasn't even part of the games, but it was in a sense, because it's just how humans are, and they always just find ways to be on top and cheat their way out of the system.

Jonah: Yeah, it's just human nature to have sort of like a human government, wherever you are, you can't all be equal. There's got to be someone above, and capitalism, it's shown a lot throughout, the poor stays poor, when Gi-Hun even after he won all that money, he'd never spent any of it. We see throughout the series that he doesn't spend it at all, and he's still poor a year later, when he meets the old man that the rich get richer. The old man never stops getting rich, he keeps making money eventually he gets bored with how rich he is and how much power he has throughout.

Sofia: Yeah, and I mean, I guess besides capitalism, what else did you notice throughout?

Jonah: I noticed how it talks about how childhood is easier than adulthood, and how the games are their childhood, and when they play the children's games it represents them as a kid and how it feels as a kid. While the real world is them in debt and for Gi-Hun it's impossible to overcome. There are hints at this when we see Gi-Hun play a children's claw game, but as an adult that fails, and ultimately a kid wins the claw game and the prize for Gi-Hun, we see Gi-Hun have a choice between going back into the games or staying in the real world, childhood or adulthood, and he picks childhood which is the games, which may seem gruesome and deadly, but it's still easier than adulthood for him.

Sofia: Yeah. And I kind of noticed, I was like, I think one of the biggest aspects of why it was so popular was because of these children's games turned dark, right?

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: Like seeing people die from tug of war was really interesting to me, but I feel like another theme that they touched on was luck. You know, and what I said earlier about how the people who are in charge of the games emphasize the fact that it was always fair, but then it just teaches a theme instead of a theme because all of these games, yes, they're technically fair, but in a sense, they're really not. It's just about luck. Like for the last game sport, the second to last game specifically, it was literally luck.

Jonah: Yeah, it was only luck. There was nothing more. Tug of war was a little bit of making sure, well that wasn't exactly luck, tug of war you had to be strong. And you could even pick who you were with too.

Sofia: Exactly. I guess it just has multiple themes for each character and their backstory, but I feel like, like I said earlier how it's been so popular. It is a Korean Asian media, but why do you think it has such a vast appeal?

Jonah: I think it has such a vast appeal, because adults will be able to relate to Gi-Hun’s struggle, because there are many adults out there that may not be in such financial areas as others like the old man in Gi-Hun's place and they can relate to his struggles, but while Korean kids and kids like us can relate to the children's games, but that dark twist turned on it.

Sofia: Yeah, and obviously, Korean debt is very, very bad thing compared to America, but it's still something that we can all relate to, but I feel like it also kind of draws back to America's obsession with Asian media. You know, like K-pop has become very, very popular recently. And anime has always been a big thing, but I feel like even recently, more teens have gotten to it instead of like shedding it away. And some people kind of just value Asian media more or just foreign media in general, like French movies they've seem, oh, it's so sophisticated compared to like, American movies, stuff like that. So, I feel like just the foreign media overall gives it even more of like an edge.

Jonah: Yeah, it's nice to see America evolve into liking other things than just their own and appreciating good media from anywhere.

Sofia: Yeah, I feel like because it's, another reason why it's so popular was because all ages just love it because of the different factors. There's the satisfying visuals like that place that they went through every time he went through a game watching them walk through that

Jonah: Yeah, those stairs.

Sofia: Yeah.

Jonah: That was yeah, that was visually appealing.

Sofia: The colors are so pretty and like the way that it's structured like I've never seen that before. And then like, once again, the children's games being able to, I have a few Korean friends who are talking about how they play these games when they were kids. So, watching in Squid Game was like kind of like a tongue twister for them. And also, just like even when they play these games as a kid, obviously they did it innocently. And then all of a sudden, they're watching these people play these games, and they're dying because they can't cut out a cookie, right?

Jonah: Yeah, another reason it's so popular is because it's dark enough that people who like horror movies people who are into that will like those gruesome moments, but it's not so dark, that it'll scare away the people that don't like those kinds of films. Combined with the emotional aspect and the mystery of who's behind it all. There's something for everyone. There's a different layer of the series that someone's gonna like the mystery, the gruesomeness, the adventure, the action, the romance, so many mysteries and questions at the end, that just leaves them wanting more. It didn't rush the characters with a show like Squid Game, it's very easy to just focus on the games and not the characters and not talk about the characters at all but it in episode two, it really went into their backstory, and you learned, and you grew a connection with those characters in such a short period of time.

Sofia: Yeah. And it's like, because of how our past society has always been kind of obsessed with the dystopian thing like Hunger Games.

Jonah: Yeah, that was big in the 2010s.

Sofia: Yeah, dystopian games, kind of like survival games, that's always been something that we like. And I remember, I really liked it as a kid. I agree. Like, I don't even like horror. I hate horror. And I hate blood, I hate gore, but I really love squid game. And it's just like, I mean, like, I close my eyes sometimes when they're like stabbing each other. I didn't like that, but I agree I also love the characters. I remember, just, I was always just rooting for the main character.

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: Even though he was introduced as a bad dad, a guy in debt, like all of this stuff, I was still rooting for him, because it was showing how even under all of these bad aspects that he is as a person, he's still a good person at heart.

Jonah: Yeah, you see how all of them like they may be in bad debt, but they all have like the good qualities about them. Even somebody like Sang Woo. Yeah.

Sofia: I mean, like, I don't know, some people, I guess he can be understood, because if you were in a life-or-death situation, what would you do?

Jonah: Yeah, we would all be partly saying we would there.

Sofia: Yeah, but so with this, I guess we could kind of infer the future media from Asia and how that's going to become more popular. Yeah. Like for me. I've already looked to other shows that have been similar to Squid Game. And have you heard of Alice in Borderland?

Jonah: Yes, I think I have.

Sofia: You have? Have you watched it?

Jonah: No, not yet.

Sofia: No, it's like, it's similar a lot to Squid Game, because they're, once again, its games, but they're Japanese. And it's a lot more complex in Squid Game, but it's just something that you see how they just draw inspiration from each other and how big everything is coming, because all of a sudden, after Squid Game came out. You saw Alice in Borderland being advertised more and more and more.

Jonah: Yeah, Squid Game sort of took us back to those days of the dystopian era. And it sets the bar for future media because it set a level of just being that good that not many shows are gonna top that.

Sofia: Exactly like even watching Alice in Borderlands. I was like, Okay, but how can I relate this back to Squid Game, you know, which is not something you should do when you're watching a show, but I was just like, the Squid Game was so good. I want more of it. You know? What's something that you think they could have done better in the show?

Jonah: I feel like because so many characters died in it, and we only had what one main character pretty much left? I feel like you could have kept at least one or two. I feel like you didn't have to kill every single one and give us something to look forward to. I mean, we're all looking forward to season two, but I feel like we'd all look forward to it more with some characters returning and they might there's been so many theories out there about characters still being alive and so many of those theories.

Sofia: Yeah, I mean, like, I feel like I didn't want anyone to die either. I really liked Sae-Byeok and I liked, actually I liked the old man before.

Jonah: Yeah same. He was sweet then. Yeah.

Sofia: But I feel like they couldn't progress the story more unless everyone died because obviously there has to be a winner. And I did like the character development that Sang-Woo showed at the end of the game when he did die. That was really interesting to see, but I don't really know what they could have done better because I didn't come out usually, I come out of a show thinking. Oh, I wish they did this. I wish I did that. I don't really think anything about Squid Game. I think it's the only thing was the first few episodes or the, like one of the episodes, one like portion of it. It was kind of slow for me. And I was binging it, but it was still like a little hard for me to get through that one part, but I feel like that's every show for me. Yeah, but I don't know it's just something to think about. And do you think that Squid Game would work as a movie instead of a TV show? Jonah: I do not. Because I feel like with a TV show, you have a lot more time than a movie. I feel like you needed that with Squid Game number one, to fit in all six games. And number two, to actually make us feel those characters and actually get a backstory to them.

Sofia: Yeah, like, because the show was already had like episodes that were like, 50 minutes long, almost an hour long, right? It shows that we needed all that context and all that information to be able to get such a detailed and interesting show with all the aspects that we liked.

Jonah: Yeah.

Sofia: So, I feel like if we had it as a movie, it would just feel extremely rushed.

Jonah: Yeah. It would either be that or it'd be very, very long.

Sofia: That's true. What a like eight-hour movie. I don't know I think it's just it's something that everyone can just relate to and watch, because I've never ever seen a show as big as this that everyone's watching. Like, everyone's been watching it even like my mom's watched it. My aunt's watched it. My little cousins watched it. It's just so big now.

Jonah: Yeah, I don't know many people who haven't watched it, I feel you have to there's so much peer pressure online and so much, god everyone's yeah everyone's talking about it.

Sofia: Yeah, exactly. Like didn't you watch it?

Jonah: I watched it because everyone was watching it.

Sofia: Exactly. And you just want something else to talk about.

Jonah: Yeah, I had to like, recognize and know what they were talking about.

Sofia: But at least it was a good show.

Jonah: It was a good show.

Sofia: This concludes our review. Thank you so much for listening. For a transcript of this episode, head to the point of view tab on our website, nhsmessenger.org. And follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @nhspointofview for updates and new episodes. I'm your host Sofia Mang.

Jonah: I'm your host Jonah Chadwin.

Sofia: And this has been

Jonah: Point of View.

Point of View - Interview with Downey

Jonah Chadwin, Dhruv Singh, Caleb Smith, Suhani Mahajan

In this episode, Point of View interviewed principal Brian Downey, asking student submitted questions. Listen on Spotify or Apple Music!

Caleb: Hello, and welcome to Point of View, where we give students a place to listen, learn, and lean in. I'm your host, Caleb Smith, and today I'm very excited to be here with our principal, Mr. Downey, to ask student submitted questions.

Caleb: As our first question, what was the hardest thing about being a principal during COVID-19?

Mr. Downey: Wow. So, Caleb, first, thanks for having me on board here. I'm excited to have a conversation with you and everybody else. The hardest thing for COVID-19 is really two parts to that answer. One is that the students weren't physically in the building and when you're not physically here, it's so hard to develop relationships with kids, and really that's the best part of my job is working with the kids every day, kind of like we are now. The second part is that so much of what we have been dealing with is outside of my control. So, you know, we have to make decisions, and we have to carry out decisions that others make, based on information that we just don't have control over. So oftentimes, it's just very frustrating for everybody involved, and I end up having to make some decisions that I know impact people differently, and there's really just no good answer or right answer through all of this. So, it certainly has been hard.

Caleb: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you, all right for the second question.

In terms of future years after the pandemic has ceased enough for a new normal of learning, what future changes will the school be adding, if any, to be prepared in case this ever happens again?

Mr. Downey: Well, it's certainly the biggest learning piece that we had, is that we can actually still in some manner, shape or form carry on with teaching and learning in a remote setting. Yeah, it certainly isn't perfect yet. I don't know if we'll ever get to perfect, but we can certainly do enough to maintain the learning. I think the changes that we're looking for in the future is really going to be centered around the learning platform that we use. Going forward. Right now, we've been leveraging Microsoft Teams, whether or not that continues beyond this year. I don't know yet. But that is something that we certainly have learned to master and to take advantage of. So even now, when we have kids that are out and that are sick, they should still be able to access their learning, without physically being in the building.

Caleb: All right, and as we're getting into the school and the students, what inspired the idea of Titan time?

Mr. Downey: Really there are a lot of factors that went into that decision. We wholly understand that our student experience is a difficult one. You know, we really challenge our students academically. But there's more to school than academics, you know, we really have to look out for the whole child, you know, we have talked about building relationships, we've talked about the social emotional well-being of our kids, and those things have to be taken care of, in order for our kids to be successful academically. So, coming out of this pandemic, we've known that we have to address a lot of issues, we have to address the mental health concerns of our kids. We have to find ways to build relationships with our kids beyond just that typical teacher-student interaction. We have to have time to deliver lessons around these things, and that's where the student's success skills come into play, and we also want to have time built into the day to support our kids. You know, if the kid is struggling, one of the factors that we all struggle with is just time. Yeah, it's just hard. You know, our teachers are busy, our kids are busy. So, we were very intentional and just trying to carve out a little bit of time during the school day, to allow for those relationships to allow time to deliver some focus lessons to allow time for interventions and supports to, to kick in and it's time to take a breath during the day.

Caleb: Yeah, I absolutely agree, I think the biggest thing, during COVID-19, in the pandemic, at its peak was students being in isolation and alone. And I think taking that time for Titan time, especially, and giving students a place where they can actually feel things and actually learn a lot more is very, very amazing, and I'm very grateful that you guys incorporated that this year. Thank you.

I'm speaking about students in our clubs this year, we have an environmental club, and they're very, very passionate about composting, and we're wondering, what would they do to go about getting a change in Northview, and any other students passionate about anything else? How would they come to you with any ideas that they have that they're passionate about?

Mr. Downey: Well, that's, you know, you use some of my favorite words there, being passionate is one of them, you know, one of the, one of our goals here at Northview, is that, you know, is to help our students find their passion, and then to act on it, and to use their voice to affect change, whether that's at a local level, or in a more global level. So, in a case, like the environmental club, you know, they want to tackle this idea of being more responsible in our community and our planet, and the one piece that we want to focus on, or they want to focus on, is the idea about composting and reusing and recycling. So I would encourage them or any other club, you know, to come on into my office at any time, you know, literally the door is open for a reason that's to signify that, hey, I'm available, come on in, to come talk about their ideas, and it's my job to help guide them through that process and to help remove some obstacles so they can tackle their goals and accomplish their goals. So, in this case, that composting idea, I mean, that's a significant change in practice in our building. So, there's a lot of things are going to have to go into that. So, let's go to really my job to help guide them through that to give them the lookout fours, provide some guardrails around their decision making put them in touch with the right people to see if we can get that to go forward.

Caleb: Absolutely. All right.

Speaking on a lighter note, what school event did you miss most during the fully virtual school year of 2020 to 2021?

Mr. Downey: Wow, you know, there's so much that goes into that question. Yeah, you know, to narrow it down to one is pretty hard, but probably, you know, well, let me just flip the question a little bit, every year the one event that is the highlight on my calendar is International Night. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's such a special night for our kids and our community, to really showcase their cultures and their experiences, and to showcase their talents. I think that one event just so represents everything that is so great about Northview High School, that to not have that certainly left a big empty place in my heart and an empty place in our building last year. So I'm looking forward to that night this year.

Caleb: I think it truly represents the diversity we have at Northview, and a lot of the students and where the backgrounds that they come from, and the culture. So, I really enjoy International Night and everybody coming together, it almost feels just like a very good group of people kind of going along with each other.

Mr. Downey: If you if you ever get a chance to see the second show that night, the B show, it is just wild, the energy that's in that room is just incredible, and it's so much fun. So much fun. All right.

Caleb: For a more serious question with our students, does the amount of people in the cafeteria without masks worry you about the future risks that we're taking with COVID still going on?

Mr. Downey: Absolutely. Yes. You know, COVID is still a thing, and it's still a huge concern, and everything about it is still a worry. You know, just having 30 kids in a classroom is a worry. You know, right now we have two lunches. So that's about, you know, 800, 900 kids at a time, that aren't necessarily in the cafeteria because we can spread out some other spaces. But nonetheless, you know, it's we have a lot of kids in the cafeteria. It's a full cafeteria. And obviously, during lunch, you know, masks are off. So, people can eat. So yeah, it's a worry. We have been very fortunate so far that in our building, the cases that are involving students and staff have been relatively minimal, especially in comparison to some other schools. So, it's always a worry, you know, and we have some decision-making matrixes to help us that if things get worse, we do have a plan to go to four lunches, and actually you know, cut that number in half that's in the cafeteria at any one time. We just haven't reached that point yet. So, it's a worry. Yeah, it's something we're keeping an eye on, but we seem to be handling it well, so far, yeah.

Caleb: I just think students. they should be there. I think they're relatively safe in terms of that, but I feel like and sometimes you can get kind of carried away, but I think the guidelines that you guys are going to be putting in. Mr. Downey: You know, it's just natural, you know, a couple things. One, our student body is very responsible, if you stand in our halls during passing time, 99.99% of our kids are doing the right thing all the time. Absolutely. And that includes COVID related stuff. At lunch, you know, when the mask comes off, it's just a natural thing for a kid to get up and move around and talk and forget to put it back on. So those are just things that we have to keep an eye on and just politely remind everybody.

Caleb: Yeah. Caleb: In terms of the lunch and everything like that, why were the social studies classes moved to B lunch, because in considering COVID, they were asking that wouldn't it be safer if the lunch was smaller?

Mr. Downey: Our lunches are actually pretty evenly divided. So let me just correct that man.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: Social Studies historically ate first lunch, because historically, most of their department was on the 100 side of the building.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: But because of some things that have happened over the years, most of their department is now on the 600 side of the building. So, we try to keep the lunch divided by halves of the school, so that we don't have kids in the halls. When classes are going on. So that's what led to that change, but we've actually been able to balance the lunches fairly, fairly evenly.

Caleb: Sounds good.

Mr. Downey: Yeah.

Caleb: All right, and also about lunch, is there anything that we can do to improve the quality of our food, which fuels our students?

Mr. Downey: Well, I gotta tread lightly on this answer.

Caleb: Yeah, absolutely.

Mr. Downey: You know, the phrase quality of the food is subjective in nature, because, you know, our cafeteria, the workers in there and the prep that goes in, they meet and surpass every single guideline that is out there in terms of nutrition and quality. So, like, it depends on the metric that we're going to use. If the metric is the student's enjoyment of it. That's just going to be a tough one, but I get it, you know, the cafeteria and the food that goes into it is something that's outside of the principal's sphere of influence. I don't have direct oversight over that. So that that's, that's a hard, hard one for you to answer.

Caleb: I get it.

Mr. Downey: But I will, I will say this, I often eat the cafeteria lunch. I enjoy it.

Caleb: Now. I have no problem. This is one of the questions we've received. All right.

As we Segway into this, what else will have to occur for Northview to go back into remote learning? I know there was some brief little infographic that went into it talking about the cases, but what was your insight on that?

Mr. Downey: Yeah, so Fulton County just updated, some metrics for us to keep an eye on and it's always based around the Fulton County Board of Health epidemiology report, and the number of the spread rate per 100,000 of our population within each city. So currently, the city of Johns Creek we're right around 300. In terms of a spread rate, if it goes below 100, then we can talk about masks being optional again. If it goes above 500, you know, we start talking about lunches changing and things like that, but it's not until it goes above 1,250 that we will then have to switch to full remote status. So, we're fortunate that we're a long way away from that. There are other schools in Fulton County that have met that and are indeed in a full remote status now.

Caleb: Wow. When I looked at the infographic, it said per 100,000 is that considering the entire Fulton County?

Mr. Downey: No, so it's broken down by city, so Northview physically resides in the city of Johns Creek. So, it's whatever the number is for the city of Johns Creek, and that will then determine what happens at Northview.

Caleb: Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. Okay.

If we go online, what will sports look like?

Mr Downey: They would continue, but the change would be in the audience. So, I mentioned that matrix and the numbers that are in there. We would as we kind of increase those cases, we would reduce the audience by 50%, reduce it down to 30%, and then ultimately, if we were in that full remote status, we would have our athletic events with no audience. We're committed to running face to face classes as long as we ca, but we're also committed to hopefully, that extra experience of athletics as well.

Caleb: Yeah, I know this is sports in general, just something students really enjoy whether it's football, softball, volleyball, basketball, any of those, we really enjoy being in the audience and considering going back to remote learning and going with no audience, that will be truly sad, because we didn't get to last year.

Mr. Downey: That will be a sad day indeed.

Caleb: Yeah. So, we're hoping that we can stay where we are and kind of just get better from here.

Mr Downey: Yep. So, to that end, mask up, get vaccinated, wash your hands, stay healthy and lets rock and roll.

Caleb: Absolutely.

Do you have anything you'd like the students to get back into the swing of or something you feel like will take time to get back into?

Mr. Downey: You know the worry that I had at the start of the year is that for most of our kids, 75% of our kids, they had not been in school, physically in school for a year and a half.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: So, it was really about managing our own expectations as adults and having to reteach and remind students about their expectations of them as students. It's so far been actually a much smoother, easier transition than I was worried about. So, I'm happy to say that, you know, kids being kids are pretty resilient and can adapt pretty quickly. So just being back in school, I think everyone was pretty happy about.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: And we've managed the transition fairly well.

Caleb: Yeah, it's been great being back since it's been so long.

Mr. Downey: Absolutely.

Caleb: Missed seeing you guys.

Mr. Downey: Yeah, we miss you guys' man. *both laugh*

Caleb: We've been talking a lot about things that have changed due to COVID, but what have you seen endure over the course of this pandemic?

Mr. Downey: You know what I've seen the most of that just reinforces some of our beliefs is that at our foundation, relationships matter the most, you know, the academics will come, but if we don't create an environment, whether it's via teams, or hear face to face in which our kids feel supported and loved, then that learning is going to be hard.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: And probably every kid who listens to this podcast, they're going to remember a teacher, not because of the content that was taught, but they're going to remember the teacher because of their personality, how they interacted with the kids, because they cared about the kids, they love the kids.

Caleb: Yes.

Mr. Downey: That's what you're going to remember, and that's what's really at our foundation, in order for us to achieve our success. So, I saw that carry through the pandemic, that a lot of our teachers were able to still connect with our kids, and show that, hey, we love you guys, we care about you, and we're gonna do everything we can to help you, and vice versa, and our kids did the same.

Caleb: Yeah. Teachers were amazing, especially being online.

Mr. Downey: And our kids are too, you know, it takes both.

Caleb: I know that we've created a new organization, if that's what you will call it called Northview United, and we just wanted to ask you, what is the role of Northview United this year?

Mr. Downey: Really, it’s to help guide and advise the school and as the principal: Me. In what we do and how we do it. You know, I just spoke to the fact that relationships are important. Well, every kid and every kid means all 1,755 individuals, they have to know that they matter, that they're important and that their voice matters.

Caleb: Yes.

Mr. Downey: And Northview United is helped to guide and shift us to make sure that we take care of all those kids, that we don't marginalize a group that we don't unintentionally or intentionally silence a group of students that we really have to be intentional, to make sure that they have a voice that we listened to that voice, and that we support that voice, and I think that's been the biggest advantage of creating that group, that sort of advisory board that's helped to guide us and give us feedback, and it's just one of those things that we, especially the adults, we have to be intentional in what we look at, and the look at is the impact of what we do and how we do it. So often, we do things, say things, teach things highlight things, but we don't look at it from the lens from the other side. From the student's lens, to make sure that what we meant is indeed what was received. And oftentimes, it's not. And oftentimes, we'll do something, say something, have a policy teacher book, to, you know, do something in which, you know, a kid sitting back saying, Well, what about me? What about, you know, my culture? What about my experience? That's not even addressed in anything we do here. So, you know, we want to make sure that we value all those different perspectives, and support all of our kids.

Caleb: Absolutely. Considering the diversity, we have in our staff. This is that's a really great program that you guys have started this year.

And we also wanted to know, what is the program you have planned for this year? And the years to come?

Mr. Downey: Well, so yeah, that's the million-dollar question is, you know, how do we carry this work forward? Right now, it's between the last year and this year, it's really been focused on the professional development side of the adults to bring these issues to the forefront so that we, as adults can have conversations around these topics in around our students, and all their different voices that they represent. So now we're trying to pivot to Alright, what actions are going to come out of this now? What are we doing differently now? So, some actions that have come out of it that I'm proud to say some are seemingly small, but they're important. Homecoming is coming up. Well Student Council, under the topic of Northview United said, you know what, we don't want to have a homecoming king and queen. You know, it should be any student.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: Why are we gonna identify them as a king or a queen? So now they're called homecoming Titans.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: So, to represent that, hey, anybody, can be a leader and be recognized here at Northview.

Caleb: That's great.

Mr. Downey: And then some of its deeper and more meaningful, all the way down to the text that our students are reading, to make sure that our kids, that if this is the state standard here that we're teaching, while the vehicle we use, doesn't have to be this one historical text. You know what, let's put, let's put a variety out there. That may speak to our individual kids that our kids can relate to, and say, hey, that's my story as well, that will then allow that kid to access that learning in a much more meaningful way. So, we're looking at changing up some of those things. So that we reach more kids.

Caleb: That's good, that's good.

Caleb: And we also wanted to know who is on the advisory board of Northeast united?

Mr. Downey: Its parents, teachers, students, and assistant principal and myself, this is a group of about 10 or 12 of us.

Caleb: Okay, cool. Yeah. Sounds great.

Caleb: Is there a place where students can submit questions and concerns? And how will those be addressed?

Mr. Downey: Well, you know, that's a great question. You know, it's certainly anyone and people do, their emails, public email, it's downeyb@fultonschools.org. I love it when students email me stuff. Because you know, going back to an earlier conversation about using their voice being passionate, speaking up, I think that's wonderful. So, I would encourage them to email me at any time, but also to stop me at any time. Yeah, you know, I'm in the cafeteria a lot. I'm in the halls a lot. The doors open here. I love it when the kids come in, especially if they're trying to make the place better. You know, especially if their goal is to bring something to light that we can be better at. I would encourage anyone to reach out to help me out.

Caleb: Absolutely.

Caleb: And as we get into the end of this. Do you have any closing comments for our audience? Mr. Downey: Closing comments? Well, first of all, Caleb and the team that's behind the mic that people can't hear. This is an awesome initiative you guys are taking on. So, I commend you guys for stepping up into these roles, and for trying to connect with our community a little more. That's fantastic. So, kudos to you guys.

Caleb: Thank you.

Mr. Downey: And then beyond that, you know, at the end of the day, my job as principal is to try to make the school in this community the best that I can for our students.

Caleb: Absolutely.

Mr. Downey: But I need help doing that, you know, that the principal is supposed to know everything, but quite frankly, the principal doesn't know everything.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: I can only fix or make better what I know about, oftentimes, I won't know about an issue or concern or something that's not right. And then I'll get the complaint. And I'll say, wow, I wish I'd known about that, I would have done something sooner. So, you know, at the end of the day, my job is to remove those obstacles and to support our kids, so that they can achieve everything that they want to achieve. So, keep talking, keep interacting, keep supporting each other, keep loving each other. And at the end of the day, we will all be successful if we can do that.

Caleb: Absolutely. So that was the end of our serious questions. We just got a couple more for you on the fun side.

Mr. Downey: All right!

Caleb: So, get ready for this. All right, thank you for that, and we appreciate it. All right to our fun questions.

Mr. Downey: All right. Whoo!

Caleb: What kind of student were you in high school?

Mr. Downey: Wow. So, we're going back a few years now guys, you know, I'm turning 50 this year. So, you know, we're going back 30 plus years here. You know, I was, you know, you're A-B student. I wasn't top of the class, but I was a pretty good student. I was into athletics; I was a soccer player. So, I guess this stereotype would fit that jock idea in some level, but you know, I kind of went to a school that was similar to Northview, in the sense that the student body was into school, like we all love school. And we were involved and did stuff and had fun with it. So, you know, while I was clearly not as smart as most of our students are here at Northview, I think I would fit that same profile of Northview. Where I love school, I was into school, I was involved in clubs, I was involved in athletics, and just had some fun.

Caleb: So the bored Northview student.

Mr. Downey: Just not as smart. *both laugh*

Caleb: I love that you’re being vulnerable there. What was your favorite class in high school?

Mr. Downey: You know my favorite class was actually my senior year in high school. We had a graduation requirement in the class was called family living, and it fell into that PE, health area, but it was a class that was designed to prepare you for life. And we tackled everything imaginable about life, sort of outside the regular academics. We talked about religion, and all the different religions, we talked about mental health, and everything that went into that. We talked about marriage, and what that meant, and what does that look like. We talked at length about sex education and everything, and anything under that topic that would come into play. And what made the class so fascinating and interesting, and why it's so memorable, is that in your senior year, you're actually mature enough to talk about these conversations. And that's what took place. I mean, we had very adult mature conversations with our teacher, that was about learning about all these topics. You know, this is back in the 80s. So, for example, AIDS was still the pandemic at the time, and there was no cure. And it was primarily, you know, associated with homosexual population with drug users. So, it was still kind of a taboo. Well, one of our guest speakers, was a gay man who was HIV positive who had AIDS. So that's how like on the cutting edge this class was. So, to have that speaker in to talk about that real life experience was incredible. We had a priest come in and talk about his experience. We had a rabbi come in and talk about their experience. We had you know, all sorts of, you know, we had a pro-life person, a pro-choice person come in to talk about abortion, like we just tackled everything, everything under the sun. And it just armed me and my classmates with such a great education about life beyond the traditional standards, that by the time we went off to college, we were the experts in our dorms. Like when you would hear all these myths and conversations that college kids have, and you'd be like, well, that's not right. So, it was a great class, it had a great teacher. So that was a really neat class.

Caleb: Sounds very, very informative. I wish we still had that this year. I mean, in the recent years to come.

Mr. Downey: And we don't offer it here in New Jersey, sorry I grew up in New Jersey, we don't offer it here in Georgia, the state of New Jersey does offer this class.

Caleb: Still to this day?

Mr. Downey: Yep, still to this day they have this class. So if I go back to my old high school, they still teach that same class.

Caleb: That’s great. Hopefully in the future years, we might incorporate some of that, because I feel like a lot of students would need that kind of guide to life. I feel like a lot of students feel like when they turn 18, and when they graduate high school, they just let off into the world without knowing too much about it, especially if their parents haven't told them much about it. So, I feel like that's a great input that New Jersey is doing. If you remember what was your senior quote?

Mr. Downey: It was sometimes you kick sometimes you get kicked, which was a quote from an NXS song which was one of my favorite bands back in the 80s. And it was just kind of a like, just roll with life a little bit. Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked, right? Sometimes you're on top, sometimes you're not. You know, learning how to deal with those things, and still move forward in a positive manner. That just because you get kicked doesn't you know, doesn't mean doesn't mean to quit, right? It means you get to get back up and keep after it. So short and sweet. Sometimes you kick, sometimes you get kicked. *both laugh*

Caleb: What is your favorite sports team?

Mr. Downey: Hey, you know, I grew up my first 18 years in a suburb in Philadelphia, but then I spent 20 years in New England and fell in love with the Patriots, you know, yup if you look at my desk, I still have some paraphernalia there. So, my high school buddies, I'm still close with would just be crushed if I don't say the Eagles, but the Patriots, you know, I started to become a fan of the Patriots in the early 90s when they were terrible. And then got to watch this whole transition happen. Living up in New England it was it was still so much fun to see all that happen that I'm still a huge fan.

Caleb: You still support them through the deflation of the football.

Mr. Downey: Oh! There we go. We're going there. Yeah, I beg to differ on those facts, but yes, Bill Belichick has my undying support, the Patriots do they're a great organization.

Caleb: Respect. I respect that. *both laugh*

What is the craziest hairstyle you've ever had?

Mr. Downey: Dear god I rocked the mullet in high school, I big time rocked that mullet, I was a soccer player, so I kind of embraced that soccer persona at the time, which was you know, having really long hair. And I owned that mullet back in the day. In fact, the funny quirk was that after soccer season was over in the fall. So, after the season ended my senior year, I cut it off, and I got a haircut similar to what I have now: short, and my girlfriend at the time didn't even recognize me. Like would walk by me in the hall like wouldn't even say hi. I’m like honey is everything all right? Literally just didn't even know who I was.

Caleb: Kind of like a buzzcut almost.

Mr. Downey: Dude, I had some long hair. Yeah. And then cut it all off senior year. Yep.

Caleb: All right. What has been your favorite marching band theme?

Mr. Downey: You know, the marching band rocks every year. And they're a fun bunch to watch perform. We talked earlier in the earlier segment about international night being such a wonderful thing. Well, the theme this year is their own in that international theme as a part of their show this year so I got to go with this year because it ties into everything, right? And we talked about Northview United we talked about international night. We talked about you know, the great diversity of our school. So, to have our band kind of own that and run that run with that, I think is super cool. So, I know I hate to give the easy answer, but this year's theme is awesome.

Caleb: I love that theme as well.

What is your favorite book?

Mr. Downey: You know, the book that I always go back to is called Trinity Leon Uris. And it tells the history of Ireland through a fictional story that traces some families through generations. I’m of Irish descent. I've always been very proud of my family and my family culture and background and that and that book just resonated with me over and over and I've probably read it four or five times. And the story in it, it's just heartbreaking. It's, you know, the history of Ireland much like the history of a lot of our countries. There's just a lot of heartbreak and difficulties there, and Leon Uris the author just does a wonderful job of sort of telling that story in a very moving passionate way that I just found so intriguing that I leaned into and have read and reread a bunch of times.

Caleb: Sounds like a pretty good read.

Mr. Downey: It's a big one. It's a huge book, so it's a challenge to get through.

Caleb: More fun.

Mr. Downey: Yes.

Caleb: Who is your celebrity crush?

Mr. Downey: You know, I got a couple there. You know Natalie Portman always knocks me out. I think she's just a stunner and her acting is fantastic but let me throw a curveball at you. Tom Brady is just like, if I'm going to crush on somebody. It's Tom Brady. Like he is the man.

Caleb: You are a Patriots fan I can see it.

Mr. Downey: Yeah, well now I’m a Tampa fan because I'm a Tom Brady fan. He's doing everything right in life. Whatever he's doing in life is working. So, like, you know. You know, the curveball I’m throwing at you is between Natalie Portman then Tom Brady. There's two of them for you.

Caleb: I think she was also in Thor. She was in the Thor movie.

Mr. Downey: Yeah, I’d have to go through her history. I don't know. Was she in Thor.

Caleb: I think so. I think she was Thor's girlfriend. At one point. I'm not sure.

Mr. Downey: When she was in V for Vendetta and she shaved her head, I thought she was just such a stunner of a person, and her acting is incredible. She's just great.

Caleb: As going more into Northview, which Northview clubs? Would you join? If you were here?

Mr. Downey: Wow. Northview clubs? Well, of course, we have 97 of them at Northview. There's so many to jump into. I don't know I hadn't thought about that one. You know the...

Caleb: It's hard to think off the top of your head. Do you know most of them by heart?

Mr. Downey: Oh, dear goodness. No. *both laugh*

That list of 97?

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: I've worked the most with the robotics club, but I don't know if I would join that one, because it's such a commitment. Those kids pour their hearts and souls and time into that. I don't know if I ever would have been able to afford to dive into that that much, but at least I'll give a shout out to the robotics team.

Caleb: Okay, here's the very anticipated question.

Mr. Downey: All right.

Caleb: What is your favorite BTS song?

Mr. Downey: See, I feel like that's a loaded question.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: Because, you know, if you're a fan, you're being asked to narrow it down to one. Right. I doubt anyone if you're a true fan out there that you would narrow it down to one. So, I'm going to give you a very superficial answer that I think Dynamite kind of represents. They're kind of attraction to everybody. It's such a fun, like uplifting kind of poppy cool song that, you know, how could you not like it? And I think that's what makes them so popular. Is that really any audience should and could enjoy their music man.

Caleb: Me personally, I haven't listened to them, but I know I might get a lot of hate for that.

Mr. Downey: Well in this school like I think you almost have to.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: I mean, you know, one of the challenges I have as principal is to try to stay connected to teenagers, right? Like I mentioned how old I am. It's been 30 some odd years since I've been in high school. So, I try to keep up keep up with things like music and pop culture and things the kids are into. And in our Northview community if you're not a fan of them, then well yeah, like you and I would get made fun of if we don’t..

Caleb: Follow the trends, you know.

Mr. Downey: Right.

Caleb: What is your favorite movie or TV show?

Mr. Downey: I'll just give you one answer here, which is The Wire, which ran on HBO, which really told the story of the drug trade in the city of Baltimore. And it did it over five seasons and every season looked at that central issue from a different lens. Whether it was the police, the politicians, the drug dealers, the schools, the politicians, the newspapers, it looked at it from each different lens, so every season just had a really different take to it. And it was gritty, and real and heartbreaking.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: What I don't like in movies and TV shows are happy endings. Sort of like that Hollywood ending, because to me, that's just not the real world. Like, what connects with me? And maybe I shouldn't say it but you know, movies that are sad that are heartbreaking that at the end like you're an emotional wreck, that you walk away from that you've experienced that emotion. Besides is that happy, sappy Hollywood ending so the wire is always a series that I just loved.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: I think they did just such a great job with it.

Caleb: All right, very good question.

Mr. Downey: All Right!

Caleb: Is it soda or pop?

Mr. Downey: It’s soda. I don’t even know anyone who calls it pop. If you’re calling it pop, who are you? Who are these people?

Caleb: I don’t know where they’re from. *both laugh*

And if so what’s your favorite soda?

Mr. Downey: I always go back to root beer, you know. Root beer’s always a special treat. Growing up that was a special treat. It’s not as common as your regular Cokes and stuff like that. A good A&W root beer is always a treat.

Caleb: Really good, really good. What is your favorite thing about being a principal?

Mr. Downey: You know the funniest thing that I find that’s one of my favorites is the intercom. I get to get on the intercom, and I have a captive audience of 2,000 people. And it just cracks me up every day when I get on the intercom that I’m at a point in my life, I’ve got my master’s degree, leadership degree. I’ve done all these things, but my greatest thrill is that I get to pick up the intercom mic and talk to the entire school. Even if I'm just saying the pledge, it just always gives me a quick little thrill in like a very immature, funny way. That 2,000 people are forced to listen to me very day. *both laugh*

Caleb: No, we enjoy it. I think we enjoy it. Just getting a little bit of your voice every day makes me want to be here. Our very last question.

Mr. Downey: All right! Fire away.

Caleb: Is it ever not a good day to be a titan?

Mr. Downey: Yes, because it’s always a great day to be a titan! *both laugh*

Caleb: I embrace that mantra just to remind myself and to everybody else that we’re here at Northview, we’re here at school, it’s okay. We’re gonna have some fun along the way. We’re gonna do some serious work, but let’s not take ourselves too seriously while we’re doing it.

Caleb: Yeah.

Mr. Downey: And let’s embrace the day ahead of us and make the most of it. It’s always a great day to be a titan.

Caleb: It is. All right. So, that’s the end of it.

Mr. Downey: Well, thank you so much. It’s a ton of fun.

Caleb: We enjoyed you being here with us. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Mr. Downey: I appreciate you guys and thank you for everything you guys do.

Caleb: Absolutely.

Mr. Downey: I certainly love you all.

Caleb: All right. This has been point of view.