Matt Whittington

                                         Do Kids Get Too Much Screen Time?

            Kids today have far too many hours with all types of electronic devices. The internet is a very useful tool for studying, completing homework, and finding valuable information. However it is also a fantastic way to waste valuable time away. For instance, Twitter, and Facebook are used for hours a day alone by some teens, even during school on their smartphones. This combined with television, also can disrupt sleep as kids are up late at night with technology. I agree with the pediatrics group that said to limit screen time to two hours a day because it would help kids in a variety of ways.

         In a Boston Baseball magazine, an article called, How To Use The Boston Baseball Scorecard, had an estimated reading age was 10 years old. Utilizing Fry's readability formula, a random one hundred word excerpt had only 124 syllables, with seven sentences. Plotting this on the Fry Graph For Estimating Reading Ages, I was able to find that the average reading age was ten. Also, this magazine in particular has a ratio of pages with ads to ad-free pages, of 43:25. This is astonishing because 43 of the pages have ads, while only 25 are ad free. This clearly shows that this magazine is geared towards making money more than providing the reader with an interesting story. This might also explain why the magazine has an average reading age of only 10. At my table, I had the magazine with the lowest reading age, while all four of the other kids had an estimated reading age of 15. This means that this magazine is open to a younger audience while the other magazines contain a far more complex vocabulary. A an average reader of this magazine may be about 10 to 15 years old male, interested in baseball, with any reading level that enjoys Boston sports.

Matt Whittington

Journalism F

The actual cost of public schools

        Are students at public high schools paying too much money for things such as: athletic user fees, prom tickets, lunches, parking fees, transportation fees, or class dues? Many students, and parents agree. While a public education is supposedly free, hidden costs can put thousands of hard earned dollars right down the drain. Another good example of this is the numerous school supplies required for schoolwork, such as graphing calculators which normally sell at about one hundred dollars. Through numerous sources, and data, it is pretty safe to say that students do indeed pay too much money for high school.

        Many students at Norton High School also believe that they are required to pay too much money for school. When asked how they felt about the fees that came with attending the school in a survey, 14 of them said that they pay too much money. The other three went as far as saying that the amount of money they pay is downright outrageous. Not a single student out of the 17 said it was a fair amount, or chose little to none.

        These concealed prices also plague high schools around the nation, not just in Norton. In an article from www.usnews.com, the Krause family dishes out thousands for their child, “Confronted with the option to pay $1,500 a year for a school bus to come, the Krause family decided to drive their daughter both ways each day instead—a cost of about $150 a week, Krause estimates.” This is just one example with the high cost for transportation to and from school on a daily basis. Other high schools are also finding new ways to get money, “At high schools in several states, it can cost more than $200 just to walk in the door, thanks to registration fees, technology fees and unspecified "instructional fees." This was found from an article on http://online.wsj.com.

        It is obvious that many schools around the nation are in desperate need of funding, but does that make it okay to make students pay secret, hidden fees? One civil liberties group does not think so in an article from http://www.nytimes.com, “Now a civil liberties group is suing California over those proliferating fees, arguing that the state has failed to protect the right to a free public education.” This California group actually believes that these fees are not only unjust, but unconstitutional. School fees have been slowly rising from year to year as school administrators learn that they can get away with these fees, but it will be interesting to see if the government cracks down on unconstitutional fees.

                           Proposed Researched Question

                                                                                                                                         Matt Whittington

                     How do the students at Norton High School feel about all of the fees they are expected to pay, such as: athletic user fees, class dues, or the parking fee?

                                                                                         Matt Whittington
                                                                         F Journalism
                                        Mixed Methods
The research from the Alantic article utilized mixed methods. The author, Karl Greenfeld, did all of his daughters homework for a week. One example of quantitative data he collected is when he started an e-mail chain, “That night, in an e-mail chain started by the class parent to seek chaperones for a field trip, I removed the teacher’s name, changed the subject line, and then asked the other parents in the class whether their children found the homework load onerous.” He recorded data from others, therefore this is quantitative. One example of qualitative data Karl recorded is when he did his daughters homework. "Tonight we have 12 more algebra equations," says Karl, and "45 more pages of Angela’s Ashes, and a Humanities project." This was a personal experience because he physically did it himself, and is therefore qualitative data. Another example of qualitative data is when he has to read his daughters book. "I sneak in and grab her copy of Angela’s Ashes and catch up on my reading, getting all the way to page 120." Says Karl. He had to actually read the book, and that is why this is another form of qualitative data. Karl Greenfeld utilized qualitative, and quantitative data, or mixed methods.

Matt Whittington  

Period:F

             The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Austin Cheda

Austin Cheda is a senior who attends Norton High School. For 

sports, Austin is a basketball player with a younger brother, and a 

cat named Lily. Austin claims that he is a fan of The Dark Knight 

films: "my favorite movies are from The Dark Knight  trilogy." 

Austin is a fan of many bands, and artists, but does not have a 

favorite. He states, "There is too many to pick." When Austin 

states, "no, no I have never killed a man" he claims he is not a 

murderer. "The last meal I ever get to eat before I die will have to 

be lasagna," says Cheda, "I love lasagna." Austin is an awesome 

guy, and seems like a cool guy to hang out with.

Matt Whittington Period: F

Gas Prices

Back In 1919, one gallon of gasoline cost $0.25. Today, The average cost of a gallon of gas is nearly four dollars. According to the Department of Energy, "the United States consumes about 20 million barrels of gas products per day." This is an immense amount of oil, and this is just for the United States. However gas prices constantly fluctuate, and the reason for this is the demand for gas. In the summer, the price of gas is much higher than in winter. The reason for this is because people are out of school, and traveling a lot, so gas is in extremely high demand. Another reason for high gas prices is natural disasters. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina had a direct effect on gas prices, raising them to an average of $3.07 per gallon, which was very high at the time. Even with greener technology, gas prices will continue to rise for decades to come, so it would be wise to use public transportation.