The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

The official student newspaper of The Hockaday School

The Fourcast

Fragments of beauty
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Opinion
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Let Cupid Live - by Alexa Muñoz I have Valentine’s Day plans this year. And this is not the beginning of another malicious anti-Valentine’s...

Junior Jordan Lacsamana utilizes one of MBLs confocal lens microscopes as she observes squid embryos after staining them.
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From dissections to monitoring fish tanks, the juniors and seniors who spent seven days at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woodshole,...

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Not So Junior Flex

Molly questions the conditioning pre-requisite for the junior flex program

For the past two years, I avoided PE by scheduling my health block for second quarter, the only time when I wasn’t playing a sport, and it was amazing. But this year, when junior health was only offered first and third quarters, I was faced with something I hadn’t done since Middle School: having to go to PE.

Taking health substitutes your PE credit, meaning that if you have health, you can’t have PE, a system that did great things for me. Athletes are excused from PE and given a free period during that time. Those not in a sport are required to take a PE class, unless the complete 10 hours of outside PE credit on a weekly basis, something I for sure was not doing. Continue reading.

It wasn’t a big deal–two of my closest friends and I signed up for the Zumba class offered second quarter and, aside the mile we were forced to run outside in the cold (I almost always forgot a sweatshirt), there wasn’t much to complain about. Until third quarter rolled around.

I signed up to take junior health first quarter when I was playing field hockey just because, but when my track career didn’t, um… work out… I found myself yet again in PE, only this time in Conditioning, and as the only junior in the class. To say I found this frustrating would be an understatement. I’ll admit that it was slightly humiliating to be the only junior in a class of about 15, but the most frustrating part of this situation was seeing other juniors reaping the benefits of junior flex, the plan where you are required to come to gym and workout three days a week on your own time, while I sweated it out with my underclassmen homies.

There is only one requirement to get into junior flex; taking the PE Conditioning class either freshman or sophomore year. But since I had never been in PE yet in high school, there was no choice for me but to take PE.

I’m no three-season varsity athlete like juniors Emily, Evie or Meredith, but I had been a part of a varsity sport three different times by the time I found myself in PE. Yet unlike many schools, like St. Mark’s, Hockaday has no placement test I could have taken or any exemption I could have received on account of this.

I understand PE for juniors is required, but this is a plea to allow juniors who have played a varsity sport a way into flex without taking Conditioning, because, to quote StaffStance, junior year is already pretty rough, and we could use a little flex room on this one.

-Molly

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