Join Spin!

Hey, every student at WHS can help make our school newspaper bigger and better than ever before. We need writers, editors, art designers, etc. You can write about anything: music, sports, current events, whatever. You can see Ms. Farrell for more details, she has taken over Spin from the wonderful Ms. Tinker. Every Wednesdays we will be having meetings Ms. Farrell's room. Please, spread the word!

Ben Tan Says Goodbye...to Spin

Enjoy the following piece, entitled "Ben Tan Says Goodbye", my last for Spin...sniff.

I only vaguely remember my first day of high school. The orientation made a huge deal about how different things would be, yet I kept seeing the familiar faces, kept studying the five major subjects. In my mind, not much had changed. I met many people, some of which I did not like, but I was not alone. Every freshman gets picked on, and no matter what kind of people surround you, there will be those who give you bad vibes. However, over these four years, I have met my dearest friends. Those people made these four years worthwhile.
Have you heard that song that goes “Make new friends, but keep the old”? I have never heard better advice. Take advantage of all the extracurricular activities here, you will meet your best friends, the people you admire, the people who define you. I admire those who get picked on, but brush it off. I admire those who do not care how messy my hair is – a few even think it looks nice, believe it or not. Oh, how tacky I looked my first two years, back when I combed my hair obsessively…but I digress, as I often do in my writing. Hopefully, the people you admire, whoever they are, will give you as many fond high school memories as I have had.
You will meet many admirable teachers as well, people who love their subject and get you to love it, too. Mr. D’Agnese taught my class how to love history, Mrs. McDonough books, Mr. Binaghi the Spanish language. Wakefield High School may not have as much money as other schools in the area, but it has what a school truly needs to be great – quality teachers. However, the many fellow students I befriended made the four years even more enjoyable. Sometimes, I found myself learning as much from a friend as I did from a teacher. I learned more about music from being in a band with talented folks like Chris Morrill, Brian Hickey, and Liz Sullivan, than from any of my music teachers. I hung with people I admire – people who resist the pressure to conform to petty “norms” – people like William Knapp and Noah Rodman. Everyone gets picked on for some reason, and it is up to the “victim” to brush it off and move on, instead of giving in. I thank Shannon Leahy for that lesson.
Surely, when I look back on these four years, I will remember those people most fondly – the admirable people whom I will miss seeing every day. I hope to keep in touch. However, the time for change has come. For four years, I have used the same locker, number 1960. For four years, I have walked the same ten-minute walk home. For four years, I have written for Spin. Though I have immensely enjoyed these last four years, I need the change that comes with graduation.
Thankfully, my time here at Wakefield High School has prepared me for such change. In this school I have changed, grown, learned, and found a voice. The Ben Tan of freshman year seems like a different person. What started as a hobby, writing for the school paper, became a career aspiration. The quiet freshman disappeared, replaced by a loudmouth senior. That senior will attend Emerson College in the fall, concentrating on journalism. That senior will leave behind the life he lived for four years, a life he will remember fondly. He will start a new, very different life. However, one cannot go forward while looking backward. I can only picture the past in my head as I march onward to the next chapter of my story.

Breaking Down the January '08 Issue of Spin

As I stated in a previous article, I do not like the direction the Wakefield High School Spin is going in. The January '08 issue features two articles on the front page instead of one, which is certainly how every issue should be set up. A few articles, which Étudiant viewers got a taste of a few weeks ago, were written by the Étudiant's own Ben Tan. The other topics of articles included the Father Ron Barker Harry Potter incident, a recap of 2007 at W.H.S., a reflection on Martin Luther King, and the new Dunkin' Donuts being built in town. Another article regarding study skills was published! And another one was about two W.H.S. Hockey super fans. Have I not seen that type before? I will say that the content was diverse and most of the articles were informative. I'm sick of seeing the same stuff in every issue. A few Journalism students have taken the initiative to write about unrecognized and unpopular items. And good for them!

The structure of the January '08 issue is screwed up. Photo placement is random and causes some confusion when reading. (For an example, please check out the image on the first page). The articles are placed according to their category and that is always good. I still want category labels to appear at the top of sections like in the issues from the 2006-2007 school year. I also want Ben Tan's awful movie reviews to be removed from publication. His articles are the reason why censorship should be permitted here in the United States. No, no, just kidding. Ben fails to tell us why Enchanted is a good movie. He instead describes how packed the theater was. Tan tends to get off topic quickly so I suggest reading his articles with an open-mind (you are better off looking at the Boston Globe movie reviews). He is funny when he wants to be and often includes obscure references in his reviews.

On a side note, you can expect an editorial from me in the next issue of the Spin. I might even muster together a couple of articles. I will tell you that one of them will be a response to the article on page 15 entitled "Times Have Changed, But Why Should We Act Any Differently?" The author seems to think that Americans should adhere to the false ideologies of patriotism and militarism today just like we did following 9/11.

WHS Spin's Very Weak November Issue

Hi and welcome to the Wakefield Étudiant! Chances are you came to this site because of Ben Tan's promo in the WHS Spin. This post is just another criticism of the WHS Spin. I say that the Spin's November 2007 issue was incredibly weak not because of the quality of articles, but because of the layout.

Now, I don't want to personally offend the layout advisor, but the layout was not very good at all! For instance, just look at the November 2006 issue of the Spin and compare it to the November 2007 issue. Just on the front cover, there are two noticeable differences. For starters, there is only one article! And you know what, that one article starts and ends on the first page! "So what?" Well, we all know that the generally accepted style of the front cover should have the article(s) overlap onto another page. Also, I don't agree with only having one article on the front page. Not everyone is interested in reading about the Drama Club so perhaps there another, more relevant NEWS story should be featured. Another difference is in the size of the font. Now of course I am being picky, but small text can be tough on the eyes at times.

Moving on the second page, we notice that there are no longer categories atop the page. In the November 2006 issue, there was a nice "School News" label to let everyone know that articles of that type were going to be on that page. Second, there are huge lines within each article that divide the print. This makes the article more cluttered and makes it look shorter. In place of the categories are corny titles and random borders. Just look at the word art on pages 4 and 5.

In terms of the articles, I am not going to criticize anyone, but as an avid reader of the newspaper since 2005, I have found that some of the articles are strikingly similar to ones previously published. Again, I don't want to get into the specifics, but have you not seen an article about Swiss Kids, transitioning from 8th to 9th grade, and a super fan in the Spin before? I have.

I am happy that we have a school newspaper, but I am taken back by some of the aesthetic aspects of it. Methinks that the Spin needs an art student or teacher to totally revamp the design.
Edit: Ben Tan here, abusing my powers as administrator to say that as of 11/10/07, the day after the latest issue of Spin, which included this article, was distributed, it has yet to bring higher numbers to this site. People, give us a break and do what an article tells you to do.