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Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Eighth graders shouldn’t be second freshmen

Everyone who is in 10th grade or who has ever been in 10th grade would agree that it’s really weird to see the freshmen–a whole new class of students–on the first day if school.

With a school as small as Shalhevet, it’s always exciting and strange to see a new face traversing the halls — all the more so when the new face is multiplied by 40-something and called “the freshmen.”  Of course, every year the freshmen are eventually integrated into the Shalhevet community and everyone gets used to their presence.

But this year we’re presented with a special situation. We not only have to get used to the freshmen class but also to the eighth-grade class, who are joining just for this year as a second body of freshmen.

It’s obviously a weird situation so expect there to be weird consequences. Freshmen will wonder who is in their class and who is an eighth grader and vice versa, upperclassmen will most likely confuse the two grades and group both as “freshmen,” and Town Hall topics may focus on the differing rights and privileges between the two grades.

It will undoubtedly be confusing but it will also undoubtedly be interesting.

For one year, Shalhevet will be a five-grade high school. Eighth graders will be given an extra year of the Shalhevet high school experience, so when they get to be seniors they will know the high school better than any senior ever did.

If they are allowed to participate in high school extra-curriculars, they will be celebrated for outsize contributions by the time they reach their last year.  And for this year at least, they substantially increase the size of the student body.

Most unusually, the freshmen and eighth graders have the task of taking on traits distinctive to each grade, in order to separate themselves from one another. Otherwise, they run the risk of being simply grouped together as “the freshmen.”

So eighth graders, make yourselves a grade cheer and make your Town Hall as dynamic and distinctive as the high school’s. Freshmen, take pride in your senior buddies and ask them to get you hot chocolate from Starbucks. A five-grade high school in theory shouldn’t function as a four-grade school in practice.  Embrace the unusual!

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