In an era where technology often mediates our interactions with others, Chen’s choice to engage in letters allows her to put more thought into her communication than a simple text.

“I’ve done two pen-pal programs,” she said. “The first one was in eighth grade and I was paired with a girl who lived in the French Alps. We talked for a bit online before we started writing to each other. I wrote to her in French and she wrote to me in English.”

This program was orchestrated by her French teachers and their English teacher friends in France. Although not participating this year because her teacher chose not to, Chen was involved during her eighth grade and freshman year.

Teachers paired students up with someone from their partner class in the other country, and in cases of unequal class sizes, someone may be required to write two letters. From there, students received basic information about their pen pal and gave teachers the letters to mail out — beginning the exchange cycle. Through the program, Chen matched with many students from diverse backgrounds whom she wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise. One example of this enlightenment is her second pen pal — Clemence from Albi, a village in the South of France.

“I exchanged social media with (her), and despite only having one semester to communicate, (found out she was) a very lovely person,” she said. “She’s a tri-athlete and she’s super cool.”

For Chen, every envelope that arrives creates a new and lasting friendship, as well as an opportunity to explore unique experiences. Regular curriculum is taught through an outside perspective with basic grammar and textbooks, while the letters take those skills to a more advanced level. They help improve her understanding of foreign lifestyles and cultures and enhance her knowledge around language use.

“(The pen-pal program) enriches your class experience a lot more because you get to see the culture a lot more and you get to learn first-hand what life is like in the country of the language that you’re speaking,” she said.

Pen-pal programs also opened Chen’s eyes to the cultural differences in other parts of the world andhelped her learn how to adapt to them. Each letter unveiled new perspectives and ideas from France, allowing Chen to experience the country through a mere piece of paper.

“I’ve definitely learned more about French culture, and when I did my exchange program with the Council on International Educational Exchange over the summer, I had my pen-pal programs before that,” she said. “Learning about French culture through someone who was living there actually helped me a lot during my exchange because I got to learn about French customs a lot and adapt there quicker.”

Chen also emphasizes the importance of keeping contact with others around the world as a way to connect, meet new people and expand one’s horizons.

“I think that all language students should do pen-pal programs because you’re able to immerse yourself into the culture a lot better and you’re able to learn the language and cultures a lot better,” she said. “It’ll open your eyes up to the world a lot more.”

Originating in Europe during the Middle Ages, tipping was a way for the wealthy to pay servants extra money for excellent service. Slowly, however, tipping in London became present in coffeehouses and other establishments. Eventually reaching US in the 1800s through wealthy Americans who had just discovered this custom on a journey to Europe, tipping has become increasingly popular and has firmly rooted itself in almost all establishments in the country.

Tipping has been disliked since its inception. It came with many racial and economical problems, including many white store owners wanting to profit off of black labor by replacing wages with tips. The many issues that came with tipping prompted journalists to describe it as un-American.

Additionally, labor leaders opposed it so much that it was outlawed in different states including Iowa, Tennessee and South Carolina in 1915. This controversy in the United States shows how much of an issue tipping is and has been.

One downside of tipping is that it enables employees to be paid less, preventing them from earning the minimum wage they deserve.

Employers achieve this by paying tipped workers a wage that reaches the federal minimum wage only when
combined with tips. According to the National Restaurant Association, it is estimated that every $1 increase in the federal tipped wage could cause a 6.1% decrease in employment and up to a 5.6% loss in quarterly earnings for employees. The decrease in employment due to the slow transformation of wages into tips has become another issue resulting from modern tipping standards.

Not only has tipping culture negatively affected the pay rates of employees, it has also proven to be a disservice for customers. The custom of gratitude is now a demand rather than a choice within the past decade.

Changes in the economy, such as inflation, have also contributed to why tipping has gotten out of hand. This phenomenon became more apparent during the pandemic, when many businesses began “guilt-tipping” customers to support service industry workers at a time of crisis. According to a poll from Talker Research, the average person tips $37.80 a month and $453.60 a year due to guilt-induced gratuity, with 26% feeling they are always or often forced to tip more than they would like. If someone truly wished to tip, they wouldn’t feel unhappy to do so. Additionally, roughly spending $500 a year on undeserving service shows how excessive tipping culture has gotten. Additionally, many restaurants have turned to “auto-gratuity,” which further eliminates customer decision. With this format, customers are automatically charged an additional 15-20% of their total bill regardless of the quality of service provided. Policies like these contribute to why tipping is losing its definition. It diverges negatively from being a token of appreciation to a method of forcing people to pay extra.

In conjunction with auto-tipping, “tip-inflation” is a term that describes the increase in expected tips due to inflation. Tipping is based on a certain percentage of a total cost of a product or service, and when the price for that product increases, so does the tip amount. According to financial media company Investopedia, digital payment systems with screens that display preset tipping recommendations, often start at 20%. The lowest tip amount being 20% forces someone to pay an amount they may not feel comfortable paying and contributes to extreme tipping rates.

Once a method to express gratitude, tipping has slowly become a way to unfairly profit off of people. Tipping has strayed so far from its original purpose that it has taken on a new form of consumerism, a way for businesses to increase their revenue without charging upfront. An increase in tipping culture due to inflation has caused people to feel obligated to spend their hard-earned money on service they’ve already been charged for. This method of forcing gratitude has reached a tipping point, and therefore needs to end.

“I’m an organized person, and I like everything straightforward and simple,” she said. “I started by doing small things, such as tidying up my room every night or making my lunch the night before.”

Color-coded calendar events and apps also bring order to Baum’s life, as do simple room decorations.

“I like working with a few pieces that work well together and cohesively,” she said. “I try to match elements together — I have some gold pieces scattered throughout my room and wood pieces.”

That said, Baum does sometimes find herself losing motivation to follow her routines.

“It’s hard to (be organized) all the time,” she said. “Sometimes, I just want to relax and not think about
having everything routinely.”

To balance her minimalistic organization, Baum expresses herself in other places such as food and clothing. For instance, she likes to use her creativity to experiment with new salad recipes.

Baum also incorporates minimalism into her running routine. As part of the Gunn track and field team, Baum goes to practice with a plan of when and how much to run. This organized schedule allows Baum to focus on her running rather than worry about creating a new plan every day.

“When I go on a run, minimalism has made me not worry about timing and pacing,” she said. “I can just
run and relax.”

With a clean and organized mindset, Baum enjoys using her minimalism in her daily life.

“I experience less stress,” she said. “The things that I can control I’ve made relatively stress-free by staying organized.”

According to the CAASPP Parent Information Night slideshow, CAASPP test data measures PAUSD’s “equity, access and opportunity growths and weaknesses for student subgroups.” The federal funding Gunn receives also depends on the CAASPP test: If the participation rate drops below 95%, the school won’t receive funding and will thus have less money to work with. Junior Site Council Representative Chloe Wang noted that state testing allows PAUSD and Gunn to better understand and address students’ educational needs.

“(State testing) allows funding to be allocated properly, targeted strategies to be created and evidence-based innovation to thrive so that every student can succeed at our school,” she told The Oracle.

In an interview with The Oracle, Principal Dr. Wendy Stratton voiced concerns about students’ failure to participate.  

“By not taking the assessment, it’s actually undermining (Gunn’s performance) because then you are given a zero, and that averages into the rest of our overall score for Gunn and brings us down automatically,” she said.

According to the CAASPP Parent Night Information slideshow, state testing is also a way for students to qualify for the State Seal of Biliteracy and the Golden State Seal Merit Diploma, as well as bypass introductory English and math courses at California State schools. Stratton added that testing can also affect students’ college applications.

“Look at it from a college’s perspective, like, ‘I have two of the same students with the same profile, and roughly a similar transcript, but they’re coming from two different schools,’” she said in an interview. “A college may say, ‘I’m going to pull up those two schools to see how they perform. Is it the same?’”

With these motivations, Stratton encourages students to take — and do their best on — the CAASPP. 

“There’s nothing to lose by trying, and so in a way it’s like engaging in an assessment or giving your attention to something because you have to do it anyway,” she told The Oracle. “I’m hoping that we get a true reflection of our impacts, so that we can reflect on our ways.”

The meeting also shifted gears to other topics, including mental health and summer homework for advancement placement classes. Sophomore Site Council Representative Deven Sharma believes the mental health programs at Gunn have improved since the beginning of the year.

“I feel that mental health has improved and I do feel that people are reaching out more and getting the support they need,” he said in an interview. “The resources that we have really helped, like the Wellness Center and the therapists. I feel like talking to a friend really, really helps too because I know if I’m stressed out, talking to them makes me feel better.”

The next site council meeting will be April 16’s Data Night.

The weight of disappointment settled in — Novick had practiced for weeks on this routine and he had let his nerves disrupt his mentality.

“I remember feeling like a failure, and I started tearing up in my corral — like that just broke me,” Novick said.

With the support of teammates and coaches, though, Novick finished his events victoriously.

Inspired by the 2008 and 2012 men’s Olympic gymnastics teams, Novick has been training since he was 3, starting with Little Gym and gymnastic clubs in San Jose before moving to the Stanford Boys Club and now the GymACT Minnesota men’s gymnastics team.

With supportive teammates and coaches, many of the struggles Novick faced during his gymnastics journey came from his own anxieties. Looking in the mirror, Novick would often compare himself to his teammates.

“For me, the standard for male gymnastics is to be fit and to show that you have muscle definition and that you are strong — that kind of implies that you are a good athlete,” Novick said. “Back when I was younger, I did not fit that mold and that’s what I would work towards.”

Because of this pressure, Novick would often “cheat” — or cut his assigned exercise shorter — because did not believe he was as strong as teammates who were more toned than he was.

“I felt I was physically weak compared to all my teammates because they kept finishing strength before me,” Novick said. “That was something that affected me negatively mentally, because I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m not strong enough. Oh, I suck at strength. I’m not going to be as good enough as my teammates.’”

As he became stronger with training and began accepting his own physique, Novick shifted his focus from his body to his skills.

“I would get stronger, and that’s when I started to view my body in a more positive light because I did all this hard work to get where I am today,” Novick said. “I felt better about myself.”

Strength, flexibility and skill competitions in the gym helped him accept the physical differences among him and his teammates.

“Not everyone looks the same … I might have bigger triceps then someone but I might have smaller pecs, and everyone’s body is completely different,” he said. “That’s just who you are and you can’t control it.”

With these body standards and struggles, Novick often finds support in his coaches, who were former gymnasts.

“They don’t bully or try to beat us down or be negative in the gym,” he said. “They’re there to help us, and it’s something that I’m grateful for.”

Now, however, books are shelved for the latest iPhone, leaving Hogwarts to Harry. At Gunn, the growing pressures of academic responsibilities and extracurricular pursuits, alongside the attraction of online activities, forces many students to put reading for pleasure on the back burner.

Librarian Daljeet Gill has noticed this phenomenon. Through book displays, “blind dates” with books, staff picks and other initiatives, he and the other librarians have been trying to spark students’ interest in reading again.

“It’s interesting,” Gill said. “When freshmen come, they check out a lot (of books), and as they become more engrossed in academics, we see them less and less. It’s about time management — where they find time among sports, clubs and other extracurriculars.”

Sophomore Davide Illouz, who juggles track and multiple musical ensembles, pushes most reading to the weekend.

“During the week I have too much going on, but on weekends I can relax and read before or in the middle of studying,” Illouz said.

According to a 2022 survey conducted by GoodEReader, 64% of those under 17 years old would rather play video games or watch TV than read. English teacher Katherine Ja has noticed this dynamic in the classroom.

“I have observed a decline in interest in pleasure reading, and (I) believe it is extracurriculars and videos, as well as social media, that is causing the lack of interest,” she said.

As someone who constantly checked out books as a child, Ja is working on weaving independent reading into her curriculum.

“I still believe that if the right book gets into a person’s hands, they will gobble it up, even if it is slightly challenging for them,” she said.

In 2014, the Gunn library introduced electronic books — or e-books — to reignite interest in reading for those who prefer digital interfaces.

The library’s shared digital collection with PAUSD includes reading engines such as eLibrary and Overdrive, which provide good options for nonfiction material. Students can access these applications through their PAUSD Rapid ID portals.

Although e-books are on the rise, many — including Gill — don’t see them as competitors for paper copies.

“If a kid comes in looking for a book and we only have the e-book, eight out of nine times, a student will wait for print,” Gill said. “It’s just a preference of what you’re already used to.”

That being said, students are sometimes flexible. Illouz, who often spends his Sunday mornings wrapped up in a book, likes to read regardless of the book’s format.

“Physical books are more old-fashioned and more whole-heartedly fun, while e-books are more practical and accessible,” Illouz said.

Books help Illouz take his mind off school, as well as expand his vocabulary and creativity.

“Reading is an escape from my life,” Illouz said. “I can just think about random things and imagine that I’m part of another alternate dimension.”