Two students published in major newspapers

Two Silver Chips staff members were published in major newspapers last week. Online Editor-in-Chief Joe Howley wrote a letter to the editor of the "Circuits" technology section of the New York Times, and Page Editor Samantha Henig wrote a full-length article for the Style Plus section of the Washington Post.

Howley's letter on Dec 13 responded to a Circuits article from Dec 6, "Building Web Pages Without the Drudgery of HTML," that praised web design software over laborious raw code.

Howley wrote that the article "glorified a software genre that is almost antithetical to the Web itself." He argued that compatibility between browsers is the most important goal of a web designer and these "oh-so-sexy" applications make a site less likely to be viewed correctly in all browsers. "The only way to be sure," Howley writes, "is to roll up one's sleeves and work with the raw code."

Samantha Henig's article, "How the Other Half Matriculates," discussed the inequity caused by private schools and SAT tutoring. She spent her junior year in a New York City private school and returned to Blair this year, giving her a unique comparison of experiences.

She writes, "at the private school I attended, where tuition runs about $20,000 a year, it's not only common for students to spend thousands of dollars on SAT tutoring, it's expected."

She admits that the problem may be a vicous circle. Henig quotes a friend who said, "the admissions officers look at us, see that we're rich New York City kids, and they expect that we've been tutored."

"Tutoring from Inspiraca or Advantage Testing . . . could come to well over $10,000. That surpasses that annual income for than 9.5 million households in the United States," writes Henig. "Even with the cheaper alternatives out there, it's hard to deny the injustice that is brought to surface by the SAT these days."

Henig's mother, Robin Henig, had an article on the same page titled "Apply Yourself? It's Not Always Enough." She focused on the same topic as her daughter from a parent's point of view.

Samantha and Robin Henig's articles elicited three letters to the editor in Monday's Washington Post. All three disagreed with Henig's portrayal of private versus public schools. Cathy Stein, part-time college advisor at Blair, wrote one of the letters to defend the school's college preparation programs.

The articles can be viewed online from the following links:

Joe Howley's letter to the editor: (requires a www.nytimes.com account)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/13/technology/circuits/13LETT.html?searchpv=past7days