THE CUTLASS

The Cutlass is going from online to print, but will periodically post stories to this blog.

by PEYTON VARNER

Black Friday. It is a name that brings to mind massive sleep-deprived crowds stampeding over one another to find the perfect gift at an unbeatable price. While most people are not willing to brave the 12:00 a.m. Kohl’s crowd, or fend off the hormonal pregnant women at Toys “R” Us, one student took on even more of a challenge.

Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving the traditional way, Lane Jordan, junior, camped out in the Best Buy parking lot for 57 hours in hopes of getting a Nintendo DDS and a Mac Book for Christmas.

“It was very cold, but I think it was fun being out there meeting people and just having conversation,” he said.

Along with sharing conversation with fellow deal-seekers and getting yelled out by jealous pre-Thanksgiving shoppers, Jordan had the opportunity to be on KYTX, KETK, and in the Longview News-Journal.

“Everyone knows what I want for Christmas now,” he said. “I hope that while I was sitting outside in the cold that they bought me my present.”

Hannah Reimer

 “Loving Frank,” a surprisingly well-written first novel by Nancy Horan, is set in the decade beforeWorldWarI.This enthralling work of historical fiction is based on the scandalous love affair between famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright and simple house wife Mamah Borthwick Cheney.

 Beginning in the year 1907, while Wright was building one of his famous “prairie houses” for friend Edwin Cheney and his wife, the shocking affair between two

already-married couples began. Unlike modern day affairs, so frequent and open, Mamah and Frank’s relationship scandalized Chicago, threatening the aspiring architect’s career and ruining his once widely-respected partner’s name.

 However in 1909, as Mamah and Frank fall even deeper in love, they commence their runaway plan and travel across theAtlantic, leaving behind both their families. But their private fantasy is short lived. Reporters plague the couple, and the answers they sought to find after reaching Europe have still not been found.

 As time passes, the newspapers continue to lend support to Frank and disgrace to Mamah. Cheney struggles between her children and the family she has made, and the undeniable connection between herself and Frank Wright.

 “Loving Frank” is a portrayal of the pressure and judgment placed on relationships society deems “unacceptable,” as well as the development of the feminist movement in the United States and Europe between 1900 and 1920.

 by NICHOLE MILLER

Cassie wants one thing: to be “beautiful.” When her parents tell her they are moving from their tiny home town to a suburb in Seattle she sees this as her chance to reinvent herself. Cassie doesn’t really know who she is but so far she doesn’t like much of anything about herself. She is determined to leave her old self behind and become someone better, cooler, someone who isn’t afraid to break the rules and be bad.

Amy Reed paints a beautifully raw and compelling picture in Beautiful. You feel everything right along with her main character Cassie. You fall into her world of abuse, sex, drugs, and hopelessness.  You want to save her and more than anything you want her to get the happy ending she deserves.

Once Cassie finds the people she wants to be friends with, the games begin. From then on, it’s as if she is on a tight rope, and one wrong step could end everything she has worked so hard for. This girl literally gives up everything for these new “friends” of hers. She goes from being the quiet, smart girl who no one ever saw or thought of, to the beautiful girl that doesn’t care about anyone.

She can’t get through a day without drugs, because she would have to feel and think about the things that she is doing. She is lost-going through life with no direction. Cassie is so numb to everything around her it’s unbelievable. It only took a split second for her to change her whole life. Just one moment, one choice, and she created a whole new world.

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A self-portrait of Wood

by HANNAH REIMER

 Seated atop stiff plastic lunchroom chairs, surrounded by the familiar hum of cafeteria conversation, Sarah Wood begins the telling of her life in photography.

 “I started photography when I was about eleven, albeit not as an artist,” 15-year-old Wood said. “At that point, I was just taking photos of everything that caught my eye.”

 Wood said she has known that photography was where her life was headed for a long time. Inheriting her mother’s poor hearing, Wood has needed the help of hearing aids since she was in seventh grade. However, Wood’s ‘dilemma’ seems to have actually helped Wood’s choice in photography.

 “Yes, I would say my hearing problem is somewhat a reason in choosing photography. But I still have to handle clients and talking on the phone and all,” said Wood. “Really I think art in general is attractive to me because it can be a very personal and private thing, and I don’t have to involve anyone else in it.”

 Doing what she now hopes will turn into a life-long career has turned out to beneficial from the beginning.

 “I think the ‘photography’ I did between ages eleven and twelve was a very important stage in my development, because I was teaching myself the basic principles that I now use every time I take a photo, even if I wasn’t quite as focused as I am now,” Wood said.

 Receiving no personal training other than the instructions printed on the yellow cardboard of her first disposable camera, she has built her reputation for a good eye and a deep passion for what she loves. Already, Wood is known throughout her high school kingdom as “The Girl Who Takes Pictures.”

 “At this point, I’m gaining more recognition and picking up clients here and there,” Wood said.

 With tons of AP classes, Wood said she has quite the work load in addition to her fledgling photography business.

 “I’m in Pre-AP English II, Algebra II, Chemistry, and Art II,” said Wood. “It can be a little overwhelming, but advanced courses are a lot more interesting to me. I don’t particularly enjoy working, but I’d rather be challenged than bored,” Wood said.

 But Chemistry and Algebra courses are no match for the passion that holds this teen’s heart.

 “I tend to be attracted to the more artsy electives, especially since they’re usually much more aggressive than others,” she said.

 As fellow students aspire to become lawyers and surgeons, Wood considers a somewhat more inventive arrangement.

 “I plan on studying photography at Kilgore College under Professor Rufus Lovett, and then possibly transferring to UT or a small art school,” she said. “Ultimately, I want to freelance or run my own photography business, even if there’s not much income. I can’t imagine not being a photographer in some form, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

 Wood’s website can be found at  http://www.wix.com/sarahwoodphoto/index.

by CHEYENNE WILLIS and MEAGAN  COREY

It seems like by the time some students become freshmen, they’re ready to graduate and be done with school.  They seem to think school is useless, and see it as a waste of time and effort.  Some even go so far as to drop out. ExCEL, a program implemented last school year, is designed to stop that.

“The new high school allows our district to continually meet the needs of all students on a broader scale,” ExCEL principal Kim Chatman said. “Although the paths that students take may vary, their ultimate goal remains the same– graduation,”

Students who attend the ExCEL part of the campus study online with the help of teachers who provide them with one-on-one instruction. They work at their own pace and are given very little homework. The ExCEL environment is more quiet and relaxed. If students miss a few days of school, they are able to catch up on work quickly and efficiently. If students are happy with their GPA and have finished their work, there’s a graduation opportunity at the end of every semester.

 “I would like to thank Pine Tree ISD for affording me the opportunity to serve our district in such a capacity as this,” Chapman said.

Students who attend the ExCEL program are secluded from the rest of the school. They don’t go to the regular lunches. Instead, their food is taken to them. ExCEL also does not offer the opportunity to participate in sports or other extracurricular activities, but some individuals are willing to give up the traditional experience for a chance to move on more quickly through high school.

“I missed half my sophomore year to take care of my daughter,”  ExCEL senior Samantha Copeland said. “ExCEL offered me the opportunity to raise my child and get all my schoolwork done so I can graduate this year in December. Even though I miss soccer and dance, joining ExCEL has definitely been worth it.”

by CORINA TIRADO

Walking through the halls, students rush around her, trying to get to their next classes.  Attempting to avoid getting pushed and shoved, she eventually makes it to her own class right on time, frustrated and out of breath.

After five years of being homeschooled, Haley Weller said she was excited to spend her sophomore year in a public school.

“Before this year my only visions of high school were those of movie-like high schools from movies like ‘Mean Girls’ or ‘High School Musical,’” Weller said. “It’s so weird and different. I almost expected someone to jump up on the table and sing.”

Over the past eight years, the sophomore has gone from private school to Kilgore’s Maude Laird Middle School and homeschooling.

Used to staying at home most of the time, students come across some very different experiences going into a huge student body.

 “I’m taking it one day at a time,” she said. “It’s not so much the ‘school’ part as the environment. It’s different, and there’s a not so subtle step from an almost positive to very negative situation.”

When she homeschooled, her normal days consisted of her waking up in the mornings, eating breakfast, watching TV and staying in her pajamas all day. With her not really having a set schedule, she had a lot of free time, most of it being spent volunteering and spending time with her mother.

 Being somewhat sheltered, she had not yet had a taste of the high school pressures.

“I mainly struggle with the continuous, never-ending stress and all the trash like the drama and people’s attitudes,” Weller said.

 The intensity of the new experiences has sometimes been a bit overwhelming, but it hasn’t slowed her down. She says she has strategies for getting through it all.

“I really just try to be positive and not focus on the negatives,” she said. “It gets me through each and every day. No matter what happens, there is always a positive. It’s all about perspective.”

 By Peyton Varner

Following the not-so-welcomed second division rating last year, the Pine Tree Pride was more than ready to redeem their name at the marching contest, Oct. 18. The contest was held in Mt. Pleasant, and Pine Tree was the second to last band to perform.

The drill, which included “Purple Majesty Fanfare,” “Cyrus the Great,” “Echano” and “E Pluribus Unum” lasted 7.5 minutes and was said to wow the three judges.
“There isn’t a person marching that doesn’t know every step and every note of the drill,” Mr. Melton said.

The band has gone through band camp, summer rehearsals, and morning practice for the last eight weeks of school in preparation of this day and their chance at redemption.
“The moment before we found out our rating was pretty intense,” junior Beth Jones said. “Nobody wanted another two.”

True to their efforts, the pride received a first division rating from all three judges.

“It was unreal,” senior Samantha Donnell said. “In the end, all of our hard work paid off.”

Girl’s varsity came in first place at the Jacksonville District Meet. For the first time in three years the boys also placed by coming in third. The first to come through the finish line for the girls was sophomore, Christina Nelson, who also finished second overall. On the boys end was sophomore Brian Thompson. District is the first meet the team has won all year and because of it they’ll be going to regionals, which will be held Saturday in Arlington.

by DYLAN COLLINS

Reporter

It surprises many students to discover that the average person in the United States will receive 22,680 hours of schooling in a public education facility by the time that they leave college to start their formal career.

That being said, people often wonder what the point of school is, and where it even came from. I have become so aggravated with students explicitly asking me that, that I’ve decided to be a nice person and answer that question for the curious students enrolled in the American educational system.

The first public school is said to have begun in ancient Greece when philosophers such as Plato and Archimedes wanted to bring people together so their ideas could be shared and spread among the community and beyond.

The Roman Republic and Roman Empire also had public schools scattered throughout the land where, if people had the time, they could attend at specified times. Of course as imagined, only the very wealthy could afford an organized education.

However, the first formal public school system was founded in 425 A.D by the Byzantine Empire, who offered it to men only, unless of course they were slaves.

Education continued to remain that way among the British, French, Russian, Spanish and Ottoman empires.

Then in 1620, when the Mayflower sailed to the continent of North America, or the “New World,” the system of education changed. Most men and basically all women were illiterate and could barely write their own names, except for the very wealthy, who would have to pay another wealthy man who knew how to read and write, to teach them.

 Later, when the United States was formed after the American Revolution, small schoolhouses were constructed in communities where between the hours of eight and three, any child in the area may attend to get educated. However, most adults thought that the average student only needed eight “grades” of schooling before they were considered finished.  Public education at the time, like it is today, was funded by the government with tax dollars, and any child was allowed to attend, however most were not able to because of they had to help their parents on the farm. In fact, many people didn’t even make it past grade four or five.

After World War II, Capitalism kicked in, and the United States became much wealthier and more powerful all through the Cold War. There was a huge increase in literacy rates, and a population increase in urban areas, meaning fewer citizens relied on farming as their primary source of food.

With less farming, more students attended public schools regularly through the fifties and sixties, and one out of every three students in the United States attended a college university by the end of the Vietnam War. This number was followed by one out of every six in the United Kingdom, one out of every ten in France, and one out of every twelve in the Soviet Union.

Public education today remains free, and every student in every democratic nation across the world are required to attend. Graduating from high school and acquiring a college degree is almost completely imperative for future success in the work force, unless someone is accompanied by a truckload of luck.

It’s important to note that a system for public education has been around for almost 2,000 years, however, it’s only been free to all for about 100. Students should feel grateful for the free education they receive, because there are over 470 million teenagers in the world who are not as blessed.