How many times a day do you scroll through your Facebook feed? A Nielsen Company audience report found that adults in the United States spend over ten hours a day consuming media. Social media attracts the attention of an extremely wide age span, and is heavily integrated into our everyday lives through both personal and commercial use. As teenagers, many students at GDS use social media every day, and often personal opinions, such as political affiliations, can become a recurrent theme in one’s social media feed. It is another common theme on social media to get into arguments online with
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From the Augur Bit editors: In the May 2017 edition of the Augur Bit, a photo appeared on the front page featuring students Aziz and Sophia Mohammed. Though the photo implied that Aziz was reacting to President Trump’s ban on visitors and refugees from seven majority-Muslim nations, his quotes did not in fact appear in the article accompanying the photo. We regret that the photo may have been misleading. We would also like to note that readers should not interpret the photo to mean that Aziz and Sophia are representative of the community of Muslim students at GDS or that
“Love Trumps Hate!” On November 10th, two days after Donald Trump was named the 45th President of the United States, I marched in downtown Washington D.C. alongside fellow Georgetown Day School classmates in response to the election outcome. With my metrocard and sign in hand, I chanted at the top of my lungs as my feet became sore from marching up and down the streets of D.C. Flash forward to January 21st, and I was in the same position, only this time I was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of women in the historic Women’s March. Having gone to bed
Disappointed, bewildered, and looking for revenge are just a few ways one could have characterized the GDS women’s varsity soccer team at the end of 2016 fall season, after they had found out they had been relegated into the second division of the Independent School League (ISL.) Another way one could characterize them was relieved. For years the GDS women’s soccer program has been producing NCAA Division I and Division III-caliber athletes at a much higher rate than other GDS sports programs. Such players include class of 2015 graduate Hannah Natanson who is a forward for Harvard University, and class
On January 27, President Donald Trump announced the temporary entry restriction United States for travelers from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – seven majority Muslim countries. Likely the most controversial of all the executive orders Trump has issued, the “Muslim ban” has invoked mass protests all over the nation, caused confusion and disorder at many airports, and separated several families. With its broad implications and heavy historical impact, there’s no question that this will significantly change the course of American history and our relationships with other nations, specifically in the Middle East. Even if it has no
During any era rife with tension, private citizens have adopted a myriad of ways to express their displeasure. One of the newest and most quickly-evolving forms of which is protest art. Protest art has become a popular method of sparking conversations about controversial issues. While people have been using art as a means of expressing dissent throughout history, the idea of “protest art” as a genre is a relatively new one that began in the 20th century, taking root in pieces such as Pablo Picasso’s 1937 work, Guernica, a protest against the violence and fascism that occurred during the Spanish
Only a week into his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive order administering a more rigorous screening of refugees and visitors from certain countries he claimed would help to prevent terrorist attacks. Trump’s executive order, which he calls “extreme vetting,” stated that, for 90 days, travelers from seven majority Muslim countries are banned from entering the United States. These countries are Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Iraq. Trump has said that this ban is temporarily necessary to guard against terror attacks. However, a researcher at the CATO Institute stated that since 1975 there has not been a person
Even if you’ve never been taught by Topher Dunne, you’ve seen him around. Maybe it was in the hallway, or maybe it was through a window into one of his history classes. And when you saw him, you saw his outfits. He sports the most unique look at GDS– among both students and teachers. Topher’s wardrobe is an institution at this school. Sophomore Zach Blank enthused: “Topher’s sense of fashion is really unique. When I had seminar with him last year, some of the first things I noticed were [the] plumed hats and colorful ties.” The history teacher primarily dabbles
Georgetown Day School (GDS) has never been a particularly athletically-focused school, but some sports are still more prominent than others. Ice hockey players at GDS have long been neglected, and with reason. Fewer than 10 students who play hockey out of more than 500 in the student body is hardly enough to field a team. This situation, however, is hardly unique to GDS. Hockey is not a very well-represented sport in the DC-Metropolitan area; yet, in 2003, a group of students from Woodrow Wilson High School set out to change that underrepresentation by giving local kids a chance to play
If you are interested in the brain and how it works, then listen up! Next year, Neuroscience will be one of the new courses offered at GDS. Taught by Bobby Asher and Bill Wallace, this new science course will be a whole year and will include things like field trips, projects, labs, and tests. Asher, who has taught AP Psychology for twenty years, says he is passionate about picking things kids enjoy and digging a little deeper. He wants the class’s structure to allow for off-topic and in-depth discussions relating to neurology. “If a kid comes into class with a
The last print edition of the Augur Bit contained information about campus planning that was out of date by the time it went to print. We regret this error. For the most up to date information on the project details, please see https://www.gds.org/page/about/gds-planning/campus-planning/project-details#.
GDS alumna Sarah Stillman ‘02 is a genius. That is what her teachers thought years ago when she was a student at GDS. Now it is official: the MacArthur Foundation awarded Stillman a “Genius” grant this year, recognizing her writing on social justice issues in The New Yorker and elsewhere. This grant is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to 20 to 30 individuals, working in any field, who have shown “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction,” as described on the MacArthur Foundation’s website. Fellows