To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960 by Harper Lee, is the story of a little white girl in Alabama named Scout Finch who comes of age in a small town called Maycomb. The story, told by her, is about the lessons she learns about racism as she watches her lawyer father try and fail to defend a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white girl.   In the story, her father, Atticus, an...

During the pandemic, teachers and students had to learn in a digital classroom. For the first time, teachers had to teach without paper, and students barely used any. Before the pandemic, this would have been unimaginable, but today we’ve been going to school on our computers for over a year. If anything good came out of the pandemic, it was this: It forced us to be paperless, thereby sparing the...

Back in 2017, a small, anxious freshman witnessed her first senior walk-in. She peered down over the railing from the third floor with her fellow classmates as she watched the class of 2018 kick off their final year as a Wildecat. The sound of cattle bells clanging, and the band performing down on Main Street filled the school with excitement. This small, anxious freshman was me, a student excited...

Over the past few years, various movements uplifting and raising awareness for people of color such as BLM and Stop Asian Hate have shed light on the need for representation. Books written by authors of color have been one source of providing visibility for those who feel underrepresented in the education system.  Despite more than half of Howard County’s student body being students of color,...

My little brother William leads a simple life. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of five. Will is nonverbal and was moved into a program called life skills in 3rd grade, teaching him basic skills to survive. He lives in his own perfect world that is so different from ours. His life revolves around a set routine for each day with little changes throughout the week.  Will is in 7th grade,...