Birth of a Revolution


Articles Dante Alighieri Arthur Dent Jesus Jones Thomas Paine Other Authors Contact Us! Letter to the Editor Dante Alighieri Arthur Dent Jesus Jones Thomas Paine	The Subterranean: Birth of a Revolution You've just picked up this paper, and you're wondering, "What the hell is this thing? Who are these people writing this stuff? Why should I waste my precious time reading this - after all, I could be playing "Snake" on my cell phone!" Sit back, my friends, and let me tell you a little story… Last spring, the staff of The Roar was hard at work on its last issue of the school year. Articles were written, proofed, rewritten.Editors stayed late daily, laying out text, modifying this, cutting that, until finally the paper was ready for publication. What a culmination of extensive labor! The paper was sent off for publishing, and the editors were proud as could be. Regrettably, when the papers came back, all pristine and printed, Dr. Kazakoff's office was their first stop before school-wide distribution. Unfortunately for those who had spent hours and hours working on the paper and for students who had been looking forward to reading The Roar, Dr. K objected to one of the articles in the paper and had all 1500 newspapers shredded. Shredded, people. Destroyed. Hours of student effort, not to mention the blood, sweat, and tears of the journalism teacher, Mr. Schneider, went to waste as Dr. K decided that it was better that the paper be shredded than that any truth be told. To add insult to injury, students who had written articles for the paper received cut-up and semi-destroyed copies of the paper that left their article intact so that they would, according to one of the students who spoke to Dr. K directly, "know that [they've] been published." Imagine: you spend all this time writing an article for a paper that winds up in the shredder, and your thanks is a cut-up version of the paper so that you can "see your name in print." It's beyond insulting. What was it that riled up our fearless principal? An article on card-playing in classrooms that dared to suggest that perhaps, if teachers had been teaching instead of babysitting, students might not have been so quick to deal a hand. (See Deuces Wild) You see, my friends, The Roar might print all the sports-related or prom-related news it wants, but it cannot tell the truth. It cannot make anyone actually think, because anything worth thinking about is controversial, and heaven help us if Terra Nova has controversy in its midst! This inability to really say anything is not the fault of the staff of the school newspaper. It's the fault of weak administrators who would rather cover up any problems that the school might have instead of actually fixing what's wrong. Didn't you know that Terra Nova is the pinnacle of high school perfection? We never have any problems here…do we? Of course we do. Every school has problems. On the whole, TN is a good school, predominantly staffed by dedicated teachers and attended by hard-working students. However, this does not negate the fact that there are some glaring issues that no one is talking about…like hypocrisy. That's what we're here for. We, the writers of this underground newspaper, are here to tell the truth. We're here to expose the problems that no one else seems to want to discuss. We're a loose collection of individuals who care about what happens at this place where we spend our days. We want teachers to teach, students to learn, and principals to lead. We want to see students think and teachers reconsider some of their less-effective methodologies. We are here as a pillar of free speech, a place where students can freely and responsibly express their ideas without fear of reprisal or censorship. More than anything, though, we want to see the school as a whole address some of its weaknesses and seek improvement instead of covering up what it does not wish to acknowledge. And to the administration: catch us if you can -- but even if you do, the Constitution protects our right to speak freely…even if you don't. This underground paper is for the entire Terra Nova community. We are just as interested in hearing YOUR opinion as we are in expressing OURS. Have comments? Questions? Topics you'd like to see addressed? Articles you'd like to submit? Email us at: TheSubterraneanTN@yahoo.com All articles, Letters to the Editors, and Ideas may be posted anonymously or under pseudonyms. Please Email us with any input.	Archive Back Issues Why? Cartoons Poetry Random Rants Disclaimers Losers and Kudos of the Week Letters to the Editor Editor's Notes Picture of the Week
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The Subterranean: Birth of a Revolution

You've just picked up this paper, and you're wondering, "What the hell is this thing? Who are these people writing this stuff? Why should I waste my precious time reading this - after all, I could be playing "Snake" on my cell phone!" Sit back, my friends, and let me tell you a little story…

Last spring, the staff of The Roar was hard at work on its last issue of the school year. Articles were written, proofed, rewritten.Editors stayed late daily, laying out text, modifying this, cutting that, until finally the paper was ready for publication. What a culmination of extensive labor! The paper was sent off for publishing, and the editors were proud as could be. Regrettably, when the papers came back, all pristine and printed, Dr. Kazakoff's office was their first stop before school-wide distribution. Unfortunately for those who had spent hours and hours working on the paper and for students who had been looking forward to reading The Roar, Dr. K objected to one of the articles in the paper and had all 1500 newspapers shredded. Shredded, people. Destroyed. Hours of student effort, not to mention the blood, sweat, and tears of the journalism teacher, Mr. Schneider, went to waste as Dr. K decided that it was better that the paper be shredded than that any truth be told. To add insult to injury, students who had written articles for the paper received cut-up and semi-destroyed copies of the paper that left their article intact so that they would, according to one of the students who spoke to Dr. K directly, "know that [they've] been published." Imagine: you spend all this time writing an article for a paper that winds up in the shredder, and your thanks is a cut-up version of the paper so that you can "see your name in print." It's beyond insulting.

What was it that riled up our fearless principal? An article on card-playing in classrooms that dared to suggest that perhaps, if teachers had been teaching instead of babysitting, students might not have been so quick to deal a hand. (See Deuces Wild) You see, my friends, The Roar might print all the sports-related or prom-related news it wants, but it cannot tell the truth. It cannot make anyone actually think, because anything worth thinking about is controversial, and heaven help us if Terra Nova has controversy in its midst! This inability to really say anything is not the fault of the staff of the school newspaper. It's the fault of weak administrators who would rather cover up any problems that the school might have instead of actually fixing what's wrong. Didn't you know that Terra Nova is the pinnacle of high school perfection? We never have any problems here…do we?

Of course we do. Every school has problems. On the whole, TN is a good school, predominantly staffed by dedicated teachers and attended by hard-working students. However, this does not negate the fact that there are some glaring issues that no one is talking about…like hypocrisy. That's what we're here for. We, the writers of this underground newspaper, are here to tell the truth. We're here to expose the problems that no one else seems to want to discuss. We're a loose collection of individuals who care about what happens at this place where we spend our days. We want teachers to teach, students to learn, and principals to lead. We want to see students think and teachers reconsider some of their less-effective methodologies. We are here as a pillar of free speech, a place where students can freely and responsibly express their ideas without fear of reprisal or censorship. More than anything, though, we want to see the school as a whole address some of its weaknesses and seek improvement instead of covering up what it does not wish to acknowledge. And to the administration: catch us if you can -- but even if you do, the Constitution protects our right to speak freely…even if you don't.

This underground paper is for the entire Terra Nova community. We are just as interested in hearing YOUR opinion as we are in expressing OURS. Have comments? Questions? Topics you'd like to see addressed? Articles you'd like to submit? Email us at: TheSubterraneanTN@yahoo.com

All articles, Letters to the Editors, and Ideas may be posted anonymously or under pseudonyms. Please Email us with any input.