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This Week at South
This Week at South - 6.25: On Decency
Greetings South Students, Parents, Staff, and Community Members,
Past issues of this newsletter are available at the following link: TWaS Archive.
TWaS is also sent via Canvas Messenger and linked to my Canvas Module for all students and families to access, and shared on South’s FB page.
Part I: The News
Content Disclaimer: I am not omniscient. Don’t see your event or results in the newsletter below? I rely on parents, coaches, and others to send me information to include in the newsletter. Feel free to share positive news and results anytime via my email.
This Week in Activities: Calendar HERE.
Family Climate and Connectedness Survey:
Please consider taking a moment to give us feedback so we can improve the connection between home and school. The survey can be accessed at the following link:
https://surveys.panoramaed.com/aasb/asdfamily/surveys?language=en
Help Needed in School Store: PTSO is looking for volunteers to help run the school store at lunch. Sign up here: https://bit.ly/4edAiBZ
South Boys Victorious at Nordic Skiing Region Meet:
The South Boys Nordic Ski team dominated the two day competition held at Kincaid this weekend. Congratulations to Vebjorn Flagstaff who won the first day of individual competition. Adding to South’s success were Ethan Styvar (7), Aksel Flagstaff (8), Grayson Stanek-Alward (9), and Braxton Thornley (10).
The second day of competition was a 3K x 4 relay race, in which the South Boys A team won the relay race. The boy skiers on South’s A team were Grayson Stanek-Alward, Owen Harth, Ethan Styvar and Vebjorn Flagstaff. The South Boys successes over the two days of competition resulted in the Boys team winning the ASD Nordic Skiing regional competition. Congratulations!
Congratulations to Vebjorn Flagstad who won the coveted Skimeister award, by having the best total race times. Way to go Vebjorn! Other Skimeister finalists included Grayson Stanek-Alward (5), Braxton Thornley (7), Ethan Styvar (9), Cedar Ruckel (10) and Owen Harth (11).
South Girls Finish 4th at Nordic Skiing Regional Meet
The South Girls team came in 4th place during the individual competition through the efforts of Alise Elliott (13), Maya Tirpack (16) and Lilian Coy (22). The South Girls 3K x 4 relay team finished in 4th place. Team members were Alise Elliott, Adele Matthews, Lilian Coy and Maya Tirpack. Congratulations!
Two South Girl skiers who had strong results for the Skimeister award were Alise Elliott (8) and Maya Tirpack (15).
The skiers selected for the State Team will travel to Fairbanks February 20th - 22nd, for three days of competition. Good Luck at State!
Shout Out to South Hockey Cheer:
The South Hockey Cheer Team was recently invited to perform at the Anchorage Wolverines game. They performed flawlessly in front of over 3500 fans.
Shout Out to Students National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Contemporary Vocal Competition:
Congrats to five South students who had standout performances. Toby Ellingson, a Senior at South, placed first for the upper division high school level for men. Auriana Smith, a Senior at South, placed first for the upper division high school level for women. Jocelyn Moon, a Senior at South, placed second for the upper division high school level for women. Jillian Singleton, a Junior at South, received honorable mention for the upper division high school level for women. Mady Campbell, a Sophomore at South, also competed for the lower division high school level and did a fabulous job.
FAFSA Help for Seniors:
Seniors- need help completing the FAFSA?
Parents/Students can make appointments with the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education HERE (click the 'youcanbook.me' tab) OR you can attend a FAFSA Wednesday (click on 'FAFSA Wednesday') any Wednesday between 3pm and 6pm. You will need to have your FSAIDs already created (one week prior to completing the FAFSA).
Spring Activities Sign Up:
We are gearing up for spring sports! Soccer, Track & Field, Baseball & Softball start (3/10). Yep, you read that right, it's the Monday of Spring Break!
All athletes need to complete Planet HS (now Big Teams), pay the fee through ParentConnection, and then see Mrs. Cravens in the Activities Office for eligibility processing and a golden ticket. All athletes are required to have a golden ticket to start practice.
- Start dates for all sports can be found in the following list.
- The registration process is outlined in detail in the following document.
Contact Kara Cravens at cravens_kara@asdk12.org with any questions.
Part II: What I’ve Learned
Each year in the beginning of February I celebrate Black History Month, in part, by rereading Martin Luther King Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail.
I taught the letter for many years in my English classes as an exemplar of constraint, intellect, command of language and informed argument. Back then, I would ask my students to choose a contemporary issue involving justice and to write their own letter. I still think King’s language, reasoning, and command of his subject are masterful. His letter still provides us with a model for how to address injustices with the written word.
For me, the most memorable part of King's letter is where he addresses the difference between a just and an unjust law. This discussion appears on the top of page three in the link above. In it, King attempts to address the clergymen’s accusation that he is breaking laws with peaceful demonstrations in Birmingham.
One small part of his answer to them includes the following lines, which clarify why he and his followers are choosing to break an unjust law. They read:
“Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
In the following paragraph, King expands on the difference by indirectly invoking the Golden Rule when he states that, “An unjust law is a code that a majority inflicts on a minority that is not binding on itself.... On the other hand, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow, and that it is willing to follow itself.” In essence, when those who make the law are willing to follow it themselves, then justice prevails. The reader can hear: treat others how you would like to be treated underlying King’s distinction.
And, to treat others how we would like to be treated, we first have to see others as fellow humans and deserving of dignity. If we fail that, then others become easy to label, degrade, scapegoat, and dismiss. King addresses this issue in the same section of the letter in which he addresses the difference between just and unjust laws, where he writes:
“Segregation (and injustice) substitutes an ‘I - it’ relationship for the ‘I - thou’ relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things.”
In other words, stripping a person or a group of people of their humanity is the first step toward inhuman treatment and injustice. There are countless despots and regimes throughout history that lend credence to this idea. After all, blaming others is the quickest way to avoid having to reflect on our own mistakes and attempt to get better. Psychology teaches us that we take more personal credit for our successes than our failures. To the contrary, when we fail we blame others to avoid having to take responsibility. So, fighting this innate urge to blame others when we don’t get what we want appears to be one of the simplest actions we can take toward building a more just world.
Our own community isn’t immune to this kind of “I-it” behavior. The most recent example of injustice in our own community happened on social media. Multiple Instagram accounts have emerged using the school’s logo for the sole purpose of shaming others and inviting others to gawk and celebrate this injustice. This has been done by hiding behind the anonymity of a username. When the original account was taken down by Instagram, more accounts arose pretending to be me. At this point, only one of those two has been taken down, and the remaining account is still a visible farce. King would see this modern use of communication as clear degradation of another human. In our own time we call it harassment and cyberbullying. In either case, it is unjust and degrading because it attempts to dismiss other human beings. Or to render them into something less than who they truly are so they can be mistreated more freely.
So, this week I am reflecting on MLK’s call for a more just world, and calling on everyone in the South community to attempt to uplift others, and to talk to those closest to you about how they use their own digital and in-person presence to attempt to create a just world where we all rise together. Ask your kid if they follow the accounts mentioned above, or any others that attempt to degrade other people, and if they do, tell them to unfollow and quit responding.
It’s only by turning away from degradation and injustice that we can start to move toward positivity and empowerment. Don’t let cowards and bullies who hide behind anonymous social media accounts be the biggest attraction. Not in our community or anywhere else.
I’d like to end by sharing an observation from Kurt Vonnegut, who late in his life started to lose hope in the possibility of a just world, and yet was sharing what did give him hope. He wrote that:
“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society” (from: A Man Without a Country).
I am sure you can find someone in your inner orbit who is positive, encouraging, and attempts to make the world a better place by committing small virtuous acts and uplifting others. And if virtue is a habit, as Aristotle suggested, then we can start to imitate those people we find doing decent things in an indecent world and try to become more decent ourselves.
In the end, decency and justice means uplifting and empowering others. In that pursuit, let’s strive to be saintly.
Want to share this part of the newsletter beyond our school community? Please consider using this link to my Substack: substack.com/@onprincipal
As Always, Onward!
Luke Almon, Principal