Index

Page 1 Good News/Bad News: The Falling Dollar

Page 2 Pippin: An Extraordinary Life

Page 4 The Problems of Violent Video Games

Page 5 Always Forever Now: The Clock of the Long Now

Page 7 Matt Shultze: New coach in town

Page 8 Ms. Booth Takes Control

Page 9 Monks of Peace vs. Junta of Violence

Page 10Dr. Caraway: Renaissance Man

Page 12 Artistic Piracy: Theft Downloaded

Page 13 Mr. Green on the Scene

Page 14 The 2008 Presidential Race: Democratic Contenders

Page 15 Mr. Bachman: Historians Story

Good News/Bad News. The falling dollar ___________________

Cole Swartz___________________The falling U.S. dollar is going to affect the United States in good ways and in bad ways – either way you look at it. This change will be a good one for U.S. exports, but not so much for U.S. imports. First, one of the good ways it will affect the United States is our export rates are going up – and will continue to climb – because of the falling dollar. The reason for this is because a sudden boom in exports with a lower valued dollar means that things are cheaper to buy here in the U.S. for foreign investors and consumers. One would hope more

countries would start buying the same products here in the U.S. that are made in England, for example, because the product would be cheaper. So be nice to foreign tourists, or at least thankful they are emptying their wallets here. But then there are bad ways that the falling dollar will affect the United States. U.S. import prices will go up – and keep on rising – as long as the value of the dollar keeps decreasing. What this will do is make things quite a bit more expensive at stores here, since prices of foreign goods are higher. Our stores must maintain a profit margin, though, and the only way to do that will be to raise prices. Additionally, petroleum products which we consume in great amounts every day – gasoline, oil, and most plastics – will keep on going up in

price as the foreign export prices of petroleum become more expensive to us and the dollar loses value. As gas prices go up, the prices of goods and items delivered by trucks and planes will also have to go up. This might mean no more dollar meals at the fast-food chains, and frowny-faces at the big box retailer instead of smiley-faced price ads. Finally, it should be noted that the U.S. is a country that borrows a lot of money from other countries. If we start to slack off on in getting that money back to our loaners, then they will react as if we can’t be trusted, and they will increase interest rates on the loans we get from them. And this reaction will just get the United States into even more debt. What will the falling dollar do next? Will it stop? Or will it keep on falling and prices keep on rising? None of the experts are positively sure about when it will stop losing its value, but the dollar should return to its early 1990’s value. Back then, the Clinton administration purposely backed and encouraged a high dollar policy, which gave U.S. citizens a short-lived feeling of prosperity by making imports prices low and by keeping inflation low. This feeling of prosperity returning is the expected future course of the dollar, but nobody can be positive about where it is going. The falling United States dollar will continue to affect the economy of one of the most powerful nations in the world for quite a few more years. Who knows how soon – or if – the dollar will bounce back?

FINANCE

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PippinAn extraordinary life

BY GREGORY STEINHELPER

Although it sounds out of character, Pippin was extraordinary – at least at

Keystone.

From October 11th through the 13th, student thespians performed the musical production Pippin here to the delight of appreciative audiences. The play is about Pippin, a prince, who attempts with some difficulty to find an extraordinary thing he does well. Sasha Rohret played the character Leading Player, with Jean-Paul Tatum as Pippin, Andrew Koepp as King Charlemagne, and Daniel Quintero, the only middle school student in the cast, as Theo. Things started out with a troupe of players in medieval/jester-like clothing performing a musical number. One could tell that Sasha, having almost perfect pitch, was extraordinary! Pippin, the son of the King Charlemagne, thinks he is

destined for extraordinary things, and throughout the play Pippin tries to be extraordinary. He first attempts to become a scholar, then a soldier, and finally a King, but fails in all of them. It’s only after he fails that he has a normal life and becomes truly happy for the first time. The play was mesmerizing but a little confusing at first. Fortunately, after a while it started to sort itself out. The choreography was complicated, beautiful and synchronized. The background cast wore identical white gloves, which provided a visual similarity, defining a style for the set of the stage. There were many hand movements in the dancing, so it was creative genius to make everybody’s hands look identical. Most of the costumes were athletic attire with stockings, and the background actors had half of their faces painted. The end of the play might also

have confused many people, so to help explain it, I asked Mr. Ciaravino, our drama teacher, to clarify the climax and he explained it like this: the troupe of players tries to convince Pippin to sacrifice himself in a spectacular way on the stage. To this end, he should jump into the fire. However, Pippin doesn’t, and instead has an ordinary but joyful life. The point of the play is to explain to people that if you have an extraordinary life, it will go by faster, and an ordinary life can be filled with as much happiness as an extraordinary one. The actors really displayed their talent. Sasha Rohret (Leading Player) had good enunciation and her body language was well synchronized with her lines. Jean-Paul (Pippin) was a natural at acting as if he wasn’t that extraordinary, although his voice was extraordinarily good. Andrew Koepp was great at playing King Charlemagne. His voice was deep and commanding, and he seemed to really tower over everyone – just like a king! Daniel Quintero was good at playing Theo, a young boy. For a 6th grader, he was very good, remembering his lines and singing as though he was actually a young boy. The production of Pippin here at Keystone was no doubt lighter and funnier than when it was a long-running Broadway musical from 1972 to 1977. Our Pippin had some humorous parts to it, and it told the story quite well. Overall, the actors, crewmembers, choreographers and director did their job with great aplomb.

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THEATRE

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OPINION

The Problems of Violent Video GamesEffects of Exposure to Realistic Simulated Violenceby Joseph Vadakekalam

emotion, and much less activity in the area dealing with strategy and planning – which another brain scan of kids playing non-violent video games showed. And simi-lar brain scan research at Michigan State University indicates that ex-posure to violent video games leads to more aggressive thoughts. Sometimes violent video games are used to actually facilitate vio-lence. These games are employed as training tools by the U.S. Ma-rine Corps to sharpen potentially life-saving skills needed in combat situations. Some engage in violent video games to get rid of stress, but it has been observed that repeated losses may cause such a degree of frustration in some people they become enraged, blind with fury. Simulated violence, frustration, and anger relate to aggression in an alarming way. Shooting people again and again in a game until it seems a natural response no differ-ent than swinging at a good pitch might cause people to act as if their life – or the lives of others – were only a game.

There are cases of real violence sparked from fake violence. An example is the Virginia Tech shoot-ing of April 16, 2007, which most of us remember. If the aggressor was influenced by the violent game Counter Strike, as some reports suggest, then how many other less-er incidents were fueled by violent video games? I agree that violent video games are bad; even though many people say they aren’t that bad, and some say that they are good. Violent vid-eo games are proven bad by scien-tific studies, and they reflect poorly in society in the way they are used, and in the events of human violence produced from fake violence.

Are violent video games harmful? Advocates dis-miss the idea claiming that

they are entertaining, harmless fun while others, including myself, in-sist they are making people more aggressive – and more dangerous. There seems to be some proof that violent video games are harm-ful. Evidence from scientific stud-ies indicates that the degree of and time exposed to violent video games increase real violence and stimulate more aggression. According to Dr. Brad Bushman of the University of Michigan, children tend to push, shout, and yell more often after play-

ing violent video games. An Indiana University study using brain scans shows that subjects playing violent video games have more brain activ-ity in the area dealing with strong

Sometimes violent video games are used to actually facilitate violence.

4

Always Forever in the Long Nowby Christopher Shearer

The Clock of the Long Now is a clock that rings once every 10,000 years. The next time it will ring will be in the year 12,000. Al-though you and I may not be here for this next ring, the Clock itself

is a story that should stick around for quite a while. The Clock is about six feet tall and about two feet wide. It will be de-signed to tick once a year, and have a century hand that moves once every hundred years. Every millennium, it will chime, like a cuckoo clock for the ages. The people that made the Clock did so because people tend to think too much in short-term time. With this project, people might think in long-term more often, and not just focus on what seems to matter in the here and now of current events and popularity contests. The Clock of the Long Now will eventually be located in a limestone cliff near Ely, Nevada. This site is chosen not only for it’s present day remoteness, but also for what one day may be part of a vast and singular city called America. The prototype for the Clock of Long Now is now on display in The Sci-ence Museum of London. This clock was finished in 1999 – just in time for it to ring seven years ago when our calendars turned to the year 2000. The Clock tells time with five digits instead of four. For example, it now reads 02007 instead of 2007. The clock measures time like this because if it measured time with only four digits, it would get messed up after the

year 9999! The Clock uses atomic energy and solar power systems. These systems are used because they are they best way to keep a clock work-ing for the far long term.One worry about the Clock of the Long Now is the question of ulti-mate meaning. What if this clock won’t have any meaning in the next 10,000 years? That is, what if peo-ple won’t care? Part of the idea of the Clock is to be, like a museum, a repository of history – chronicling what has gone on in the last 10,000 years, and, looking forward, what sort of things humanity will need to know and do for surviving the next 10,000. There are many people who took part in the conception, designing, and building the Clock. Danny Hillis is the Long Now Foundation co-chairman of the board of direc-tors. Previously, Hillis was Vice President of Research and Develop-ment at Walt Disney Imagineering. He developed new technologies and business strategies for Disney's theme parks, television, motion pic-tures, and consumer-products busi-nesses. He also designed theme park rides, a full-sized walking robot dinosaur, and various micro-mechanical devices. With the Clock of the Long Now running, now, and forever, is a good time to start remembering the past and thinking about the fu-ture. And the next time someone asks you for the time and you don’t have a watch or clock on you, you can always remark, “It’s now – but, a really…long…now.”

SCIENCE

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PHOTOS

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Matt Shultze – New Coach in Town

Matt Shultze is the new coach at Keystone school. He is a very cool guy, as you will see in this interview.

Q: Do people tell you all the time that you look like Brett Favre (quarterback

for the Green Bay Packers)?A: Yes, I hear that all the time. I’m a hardcore Packers fan.

Q: Where did you grow up?A: Marion, Texas. Right outside San Antonio, on a farm.

Q: What college did you go to? Did you play any sports there?A: I went to Texas A&M in Kings-ville, where I played football, and I graduated at UTSA, right here in San Antonio.

Q: When did you decide to become a P.E. coach?A: Right after I got out of high school. I knew I wanted to work with kids.

Q: What is your favorite sport to coach?A: Hmm…. Soccer, I guess.

Q: What were some of the qualities of Keystone that attracted you?A: The students. There are great students here, a great atmosphere, and a great faculty to work with.

Q: What are some of the games and sports that we are going to play this year?A: Capture-the-flag, ultimate Fris-bee, soccer, basketball, football, and much, much more.

Q: Do you have any plans for your-self when you are done being a coach?A: Yes – retire and live on a lake, and fish, and play golf.

Q: Golf on the lake?A: No!

Q: Do you believe nutrition is im-portant?A: Yes, very much so. Yes, be-cause San Antonio is one of the fattest cities in the United States. School is the best place to get the

word out on nutrition. I believe it really is important to eat your fruits and vegetables.

Q: Rumor has it that you have a new member of your family. Is it a boy or a girl? What is the name?A: She’s a girl and her name is Brandi Vaughn Shultze.

Q: Mazal Tov – congratulations!A: Thank you.

Q: If you were to be stranded on a deserted island and you could only bring three items – not people – what would you hope to have?A: A-ha! That’s tough. Let me think…. Sunscreen, matches, and a cell phone – in case I wanted to leave.

Let’s all hope Coach Shultze has all he needs now for a prosperous future at Keystone!

Inter-view by Matt Stahl

SPORTS

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I sat down with the new Lower school headmaster, Ms.Booth. I asked her a couple of questions

about what her occupation was before she came to Keystone. She gave me some interesting answers to some of my questions. To find out more about her…read on!

Q: What was your favorite subject when you were in school?A: Oh! Well, science. But I have to tell you I regret not taking more art classes, and I encourage you to take more art courses. I took pho-tography, which was great. I also love physics. When you get out and start working, you forget about all the fun things. Science and phys-ics though are my favorite classes. But I still regret not taking more art classes.

Q: Tell me about your recent work.A: Well, before I came to Keystone, I was assistant head of school at a school called Maple Street School, which I’m what’s called a founding educator, which means I started the school. So, the school wasn’t there before I came. Myself along with three other teachers, two board members, and one administrator started the school.

Q: What strengths do you think you can bring to Keystone?A: To Keystone? Well, first I’m a great person! I have strong leader-ship skills, and I’ve been working at different schools for over twen-ty years, so I know how different schools work. I think I can help Keystone move on to the future. I also work well with people, and I

think that will help. And the fact that I have experience will help me a lot!

Q: Why were you interested in this job?A: Well, Keystone is an awesome place! It’s very unique! I was a lit-tle hesitant when I got on the plane from Vermont to Texas, but when I walked in the doors at Keystone, I knew I was at home. I knew I was in a special place. The people are all very unique, and I knew that I wanted to work in this kind of en-vironment.

Q: What is your favorite hobby?A: Hmm (she says with laughter.) I love to read. Well, my family is my favorite thing, then comes my work. I love sports! Soccer, foot-ball, hockey, running, I’m a big sports fan! Then I would say shop-ping.

Q: Where did you live before?A: I grew up in New York, in the city. I used to play stickball in the street as a kid, and then I moved to Southern Vermont. I was there for most of my adult life. But I would be traveling to Northern Vermont because I raced on a GS (Giant Slalom) team. The gates were harder. So mostly, I was a Vermonter, but I still have New Yorker in me.

Q: What did you want to be when you were little?A: I actually wanted to be an astro-naut. I wanted to be and I still want to be an astronaut. I get really bad motion sickness, though. I can’t even handle elevators, people think I’m trying to exercise by running up and down steps, but it’s because I’ll get motion sickness. I wanted to be an astronaut so badly, that’s all I wanted to do, because when I was really little, I thought it was the coolest thing. I really wanted to do that. But, after that, when I was in college, I wanted to be a psycholo-gist, and that’s what I got my degree in. That’s what got me interested in school business.

INTERVIEW

Ms. Booth takes controlby Tess Sailor-Tynes

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Monks of Peace vs. Junta of Violenceby Mirsab Zar

Buddhist monks, joined by students and thousands of other protesters risked their

lives to march in the streets of Bur-ma on September 25th, 2007. They marched in protest of the brutal and corrupt military rule that slowly began to control the country since 1962. The military junta, which rules the country with an iron fist, seized control in 1989 and renamed the Southeast Asian Myanmar, a name which remains unrecognized by many entities including the Unit-ed States. The monks were protest-ing the government’s doubling of fuel prices in August, a move that would cause incredible suffering for the poor in the impoverished nation.

It might be considered odd to see monks protesting increased gas prices, but they are speaking for

many voiceless, powerless people. Most people in Burma – some 89 percent - are Buddhist, and the monks are highly revered. They are also quite unpopular with the mili-tary regime because the monks are vocal, active opponents of the bru-tal rulers who will go to any lengths to silence their opposition. This is a battle between two of Burma’s most powerful groups – the monks and the junta. Police forces of the junta have been using tear-gas and clubs to attack monks. At least one monk has been killed, and many more injured and arrested. Because freedom of speech is de-nied and foreign journalists barred from entering Burma, the number of deaths remains unknown. It is estimated the number of dead or disappeared runs into the hundreds. The outcome is unknown, but it is

doubtful the declared enemies of democracy and freedom can silence the monks. Will the monks be able to use their wisdom, morality and medita-tion to cause a positive effect in the stability of their nation, or will the protests end in more death, misery, and suffering? Recently, First Lady Laura Bush wrote an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, siding with the monks. She, like many others, believes the junta generals should step down and allow democratic re-forms in government. Currently, our government is im-posing sanctions against the junta leaders, including freezing the as-sets of fourteen junta leaders. This is intended to have the chilling ef-fect of impoverishing the Burmese government, and forcing them to reconsider their ability to exploit their citizens. Will this be enough to promote peace and freedom?

CURRENT AFFAIRS

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Police forces of the junta have been using tear-gas and clubs to attack monks

Q. Where did you grow up?

A. Just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado

Q. What do you like about teach-ing?

A. It’s always different. It’s an intel-lectual challenge. One year I might be teaching English, the next year French, the next year history, the next year government. It’s always different. It keeps me sharp. Q. What don’t you like about teach-ing?

A. Getting up early in the morning, Grading and Growling at people to be quiet. I call it the three Gs.

Q. What were your previous jobs?

A. I’ve worked a lot in restaurants, I’ve climbed poles for cable TV, I’ve been a cave exploration guide, I’ve been a tourist guide, I’ve been an English tutor, I’ve driven a fork-lift truck, and I’ve collected trash, I’ve been a model for drawing classes,I’ve been an assistant archeologist I dug up dead people for about two

years.An opera singer, a bar tender, a translator, I wrote a beer column or a column about beer for a maga-zine, I’ve been a secretary, and I’ve been a ranch hand. Q. What was your favorite job?

A. You mean not teaching. Dig-ging up dead people. I could not wait to go to work in the morning and I hated to leave. There is some-thing interesting about digging up dead people. Whenever I drive by an old cemetery on the east coast of the United States, or in Europe, I practically drool. Last summer I was in New Finland I did a lot of drooling. My family kept having to say “Down David Down.”

Q. How long have you been a teacher?

A. 2 years, 11 months and 7 days. As of October 5, 2007.

Q. Why did you choose to work for Keystone?

A. It was an accident. I learned about Keystone when I was helping

my wife’s friend move. She was a student hear. Later after I had fin-ished my Ph D and I was beginning to look for college jobs and Key-stone needed someone to tempo-rarily cover maternity leave. And that is how I started here. And after three years I am still hear.

Q. What languages do you speak?

A. English I hope, Dutch, Italian, French, and I get by in German.

Q. What is your favorite place to be?

A. In an archive conducting histori-cal research. I love dusty old papers ,its like going through somebodies things when they aren’t there.

Q. What is your favorite subject to teach?

A. I’m a historian at heart. I prob-ably like teaching history the best, but I am very much enjoying teach-ing French, and I like the govern-ment class. Maybe I like teaching best what I am teaching at that mo-ment.

Q. What is your favorite age group to teach?

A. I’ve taught 11 through adult. And I’ve liked them all. So 11-99.

Q. What was your dissertation?

A. Well the title is Retreat from liberalism, Willem I, Freedom of the press, political asylum and the foreign relations of the Unit-ed Kingdom of the Netherlands 1814-1818.

Dr. Carawayrenaissance manby Luke Weissler

INTERVIEW

10

It’s hard to summarize as you might guess from the title. But it’s about freedom of the press and political asylum and international security. Particularly some French political refugees left France after the fall of Napoleon who took up in what are today Belgium. It caused an in-ternational crisis because a lot of European countries thought these refugees were dangerous.

Q. What sports have you played?

A. Baseball, football, basketball and swimming.

Q. What positions did you play in these sports?

A. In football I was feared and re-spected I was a kicker and some-times I would play split end I was also a coach. In baseball I played second base and I dearly loved sec-ond base. In swimming back stroke and breath stroke.

Q. During your childhood who made a big impression on your life?

A. My father. Best man I ever knew. If I could be half as good as he was I would be happy.

Q. If you were stranded on a des-ert island and you could only bring one book and one recorded piece of music what would they be?

A. The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and La bohème by Puccini it was my first love it stays my favorite

10 11

When you buy a song for your MP3 or iPod, what do you do with it? Just

listen to it yourself? Or make cop-ies for your friends? Or maybe even post the music on the Internet? There are a wide variety of things you could do with your music that are illegal, so people need to know that it wrong to steal anything, and know why illegal downloads are a form of stealing. If you hand out a copied CD to all of your friends, it not only betrays the creators of the songs, but also thousands of other people who depend on the music industry – from the agents and helpers of the musicians and artists all the way to a teenager that works at a store that sells music. Also, think about the conse-quences people could face if every-one or even most people download-ed and shared music illegally. A lot of people could lose their jobs, new and up-and-coming artists and bands wouldn’t have a chance to make it big, and the music indus-try would slow down, which means less entertainment for us. The same thing goes for movies. Downloading a movie from anunauthorized place is illegal. If the website is legal to download from, or if you buy a movie in a store,

there is still opportunity to commit a crime. This could take the form of copying the movie and selling or distributing it to others. Many people don’t get their movies legal-ly – they just download them from one of the many illegal websites. Does this sound familiar? Hope-fully not. Stealing movies and music is no joke. The Recording Industry of America can sue an individual for as much as $150,000 per song that is downloaded illegally. As of March of 2004, two thousand peo-ple were sued because they down-loaded music illegally. More than five hundred of these people had to pay bills averaging $3,000! And according to the Canadian national newspaper, The Globe and Mail,Canada’s government has recently made the penalties even harsher. Think about it. If you were at a museum and you stole a piece of artwork – everyone knows that this would be wrong. So why would you do it? Is your pleasure more important than the intention of the artist to share fairly, and the ability of the artist to prosper? The bottom line: it’s called steal-ing, and it’s illegal. So don’t do it, and avoid the costly penalties, and stay away from helping to seriously damage the movie and music indus-

try. We need to get rid of this prob-lem, and anyone and everyone can

easily help by persuading friends not to do it, and by not doing it oneself. You wouldn’t even think of stealing clothes or another item from someone, so why would you steal music or a movie from artists whose job is to inspire us all?

Artistic Piracy: Down-loaded

Theftby Brittany Solar

OPINION

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The Recording Industry of America can sue an individual for as much as $150,000 per song that is downloaded illegally.

by Mirsab Zar

Mr. Green is the new pho-tography and journalism teacher here at Keystone

School. The reason he likes his job he says is because, “It allows me to do three things that I really like – that’s photography, helping students reach their potential, and designing publications.” He says that the skills of photography and design match the skills needed to work for a magazine. Mr. Green thinks that a person who has this job should “be able to work well with children, have good design ideas, and be very passionate about what they do.”

Mr. Green was born in San An-tonio and has spent most of his time here, but he has also lived in Wash-ington, D.C. and traveled in Europe and Latin America. He has been in-terested in the field of visual arts for more than twenty years and remains very interested in changes brought about by increasingly sophisticated technology. He has studied fine art, graphic art, philosophy, linguistics, and photography. The reason he chose to become a part of our com-munity? “I see Keystone as an op-portunity to work with motivated students. It has a focused vision, and that’s important.” At various points in his life Mr. Green has played baseball, golf, tennis, and has been known to skate-board. His favorite photographer is Henri-Cartier Bresson because he likes the way Bresson captured the moment. His favorite book is The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

But as Mr. Green says, “The funny thing is, I don’t know why.”

Mr. Green on the scene

INTERVIEW

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The 2008 Presidential Race:

Democratic Contenders

by Tess Sailor-Tynes

There is one thing in America we are all focusing on and that is the presidential race

for 2008. This is one of the most exciting and interesting years of any presidential election. This is because never before has America had such a unique potential for a new president. For the first time in electoral politics, America has both a female candidate and an African-American candidate who could be-come the leader of the free world. These two people are both running for president in the Democratic Par-ty, and they are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Here is a primer on these two historical figures. Hillary Rodham was born sixty years ago, on October 26th, 1947. She attended Wellesley College and later met and married Bill Clinton. In 1978, President Jimmy

Carter appointed her to the Legal Services Council, and her husband was elected as the Governor of Ar-kansas. In 1980, she gave birth to their only daughter, Chelsea. Hillary served as Arkansas’ first lady for twelve years, and later as America’s first lady for eight years. When President Bill Clinton left the White House in 2000, she was elected as a senator representing New York. Hillary now lives with

Bill in New York, and is considered the first woman running for presi-dent of the United States who actu-ally stands a good chance of doing so. Many questions about Hil-lary’s potential have been raised. Is a woman strong enough to hold the duties and responsibility of an American president? Is America ready for a female president? If Hil-lary becomes our president, would Bill be the First Gentleman of the United States? And would Bill be as important in his role, since he’s already been a president? Just how would his experiences help her in the future? Lots of questions are

being held in the house of politics, but we all will have to wait and see what happens. Barack Obama is another can-didate we should all look at close-ly. Barack was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4th, 1961. His parents divorced when he was three years old, and his father moved back to Kenya, in Africa. When Barack was 21 years old, his father died in a car crash. His mother re-married, and later, she died of ovar-ian cancer.

In 1996, Barack was elected as an Illinois state senator. In 2000, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. But then in 2004, Barack won the race for the U.S. senate, and is cur-rently the only African-American senator. Many Americans are watching polls and surveys, wondering who will win the presidency in 2008. The next president will have some big responsibilities dealing with war, immigration, mortgage prob-lems, education, and the environ-ment, just to name a few. We all need to recognize that whomever we elect as president, he or she will need to be responsible for finding ways to solve these problems, and so it is up to an informed citizenry to make a responsible decision.

Is America readyfor a femalePresident?

POLITICS

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Mr. Bachman is the new 5th and 6th grade Histo-ry teacher, and there are

some unusual factors about him. After only a few weeks of school, many people thought he was quite cool, doing such activities as skate-boarding to school. Here he will answer some questions that should help us learn more about him.

Q: What do you like most about teaching at Keystone?A: Being part of the Keystone Community.Q: Why do you like to skateboard to and from school?A: One, I surf, so it is my chance to surf away from the beach. Two, it saves fuel, and the environment. And three, because it’s fun. Q: What is your favorite type of music?A: I listen to many types, but Hip-Hop and Jazz are my favorites. Q: What are your favorite foods?A: Pizza, sushi, cookies, and ice cream.Q: All at once?A: No!

Q: What do you like most about teaching history?A: Challenging students to ques-tion accepted versions of history.Q: What do you dislike most about teaching history?A: Nothing. Q: Have you ever taught a differ-ent subject? Did you like teaching it more or less than history?A: I’ve taught Global Politics, and I’ve taught Ethics. One thing that I like better (about history) is that my strength is in more modern his-tory, and I’m a political junkie.

Q: What college did you go to?A: I went to Widener, Rowan, and Northeastern.Q: Where did you grow up?A: Southern New Jersey.Q: What are your hobbies?A: Surfing, biking, skateboarding, weight training, and reading.Q: Where did you live before you came to San Antonio? Or have you always lived here?A: I’ve lived in Philadelphia, Bos-ton, and Washington, D.C.

Q: How is life different here than it is there? A: The climate is different, and the pace of life is slower here. Q: What comes easiest to you as a teacher?A: Interacting with the students. Q: Did you have any siblings when you were a child?A: Yes, two sisters.Q: Were you the oldest, youngest, or in between?A: Middle.Q: If you were going on a long trip, what three books would you take? A: Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Kurt Von-negut’s A Man Without a Country, and Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael.Q: Do you play any sports? If so, what sports are they?A: I was a swimmer. And I played soccer. Sometimes I play a round of golf, and I play racquetball.As you can see, Mr. Bachman is a cool guy and will be a good history teacher for the 5th & 6th graders.

Mr. Bachman: Historian’s StoryInterview by Gregory Steinhelper

INTERVIEW

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