In an age when you are bombarded with information and stimuli wherever you look, taught what you need to know and shown how you need to appear, it can be difficult to find a space where you can discover what you really believe. It doesn’t help that Generation Z is often stereotyped as “apathetic”, when really, it becomes increasingly difficult to speak your mind amidst overwhelming discourse and a world that stops for none.
KLASS Journal is a place where students of the Alice Smith School can express their interests, thoughts and ideas, while discovering what their peers care about too. Started by a group of Year 12’s early in Term 2, it is a website for the KLASS community, and by it, and since the 20th century had its school newspapers and bulletins in the hallway, in the 21st it's only appropriate that this be a blog.
At its conception, there were the natural concerns of starting something possibly novel - will it gain traction? Will students want to write? To read? Apparently so, because in the two months since our talented web designers coded the website into being, and tentatively shot out a survey to EP students, published articles have asked pressing, and fascinating questions. How far back into the past can we peek with genealogy? Is sanitizing desks at school to prevent COVID19 really effective? They provoke thought, discussing the impacts of hustle culture on our time; and they draw in enthusiasts, with commentary on competitive sailing.
The process is simple.
The process is simple. Contributions are open to all EP students year 9 -13, and after article ideas are slotted in on grid, all interested writers(regular or otherwise) are given a flexible 2-week deadline. Editors look over and approve the article when it comes in, web designers work to convert it to the formatting of the site, and voila. The Economist better watch out, because our second intake brought to light superbly written commentary on herd immunity, bitcoin, toxic positivity, and LEGO, leading to a pertinent question for our student body - what do you care about, and when are you writing with us?
Ultimately, the journal aims to provide creative license to explore the facet of existence students have been pondering, or even stumbled upon recently, be it their opinions on culture, current and political events, and identity or academia and extensions of the subject material taught in the classroom. On lifestyle and personal experience or a cause, a book, or a movie they want to spread the word about. We hope in the future, to expand to a larger display of talent - art, comedy, a showcase for student achievements, and perhaps an alumni column or an in-person ECA when lockdowns finally cease.
But for now, we are simply a humble initiative, a spark of belief in the minds and words of KLASS students, and we would be grateful if while sipping your morning coffee, you gave us a read.
Visit our contributions page, leave a comment, or meet our team at this link - https://klassjournal.github.
Author: Anandita (Year 12)
KLASS Journal is a student led webpage, meaning that we build, write and edit the page independently.