Many students at Schreiber believe that there should be greater discussion of current events and controversial issues included in class curriculums. In most classes, we spend a large amount of time reviewing the accepted wisdom from our textbooks and only learn about the basic common core curriculum. 

Students rarely get in-depth exposure to local, national, and global issues in the classroom. However, a new club at Schreiber called “Haven’t You Heard?” has recently hit the scene, and it is working to change the conventional classroom setting with each meeting.

The club meets on Friday mornings to discuss a new hot topic each week. These issues have ranged from the mural of Barack Obama on the wall of the Guidance Office to legalizing marijuana. 

“My favorite topic was the Israel-Palestine conflict because it is a pressing debate topic that is currently facing many Jewish-Americans,” said junior Zachary Gruber.

Most students agree that the most unique and captivating aspect about the club is that it contains a “smorgasbord” of political, social, and economic views.  During meetings, many different sides of an argument fly back and forth. Students from a variety of backgrounds, political views, and belief-systems are able to come together and respectfully talk about the issues of today, which thereby inspires conversation and thought. 

“It’s nice to see how different people’s views are. Two people could both be far left politically, yet still have very differing ideas,” said senior Julia Kim.

Sophomore club member Zach Gitlin believes that he has taken and learned a lot from these discussions. To him, the experience largely comes from this exposure to a wide variety of different political views. 

“It’s interesting to see how different backgrounds and even people’s age affect their point of views,” said Gitlin. 

Especially today, the young people of our community must be educated about the world. It is imperative to hear others’ personal opinions, as well as understand and respect them, and that is just what “Haven’t You Heard?” has set out to do.

Moreover, the club discusses topics that aren’t brought up in class. It not only gives students a chance to learn about these important issues, but it also provides them with a chance to debate about them with their fellow peers. 

“It’s exciting to argue with other people when there is no definite right or wrong answer, that’s why these topics are so controversial,” said junior Gabe Hertz.

The club allows for an open environment, which ensures that students can express their honest opinions. This also permits the coming together of a wide range of views into one classroom. 

Furthermore, it is important to note that “Haven’ you Heard?” gives Schreiber students the chance to learn how to have civil discussions with people who they totally disagree with. 

“Some of the topics we’ve discussed this year include affirmative action, the walk out, standardized testing, and the black lives matter movement. I think it’s important to have a place where kids can speak their views freely and not have to be politically correct,” said co-founder Brent Katz.