Academy for Young Writers has introduced a brand new house system and assigned all students and staff to one of four houses. Students have been wondering the purpose of the system and what benefits they should expect to gain?
The four houses are Forge, Heart, Spark, and Truth, which represent the core values teachers and students have held in the school since its early beginnings. Each house’s mascot is a bird that represents a core value.
House Forge, which is represented by a phoenix, embodies the core values of justice, courage and voice. The symbol being a phoenix as they are mythically known to resurrect after being burned by flames.
The second house is House Spark, which is represented as a Griffin whose core values are imagination, wonder and innovation. Its mascot, the Griffin, represents vision, which many people who have a great imagination will use to do great things for their selves and their community.
Next up is House Heart, represented by a dove. Doves typically symbolize peace and love, which is reflecting of its core values: empathy, passion and connection. In many cultures, doves were used by people to send messages as a show of empathy and sincerity.
Last but not least, there’s House Truth with its mascot being the owl. This house seeks out integrity, clarity, and inquiry. The owl is popularly known as one of the smartest birds in the animal kingdom, being able to see in the dark, which represents what House Truth seeks to do, acting in ways that promote honesty and fairness to all.
In trying to understand how students have been taking in this new house system, we have decided to interview a few students and staff.
The first student we interviewed was a student from House Heart who was in the 12th grade and they mentioned that, ”I think it’s pretty smart for school spirit and bringing people together, the house point system creates an incentive to do good and be cooperative.”
The next student we asked was in House Forge and they said, “I think the houses bring a sense of community to the school that we very much need. It’s a great way to bring about friendly competition with one another.”
After asking students what they feel about the houses, we decided to ask Ms. Kemp, the high school counselor, what inspired her to set up the houses. She explained that she wanted the house system to build a stronger student community that allows all the grades to know each other. One of the main goals for the house system is to create opportunities for students to build stronger social and emotional development and leadership within our school.
We were curious about the impact the house system would have on the graduating 8th and 12th grade students as they would be graduating this year and she explained, ”So when students are working together, collaborating and they’re all working towards a common goal, it teaches students how to be dependable, reliable, and talks to time management effectively and again, social awareness.”
The final question we asked was if this house system was going to be only for this school year or will it here for the long run
“It’s here fore the long term. Once they (students) are assigned to their house, they’ll be in the house until they graduate,” said Ms. Kemp.
The events that have happened so far include the initial House Draft, the first House Meeting, as well as a successful House Pep Rally where members of different Houses got a chance to compete in a basketball and jumprope tournament and an ongoing House Food Can Drive.
Students and staff alike are eager to see what more is there to come from the houses including upcoming events and competitions.
