By the Book by Elizabeth Patton At the beginning of every school year, students enter Advanced Placement (AP) classes, prepared for nine months of hard work in anticipation of the AP tests in May. To...

On a sticky July afternoon at the Media Now Journalism camp in St. Louis, we sat across the lunch table from our publication advisers, ate mediocre pasta and talked about newspaper. Out of that conversation...

“What happened to your leg?” asks a senior girl, now a former student. I quickly throw out a lie and say I slipped while shaving. She doesn’t press the issue, believing me. This is the first of many...

At a camp I went to this year, someone posed the question: “Who is your fictional dream boy?” Girls around me screamed, “Augustus Waters!” or, “Edward Cullen!” I replied with “Holden Caulfield.” See,...

It’s midnight and I’m writing a Common App essay, reading Hamlet, taking AP Government notes and studying for an AP Statistics test while brewing another cup of coffee. Because school starts at...

You’re so vain you probably think this column’s about you. From full-length mirror point-and-shoot flash photography to front-facing iPhone snapshots, selfies devour social media feeds—human faces...

On Sept. 18, obscene images and racial slurs were left on the Lawrence High School football field before the city football showdown against crosstown rival, Free State. The event marred relations...

Innumerable class periods I’ve spent staring at the clock’s red-lit digits by the door, waiting. Waiting for the next class, to wait for the next class, to wait for lunch, to wait for the next class,...