Drop your cell phone and pick up a newspaper.

Students at ETHS are horribly unaware of the huge global conflicts occurring right now.

The problem isn’t that the student body isn’t aware, it’s that the student body doesn’t care–even something as simple as getting students to pick up the school newspaper becomes a struggle. There are people all over the world that may be a part of issues way bigger than those we are faced with on an everyday basis. That leaves no excuse for any of us to not be aware.

Some argue that the media is to blame for this generation’s lack of awareness, since a story about a celebrity’s new car trumps a story about children unable to get water or food on a daily basis because the latter subject is “too sad”. In order to hang on to viewers, the media latches on to unimportant stories that spark as little debate or discomfort as possible.

The media will continue to do what it needs to do to keep people watching. It is your job to be aware of everything going on beyond your life.

At ETHS, we have a variety of history classes, such as APUSH, Humanities, and American Legal Systems. In order to fill the current event void that is in students’ lives, however, the administration needs to come together with teachers to form a game plan.

We need to make it a part of the curriculum to connect current events to all lessons. Furthermore, there should be a current events class. For example, teachers have suggested a “Chicago History” class that would cover events happening in Chicago both today and in the past. However, the class was shot down. Students should have a voice in what kinds of electives are offered at Evanston. If kids were given the opportunity to embrace it, current events would no longer be a blind spot for students.