THEMOORNEWSPAPER.COM ISSUE 6, VOL. 104FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2013

ALL-AMERICANHALL OF FAME

Government Shutdown: Reasons and RepercussionsDEBORAH CHENCopy EditorDENISE TIEUNews Editor

On Oct. 1, a partial federal government shutdown occurred, the first in nearly two decades. In the past, there have been 17 U.S. government shutdowns, which is when expendable government services are closed. A few hours before the deadline, the House Republican leader won approval to enact a new plan to connect further government spending to a one-year delay in a requirement that individuals purchase health insurance. However, 57 minutes later, the Senate terminated the House health care provisions and sent the bill back, leaving the fed-eral government unable to fund itself.

“The problem here is that we can’t [repeal Obamacare] unless some of our friends on the other side are prepared to step up and work with us on this issue. That doesn’t mean we’ll give up the fight if they don’t. We won’t. There are a lot of other things we can do in the meantime,” Re-publican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said, as stated

include anything related to na-tional security, public safety or programs written into permanent law, such as Social Security, will not be able to carry on in an event of a government shutdown.

“[What] really shuts down are national parks or [businesses] that do not have [reserve] funding. I don’t expect a total shutdown of everything; it is just portrayed like that,” Government and Eco-nomics teacher Johnnie Lau said.

The midnight deadline on Oct. 1 had lawmakers attempting to finish a stopgap bill to avoid a partial government shutdown, ac-cording to Toledo Blade. Inevita-bly, the partial shutdown occurred and put hundreds of thousands of federal workers at risk of losing their jobs.

“Instead of continually pass-ing legislation that only provides quick fixes, comprehensive re-form in the budget is needed,” senior Andrew Quach said. “The only realistic way to solve our problems is to pass legislation that will give just a little more time for us to find a balanced approach to spending cuts and tax increases.”

MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO

no legislation was passed to con-tinue funding the government, the federal government ultimately

shut down after the termination of previous funding. The sec-ond deadline, set on Oct. 17, that

needs to be met is the debt limit deadline, when America will have exhausted its emergency borrow-

ing measure, causing the U.S. to have less than $30 billion to pay for the nation’s bills, unless Congress rais-es its legal debt limit, which is the maximum amount the g o v e r n m e n t can borrow.

“The Demo-crats and Re-publicans are too entrenched in their ways to compromise; they care more about destroy-ing the other party and win-ning the next e l e c t i o n s , ” G o v e r n m e n t and Economics teacher Paul

Stein said.CNN has stated that any gov-

ernment functions that do not

in the Huffington Post.GOP has stated that the budget

and debt ceiling disagreement has caused Con-gress to reach a budget im-passe due to a difference in opinion in how Obam-acare should be funded. The Republ icans oppose Obam-acare because they believe it will increase health care cost, cause insurance pre-miums to rise, hurt the qual-ity of health care, add over $500 billion to the deficit and cause nearly $570 billion in tax hikes.

A c c o r d -ing to New York Times, the government needed to agree on a budget to finance govern-ment programs by Oct. 1. Since

Implementation of Minecraft in Education

Cheating Commonplace Among College Students

ELTON HOStaff Writer

The old saying goes, “Cheaters never prosper.” But is this really true in the con-text of academics? Despite school officials’ condemning attitudes toward academic dishonesty, it has always been a pervasive factor of scholastic life, from within lowly high schools to prestigious universities like Harvard.

In an extensive study from 2002-2010 led by Donald McCabe, Ph.D, about two-thirds of the college students that were surveyed admitted to cheating on past tests and assignments.

The issue of cheating was brought to public attention in mid-2012 through a widely publicized scandal where many Harvard students were suspended after evi-dence surfaced that they had collaborated with others on a take-home test.

“[The decision was fair] because peo-ple, especially in Harvard, should get by through their own means. They got into [a] great school so they should be honest about their work,” sophomore Ares Ton-That said.

Some were not surprised about the out-come of the Harvard scandal, as they ac-knowledged that cheating is commonplace among students.

“People are not afraid to cheat, because who’s going to know? [Teachers] shouldn’t have so much faith in students,” sopho-

more Vivian Tran said.According to the American Psychologi-

cal Association (APA), one of the reasons students cheat is the increasing pressure to succeed academically in order to get into a good college and ultimately land a satisfy-ing job.

Another factor is peer influence. Cog-nitive psychologist David Rettinger dis-cussed in his 2009 study “Research in Higher Education” how students look to their peers for cues to decide which behav-iors are acceptable and which are not.

“People expect their friends to always have their backs when they need it, even [through] cheating [for them]. There’s a point [when] a friend just has to say ‘stop,’” freshman Tracy Duong said.

Different approaches have been sug-gested to combat cheating. One proposal is to modify courses and teaching methods so students would not feel the need to cheat.

According to James M. Lang, writer for the TIME Magazine, infrequent assess-ments put great importance on only a few opportunities to earn grades, boosting the incentive to cheat. In addition, research in an article from TIME called “The Psychol-ogy of Academic Cheating,” published in 2006, revealed that students cheat less when the teacher puts more importance on understanding the material rather than on earning good grades.

MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO

REBECCA ZENGStaff Writer

Minecraft, a game created by Markus Persson, gained its popularity among the youth, which has caused some teachers to look more closely at the video game.

Some educators claim that Minecraft has helped with teaching students art, geogra-phy and architecture by giving pupils the chance to learn in a virtual world.

However, there are some drawbacks to implementing Minecraft in the classroom. Playing a video game in order to learn skills at schools rely on the students’ amount of

self-control and obedience; this may be considered a risky factor.

“[Implementing Minecraft] won’t be ef-fective because [most] students will simply play Minecraft for the sake of playing, in-stead of learning the skills that Minecraft can teach,” freshman Tom Cheah said.

The implementations of Minecraft in the classroom all started with Joel Levin, who first introduced the game to his second grade computer class as a way to teach the kids about real life scenarios. Since then, he has helped co-found MinecraftEDU, which

consists of a team of educators and pro-grammers whose goal is to bring Minecraft to the classroom.

“We strongly feel that Minecraft is a fantastic tool for a broad range of subjects ranging from Computer Science to Art to Social Studies,” Levin said.

MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO

BRIEFING: • The House and Senate cannot compro-

mise over whether to fund Obamacare.• Government shutdown will not stop

Obamacare from occurring.• Each year, the House and Senate has to

approve 12 bills that will fund federal agencies and set spending principles that will help them operate. If Congress can’t agree on how to allocate funding, they will close down.

• The U.S. military air traffic control, emergency medical care, food safety inspections, border patrol, federal pris-ons, law enforcement, emergency and disaster assistance, Postal Service and Federal Reserve will still run.

• To end a government shutdown, Con-gress needs to pass a bill that the White House must sign.

SHELLEY LINStaff Writer

More than one in five children between the ages of six and 17 in America are now considered overweight. Childhood obesity has been linked to diabetes, high blood pres-sure, depres-sion and anxiety. To help with this, first lady M i c h e l l e Obama tout-ed a federal healthy lunch program. She has changed a few dis-tricts’ school lunch pro-grams to in-clude healthy f o o d s .

A c c o r d -ing to CBS News, the L a g u n a Beach Uni-fied School District in S o u t h e r n C a l i f o r -nia is the latest district to rebel against the healthy lunch policy.

The purpose of school is to help children lead a suc-cessful and healthy life. Even though greasy school lunches can be tasty, they are neither healthy nor fresh, leading to obesity in students and the fail-ure to fulfill a school’s purpose.

Healthy food allows for a bet-ter lifestyle for students in the long term. It provides the vita-mins, minerals and other nutri-ents needed for the body. In 2010, Michelle Obama stated that “thir-ty two million American children will be given more nutrition they

need to learn and grow and be successful,” as a result of her ef-forts to improve school lunches.

According to The Dairy Council, an organization , eat-ing habits are typically acquired during childhood, therefore, eat-ing healthy in school will help

students advance healthy eating habits at a young age which can prevent health issues later in life.

Lunch supplies one-third of a child’s daily calories, so it is im-portant that he/she receive good nutrition in school. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity in kids is on the rise, and cutting back on foods that have a lot of fat, salt and sugar will help reduce obesity. Eating healthy reduces risks for strokes and other cardio-vascular diseases in addition to decreasing bone loss and reduc-ing the risk of developing kidney stones. Fresh food is also better

for the body as it helps avoid cer-tain cancers such as mouth, stom-ach and colon-rectum cancers.

Some parents pack their chil-dren lunches from home because of the lack of nutrients in school lunches, highlighting the need for a change on the school menus. A

sandwich, fruits, raw veg-etables and a cookie make a more wholesome lunch than what is available on the current school lunch menu.

Simply adding more fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains will benefit students’ health. The healthier the lunch is, the more energy students will have through-out the day. Students can achieve their full potential in school when their minds and bodies are energized.

It will also add more variety in school lunch. More diversity of fruits and vegetables will en-courage more students to eat at school. Many stu-dents who receive lunch at school usually throw away half the dish they choose. If students have more of a variety of condiments to pick and choose from, it

is more likely that they will fin-ish their food. They will also not have to eat the same meals every day of the entire school year.

This decision of making school lunch healthier is ultimately a smart one. Although some students will dislike Michelle Obama’s new and improved healthy menu, the benefits of a healthy school lunch are over-whelming. Having the energy to do excellent in school involves being healthy. School lunch menus serve unhealthy meals every day and it is time for a change to become bigger and bet-ter by starting to eat right daily.

DEREK WUStaff Writer

As children grow into adoles-cents, they begin to experience the sweet taste of freedom. How-ever, does growing into adult-hood mean that we also forget those lessons and ethics from our parents or any adult figures which shape us into admirable people?

As we move further along in life, those lessons are forgot-ten or ignored and participating in hit-and-runs, gun threats and drug use become more and more attractive. Many try to help these troubled teens through therapy sessions, but is there an easier way to prevent these incidents? Simply remembering the lessons from our mothers could make life easier and society more humane.

Dazie Williams, a mother who recently lost her son in Hous-ton to a shooting over a pair of Nike’s, spoke to several troubled teenagers in an organization led by Reggie Gordon. Along with

Williams, several other moth-ers talked about how crime has affected their lives, hoping that this would inspire people to be better. Williams later created an organization, Life Over Fashion, to lesson the violence in her city.

Our pasts could have a huge impact on someone else’s fu-ture. Family is the greatest thing we are blessed with, and the les-sons we learn from our parents are the foundations of our be-liefs. Lessons like “Be an hon-est person, and never lie” are what my mother taught me as a child. As we grow up observing our peers straying towards the wrong paths in life, it seems as if we’ve forgotten these lessons. If mothers were to talk to these “criminals,” they may end up changing their lives for the better.

A mother’s lessons to her child is essential to becoming an ethical person. We all need to remember those simple life les-sons that we learned from our mothers to become good people.

When my mother told me about her departure from her home-land, crouched in the decks of a ship with hundreds of others for a month, the emptiness I felt in that moment remained a perma-nent fixture in my heart to today.

This part of the American Dream is not uncommon to many of us who grew up listen-ing to our parents’ hardships, whether it was entering a new country alone or having to work multiple part-time jobs for a single meal. This dream is one that preaches success through perseverance, but also cultivates generations whose lives revolve around their parents’ sacrifices.

Our parents came to a free coun-try not only for the opportunity of a prosperous future, but also to live a life undefined by others’ rules and limitations. By defining our choices and lives based on what we think our parents want, we contradict the entire reason they came here in the first place: for the freedom to be ourselves.

Every failure I experienced seemed like an intentional slap to my mother’s face. I was not fail-ing only myself, but ruthlessly stomping on all of the sacrifices she made. Thus, I grew up liv-ing in my mother’s shadow, ter-rified of making a decision she would consider wrong, even if it was the right one for me.

It only seems right to live for the woman who gave up so much for me, but this mindset could not be more wrong. It’s easy to remember all of the dif-ficulties our parents have faced when they constantly remind us when speaking about our fu-tures. What’s hard to remember is that we’re all individuals and must learn to live for ourselves.

IN THE RICE BOX

Melting Pot or Pressure Cooker?

OLIVIA CHEUNGEditor in Chief

Lessons From Our Mothers Michelle Obama Implements Salubrious School Lunch Policy

What are Opinions Writers Reading?

MOOR graphic by SIMON ZHAO

Myths and their heroes give meaning to lives. We tran-scend our common life into a world in which mythological heroes interact with humans, and we can believe that our daily actions are part of the deities’ grand schemes. In our hardships, the pain is more bearable because we believe that the trials have meaning; we are suffering for a larger cause rather than being battered randomly. When we read that a particular hero experienced the challenges we’ve en-dured, perhaps a struggle against “evil forces,” we feel that our own struggles might have a similar cosmic or archetypal significance on a smaller scale. Mythological heroes present guidelines for the living. When myths paint the picture of the activities and attitudes of mythological heroes, the morals of the stories imply certain societal expectations for our own behaviors. Like mythologi-cal heroes, we learn to see situations and the available options. We also foresee the rewards and other consequences which result from those selections. These heroes act as role models. In particular, children mold themselves after heroes; comic books and Saturday-morning cartoons, such as Superman and Wonderwoman, are some he-roes that influence children into being like them. Adults, too, can find role models--in the stories of the heroes’ strength, per-sistence, and courage to shape them into being role models for their children in turn.

As Bob Riley says, “Hard times don’t

create heroes. It is during the hard

times when the ‘hero’ within us is

revealed.” It is by overcoming life’s

challenges that heroes are created.

These heroes are those who posi-

tively impact those around them.

Rewind to year 400 million B.C. and our “hero” may

have been a mother dinosaur protecting her children from

a vicious Tyrannosaurus Rex. Fast-forward to year 2013

A.D. and this “hero” may now be a human mother pro-

tecting her children from walking into a financially prob-

lematic future by nagging them to excel at academics.

The circumstances are altered and the characters are

switched, but the common image of a “hero” (or heroine)

is universal. Sacrificing a life to rescue three shipmates

from the USS Oklahoma in World War II and helping a

classmate gather fallen belongings in the crowded hall-

ways are two situations of contrasting extremities, but

both stories emit a heroic light. Why is it that sacrificing your life is as heroic as collect-

ing scattered textbooks off the floor? Perhaps the person

who dropped their books was having a harsh day, and one

random act of kindness improved their mood. We all face

challenges, some of which we may not share with others.

Whether or not we share identical heroes is irrelevant,

because, save the exuberant transformations and special

effects, each hero holds their own Avengers tale. For ev-

ery action you take to positively influence a life, be it a

stranger or a friend, you become a hero. This notion has been unaltered for generations, and

perhaps these heroic efforts go unnoticed and under ap-

preciated, but you are a hero. One difference is all it takes.

To little kids, heroes are people with

superpowers and can always coura-

geously overcome insurmountable ob-

stacles. However, we are all too well aware that

superheroes can never be found in real life. In fact, we don’t

really need a superpower or a cape to be heroes and make huge dif-

ferences in the world.

Modern day heroes are usually ordinary people who have great

responsibilities and courage. They might be normal people carrying

out their duties, but their heroic actions make them extraordinary.

The firefighters, policemen and soldiers are all heroes who show de-

votion to their duties and risk their lives for our safety and security.

Meanwhile, there are also unsung heroes among us every day and

they don’t have to risk falling their deaths to be recognized as such.

The measure of heroes is not only about the number of lives they

save, but also about the impact they make in people’s lives. Teach-

ers who diligently teach students both academic knowledge and life

skills are heroes. All of their actions urge us to stay on top of our

work in order to answer their expectations and repay their deeds.

Parents who work hard to support their family also act as heroes and

role models for their kids by showing great responsability.

Heroes in today’s society are the people who directly or indirectly

help people selflessly. Going from zero to hero is not as difficult

as people think. We can all be heroes by helping

others to overcome adversity or just by standing

strong in our times of trial and distress.

Age of the Heroes: (-∞ B.C., ∞

A.D.)JEN

NY

LEE Features Editor

MOOR Graphics by Gen Thipatima and Sydney Li

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Superman to the Rescue

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Staff Writer

Superhe-

roes in

Disguise

Sports around the world often revolve around the players and their ability to perform. In fact, this is why sports at Alhambra High School have thrived for many years. It seems that athletes alone are the reason for this success.

However, athletes come and go through their high school careers. The most essential component to the schools’ long-lasting success has been the coaches because they are able to stay and continue to support, year after year. Their dedication and hard work to our school’s sport programs are unimaginable. Each coach has a unique and distinctive style that helps manage each of their sport with great care and motivation. They each have what it takes to cre-ate an environment that allows their players to succeed. In addition, these coaches help each player mature not only as athletes, but as people in the community by building up their character as well. Lastly, something these coaches all share is that they have implemented the coaching job into their lives not for themselves, but for the players and the game that they love most.

1. What distinguishes you from other/past coaches?2. How would you describe yourself as a coach?3. Why do you love the sport that you coach?4. How has coaching influenced your life?5. How has coaching helped you build bonds with your team?

AHS Head Coaches

as long as my athletes listen to my direction[s].

3. Water polo is an extremely intense sport that is both physically and mentally chal-lenging. There is absolutely no rest time since a player is forced to swim or tread for both offense and defense. The thrill and rush from playing water polo is unlike those of any [other] sport I have ever played.

4. Coaching has added a great deal of pride into my life. I enjoy coming to practice to see and know that my ath-letes are improving with me every day.

5. Coaching has brought my athletes closer to one another. I feel a great team needs to [have athletes that are] comfortable with one another in order to trust each other during a game. I am happy to encourage my kids to al-ways help each other out whenever possible.

KAYIU WONG, Staff Writer

and puts the accountability on them.

3. I love coaching football because it mirrors life most. We could teach life lessons such as how to handle adversity, how to work in a group setting, how to accomplish a goal with a group of peo-ple and how to work with people you don’t have anything in common with.

4. [Coaching] has gotten me to where I am. I couldn’t imagine my life in any oth-er way. I don’t know what I would be do-ing or where I’d be without it. It’s some-thing that I’ve always enjoyed doing.

5. I think that building bonds is what you want to do all the time. [It’s] a never end-ing process and happens in a lot of differ-ent ways through multiple interactions with the players. Whether it’s just a sim-ple instruction to do this or sitting down after practice and asking about school, that’s how you build trust in each other.

SIMEON LAM, Staff Writer

1. I focus on increasing [the] mileage [of my run-ners] as the season approaches to give them the en-durance needed to complete the three-mile race.

2. I would describe myself as nice, very flexible, strict and very caring for [the athletes’] future suc-cess as much as I care for the season outcome.

3. I love the sport, because I have been running since middle school. It got me through college and has given me the opportunity to meet wonderful stu-dents and see them develop the ability to be runners.

4 [Coaching] has influenced me by [help-ing me] be a successful person and parent.

5. [I build bonds with my team by allowing me to be] supportive in the sport and in their school-ing, but most importantly by being a good lis-tener and keeping an open communication.

ANHAYTE GUAJARDO, Staff Writer

2. [I am] competitive, intense [and] de-manding. I’m a competitive coach. I’m not [coaching] to put out a team. My teams have won 14 league championships.

3. I’ve been playing [tennis] since I was eight years old so it’s like second nature.

4. [I’ve learned that you must] coach your ath-letes to play fairly, be competitive and show good sportsmanship. You’re teaching your players how to handle themselves in the real world. Coaches teach you how to conduct yourself in real life.

5. I think the bond that we have is that we [all are] concentrating on the team. The indi-vidual is secondary to the group. It’s not about me or [any] one player, it’s about the suc-cess of the group and that allows us to bond.

KEVIN KONG, Sports Editor

you need to give the athletes time to learn.

3. I love this sport, because it is a lifelong sport. Once you master it, it is more challenging ev-eryday [as you try to beat your old score]. It is also fun, because everyone is out there to do the same thing, which is trying to beat the course.

4. I do not think I would be doing P.E. [...] If I didn’t coach. I love sports and it’s something that came naturally.

5. I think one thing is that whatever team you coach, the team takes the personal-ity of the coach. It is fun to be out with high school kids who give us their time and energy.

ANHAYTE GUAJARDO, Staff Writer

spot and the kids can and will come to me for support or guid-ance. When coaching, I believe in teaching life lessons. Whether it is through games, being on time for practices or respecting ev-eryone on the team, I always teach my team that the things they learn from being on the team will benefit them in life in the future.

3. I played volleyball at Alhambra when I was in high school. I also love the pace of the game and just the adrena-line you get when you take the court. Whether I am play-ing defense or offense, there is definitely a thrilling sense.

4. Coaching has influenced my life in many ways. While it is my job to teach and coach these kids, I have learned so much from them as well. The biggest thing, however, is that coaching influenced me to become a teacher. I saw what I could do on the court and it made me make a life-changing decision to pursue a career in education.

5. I still keep in touch with my former players. Many of them have come back to help during practices and even fundraisers. There is definitely a bond that forms through years of being together as a team.

WESLEY TSAI, Staff Writer

MOOR photos by ANHAYTE GUAJARDO, SHANNON KHA and YIBEI LIU MOOR graphic by GEN THIPATIMA

Charles TranGirls’ VolleyballLuis Brambilla

Girls’ GolfCalvin ChowGirls’ Tennis

Eric BergstromBoys’ Football

Sandra RodriguezCross Country

Adrian Lopez Boys’ Waterpolo

1. This is my fourth year coaching for Alhambra volleyball and I would say that I have a sense of commitment to Alhambra High School. In terms of strategies, I believe in team chemistry. Volleyball is a team-oriented sport and, without team chem-istry, it is nearly impossible to play a good game.

2. I have high expectations for my kids to do their best and to work hard. I am a strict coach and sometimes the kids find me a bit in-timidating, but at the same time I have a soft

1. It is hard to say, be-cause I have been the only girls golf coach. When the team first started, we would go to Almansor to put, chip and play.

2. I would describe myself as competi-tive, but golf is an individual sport and

1. [I have] 30 years of coaching [experience], [both] varsity and JV, girls’ and boys’. [I have] 35 years [experience] [from] teaching tennis in the San Gabriel Valley since 1978.

1. What distinguishes me the most is that I’m not a yeller, which is something you get a lot in football. I believe in treating my players like men. [I tell them] ‘here’s what the expec-tation is and go do it’.

2. I think I’m a high- energy guy. I like to coach with energy be-cause it’s infectious. It gets to the rest of the staff and the kids

1. I give my best effort when coaching so my kids can recip-rocate the same. I also emphasize more on defense every practice so we can it play in our games.

2. I would say I am a fun coach