Category: In-Depth

By Megan Laser

Have you ever wondered why mourners wear black to funerals, while brides wear white to weddings?  Sure, brides can wear an assortment of colors, but you never see someone show up to a funeral in pink. Wearing other colors almost feels like an outright slap in the face to the mourning family members. But why does it feel that way?

If you didn’t know this already, different colors have certain effects on the way your mood changes. Interestingly enough, it not only affects your mood but it can have an influence on your thoughts and emotions. Different people can have different reactions to something, which is why everyone’s bedroom color is uniquely based on their preference and personality.

Each color can be tied to a psychological value. Certain colors can make you feel a certain way and influence your emotions, from tranquility to rage. Again, this is based on the person; colors that make you feel a certain way may take an opposite effect on others.

Before we get into how each color can affect your mood, let’s talk about the three different types of colors.

The first type of colors is the active colors. These colors are commonly associated with feelings of strength, enthusiasm, and exuberance. For example, you’d find that most exercise rooms are painted with active colors to pump up your adrenaline and make you work harder.

The second type of colors are the passive colors. These colors promote mental focus and often have a calming effect on humans. For example, an office would most likely be painted a passive color to increase your focus and keep you on the task at hand.

Lastly, you have the neutral colors. These colors are pretty much self-explanatory       there’s no color associated in this group. There’s no vibrant colors to really influence your mood.

Now onto the colors and how each one can influence your mood. Let’s start with the beginning of the rainbow at red.

RED: active color

Red is associated with feelings of intensity, energy, strength, and danger. Red can radiate your energy and increase your pulse. According to a report by BBC in 2013, a study was conducted during the 2004 Olympics where boxers wearing red had a 5% better chance of winning, compared to other colors.

The more common rooms to be red are the living room and any exercise rooms. Red pumps adrenaline, stirs up excitement and has shown that it can raise your blood pressure, speed respiration, and heart rate. It also boosts the social energy in the room, which is why it’s used in living rooms.

ORANGE: active color

Orange can be associated with hot, aggressive, and successful emotions. Orange is an energetic color that evokes excitement and enthusiasm.

Orange is also a great color for exercise rooms because it helps to bring out released emotions during your fitness routine. Orange allows you to get things done and work harder to get them done faster.

YELLOW: active color

Yellow can be associated with feelings of optimism, cheerfulness, and energetic emotions. Yellow stimulates mental activity and is has been proven that students do 15% better on a test if you’re in a yellow room, according to a study by Psychologist World.

Yellow can capture the joy of sunshine and communicates happiness in a bedroom. You get an energizing and uplifting vibe from the color. Although it feels welcoming, scientists recommend that you don’t paint your newborn’s bedroom yellow, as it does cause them to cry longer. It also does tend to create feelings of frustration more easily, and you’re more likely to lose your temper in a yellow room.

GREEN: passive color

Green tends to tie with wealth, nature, and freshness. Green is often associated with feelings of tranquility and relaxation since it is easy on the eyes.

A green room can relieve stress and helps you relax. This may be the reason why hospitals tend to use a light green for their rooms. Besides calming effects, green can have an effect on your efficiency of doing a task, which may tie to the lure of money.

BLUE: passive color

Blue can be tied to trust, security, corporate, peacefulness, faith, and wisdom. Blue has been proven to bring down blood pressure, slow down your respiration, as well as your heart rate. According to a 2012 Huffington Post article, men should wear blue on the first date because it makes them seem more emotionally stable and put together. It can also keep the date relaxed, as opposed to anxiety running high.

As a result of its calming nature, blue is recommended for bedrooms because it’s calming to both wake up and fall asleep to. But different types of blues have different types of reactions. A lighter blue as the main color of a room are known for the calming effects, while darker blues can evoke feelings of sadness.

PURPLE: passive color

Purple can be seen as royalty, luxury, calming, and mysterious. It can also be tied to your creativity level.

Purple is most likely seen in bedrooms. As with blue, different shades of purple have different effects. A darker purple suggests a richer, sophisticated, more dramatic aroma. Meanwhile, a lighter purple can bring restful qualities, the same as a lighter blue.

PINK: passive color

Pink is typically tied to characteristics such as femininity. Pink can actually have a calming effect on people. In a 2013 article by The Telegraph (UK), they detail a project in which Switzerland painted prison cells pink. It has proven to reduce anger in inmates in as little as 15 minutes.

“At Santa Clara County Main Jail, they used to have a pink room that they used to use for drunk inmates,” explained Liza Laser, a criminal investigator for the Santa Clara County Public Defenders Office.

In another experiment at the University of Iowa, the football coach, Hayden Pry, painted the opposing team’s locker room pink to extinguish their fighting spirit. The football coach turned out to be one of the best, and this may be due to the calming effect of the opposing team’s locker room.

BLACK/WHITE/OTHER NEUTRAL COLORS: neutral colors

Neutral colors such as black, white, gray, and brown don’t really have much of an effect on our moods. Although black does provide depth in a room and a white ceilings makes a room feel more open, you need to add other colors to liven up the mood in the room.

Now to answer the first question on why we wear black at funerals, it actually ties back to the Roman Empire when they used to wear dark togas to mourn the loss of someone they loved. It gradually just became a trend in America. There’s no real reason to, it’s just the social status now. ◆

By Emily Zhao

While over 13% of American public school students are enrolled in special education programs, they are often unheard and unrecognized in the masses of students in general education.

What is special education, and how do students qualify?

Special education is defined as a “form of learning provided to students with exceptional needs, such as students with learning disabilities or mental challenges,” stated by yourdictionary.com.

Students in the PHHS special education program are split into two general categories: mild to moderate and moderate to severe learning, mental and physical disabilities.
In order to qualify for either category of the school’s special education program, prospective students must be given a comprehensive evaluation. When a physician, parent, or teacher first has concerns about a student, they can refer the child to an evaluator.

According to understood.org, the evaluation process determines “whether or not your child needs special education services in order to learn the general education curriculum. Having any of 13 disabilities may qualify a child for special education.” The official list of 13 disabilities ranges from dyslexia to deafness to autism.

Afterwards, parents, teachers, administrators, and the student themselves work together to create an IEP (Individualized Education Plan), setting annual goals in both education and cognition for the future. This document also outlines the child’s strengths, needs, and present state of performance, essentially planning out the best way to accommodate the student with their needs. Additionally, the IEP team determines whether the student participates in specialized programs for the majority of the day or just one period. The purpose of the IEP team is largely to provide the student with the least restrictive environment possible or most inclusive schedule where the student spends the most time possible around general education students.

How does the mild to moderate special education program work?

The schedule of a student with mild to moderate accommodations varies between different students. Some students may attend SDC (Special Day Class) classes for just a few periods, while others for the majority of their day. SDC classes usually include supplemental assistance in math, English, social studies and science. These students may learn modified versions of the core subjects to fit their accommodations, and are taught in the LRE (Least Restrictive Environment). LRE means “(special education students) should spend as much time as possible with peers who do not receive special education,” according to understood.org. More importantly, this act guarantees special education students the right to an education as similar to that of general education students as possible.

How does the moderate to severe education program work?

Students with moderate to severe disabilities would stay in specialized education for the majority, if not all of the school day. This category of the special education program is vastly different than students in SDC classes. Students whose accommodations include being enrolled in the school’s Academy of Life and/or Academy of Life for Students with Autism classes typically have one primary teacher. Sectioned into classes of twelve students, they stay with the same teacher for their entire high school career. An average day at school entails all of the core classes modified to fit their needs, along with life skills and vocational training.

Life skills include any sort of training that will aid the student in the future, steering them towards independent living. For example, students in life skills teacher Nonglak Prasopsook’s class learn how to cook different cuisines on Mondays, feeding not only themselves but also members of the Pass the Plate club. Additionally, they learn about laundry, cleaning, recycling and other skills that will help them in the future. Every Wednesday, some of the special education students collect every classroom’s recycling. Throughout the week, students also work on arts and crafts, painting pictures, making keychains, singing and dancing.

Vocational training includes all education that will aid in finding employment in the future. Students might practice filling out online applications for jobs at Target, Home Depot, Walmart, etc and participating in job interview simulations. They practice dealing with and counting money and look for potential careers that interest them for the future.
Students with moderate to severe disabilities have flexible schedules that are subject to change, and the special education teacher provides different accommodations for each of the student’s unique needs. Day to day schedules change with the addition of different activities, including field trips and the arrival of guest speakers. Every week, Goodwill sends over a speaker to teach students about nutrition.

Other special education activities include seasonal activities like Christmas caroling door to door at school, performing at the talent show, competing in FANTASTICS, eating out at a special Valentine’s Luncheon, etc. Throughout the year, students in Piedmont Hills’ special education program have the opportunity to bond with students from other schools in the district, such as competing in soccer tournaments and a jog-a-thon. During second semester, they are able to visit NASA. Like all seniors, students are also given the opportunity to attend ‘Extra-Special Prom’ by choosing out dresses and suits at Princess Project and hold their own annual senior banquet.

These students also run three clubs: Pass the Plate, Good Earth, and Bloomer’s Club. Before lunch on Mondays, students in Ms. Prasopsook’s class cook foods of different cuisines, which are passed out during Pass the Plate meetings, a club open to all.

“After I pass out food to special education (students), general education (students) walk in and they (share) food with the special education (students). With many people (in the club), a very welcoming environment is created,” explains Pass the Plate president Anthony Hou.

Bloomer’s club integrates general and special education students together, organizing and volunteering for different events. The general ed. students help sell things at their events and throw parties to bond with the special education students, building friendships with students that they typically don’t see around school. Meanwhile, Good Earth club fundraisers for the many activities the students participate in by promoting recycling and waste management, making everything run smoothly.

In order to make these activities and clubs possible, they hold multiple fundraisers throughout the school year. Not only did they raise money for the program by selling handmade keychains and other arts and crafts, but the weekly recycling of bottles and cans that they collect are also exchanged for a few cents apiece.

In sum, the special education program at Piedmont Hills includes a variety of accommodations to fit the unique needs of their students. From least restrictive schedules to a multitude of activities, students are given every opportunity for success.

By Daniel Kokoski

“I’ll leave tomorrow’s problems to tomorrow’s me.” This foolish man’s statement is usually the mindset for chronic procrastinators who leave their work for the last minute.

Procrastination is an inefficient way to get work done, yet many still practice it anyway. An online survey posted on Schoolloop showed 94.5% of the 145 respondents procrastinated extensively, mostly due to lack of motivation.

Many would rather choose TV, social media, video games, or even sleeping over a tedious task such as homework. StudyMode, an international student help network, conducted a survey on over 1,300 high school and college students. Roughly 87% responded that they procrastinate on schoolwork, most of the reasons being that they get distracted by other, more appealing tasks. This is understandable, not many would be so fervently eager to tackle their homework right after school when they get home. So the impulse to do it later would most likely kick in.

The severe problem of procrastination is not so easily solved. Some may suggest that time management skills would help relieve this troublesome habit. However, this is not always the best solution. Since lack of motivation is the main reason for postponing work, some people would not be able to plan out their work and time effectively without a strong reason to do so. Without motivation, action cannot be executed with ease.

“It really has nothing to do with time-management,” explained Professor Joseph Ferrari, a member of the Association for Psychological Science. “As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.”

Procrastination is quite detrimental to an individual’s health. Usually, student procrastinators are more vulnerable to sleep deprivation. Delaying work can also cause high levels of stress and even anxiety, especially among students. Fascinatingly, there are studies that show that procrastination can potentially harm heart health.

Psychological scientist Fuschia Sirois conducted a study among 182 people diagnosed with CVD (cardiovascular disease and 564 healthy controls through a series of online surveys. The survey’s results showed that the CVD group scored considerably higher on procrastination than the control group. Although direct causation between procrastination and cardiovascular health remains unproven, the former shows a definite correlation to the latter.

Nevertheless, procrastination does provide some benefits, such as good stress.

“Sometimes we procrastinate because we have good stress that will influence us to get things done better and faster when there’s a limited amount of time,” elaborates social science teacher Melanie Neethling. “Sometimes we actually perform better under the stress and given circumstances.”

Despite the benefits it can bring, the perplexing question of how to cure procrastination remains. As predictable as it seems, there is no absolute elixir that can solve this concerning issue.

Of course, procrastination does not have to cured. It is a double-edged sword, capable of harming one’s health while also providing good stress and short-term pleasure. People can manage a successful life while harboring such a chronic issue. However, it is important to be aware of the potential long-term consequences that would come your way when giving your future self your future problems.