It is a common occurrence for people to remember small differences in a different way. This occurrence is so common it has been given the title of the mandela effect.

    The mandela effect is said to take place when there is a large number of people who clearly remember an event or object in a way that is untrue.

    The mandela effect was created and named after an incident where a large group of people all recalled the memory of Nelson Mandela passing away 30 years earlier than he actually did. Many people remember him dying in the 1980s, but his true death date took place 2013.

    There are theories that explain the vivid, but incorrect, memories that are recognized by so many people.

     One of these theories being that there are different universes and the human races is being switched between them. This theories state that there is a parallel universe lined up with our universe that we are being switched back and forth unknowingly between multiple times throughout a lifetime.

     A large number of people remember incorrect things so vividly because these memories that they are having of an event came from a different universe than the one that they are currently in.

    Another, and one of the most popular, examples of the mandela effect is The Berenstain Bears being spelt as The Berenstein Bears. Some individuals are certain that the books were spelt as The Berenstain Bears but if one was to look at a physical copy of the book they would find that their memories of the spelling are incorrect.

    A psychological explanation of the mandela effect is that memories are not solid things and can become easily manipulated by things such as beliefs and imagination.

     Seeing as how that The Berenstain Bears was a popular show for children, it is likely that while growing older the spelling of a book was not what children once believed it to be. Young children cannot read or write, so there is a chance that hearing the name of the books caused some to believe that the book’s title was spelt how it sounded.

By Mya Cannon

Music is a big part of people’s lives today. Songs are listened to while in the car, working out, during the school day or when someone is bored.

Buying music may be very expensive as purchasing music off of iTunes can be anywhere from 99 cents to $1.29 per song.

Apps such as Spotify allow one to listen to any music they want for free. If one chooses to download Spotify to listen to music, the music will be interrupted by ads. People will only be able to listen to music on shuffle, and the songs cannot be listened to unless one is connected to wifi or using cellular data.

Spotify has the option for one to join a premium membership. The first 30 days are free but after that it cost $9.99 every 30 days after the free trial is up.

With Spotify premium one can “download” music so it can be listened to without a connection to wifi. Any song can be played at anytime the listener chooses, and there is an unlimited number of times one can skip a song.

Many students listen to music as they are walking in the hallways to their different classes or when there is free time during a class period.

Sitting in a silent classroom can be boring, so many people turn to music to break the silence of the room. Music may also help some students focus on the item they are working on, such as homework.

The high school has the Spotify app blocked so one can only listen to their music on the app if they have purchased Spotify premium or are using cellphone data.

A wide variety of people use music to help relieve the stress they are under, and they may not be able to afford purchasing a song off of iTunes, so they turn to a free music app like Spotify.

Students who do not have Spotify premium cannot listen to music throughout the school day unless they are using data on their phone, which can also be expensive if one does not have unlimited data.

By unblocking the Spotify app on the high school’s wifi stress could be reduced and they will potentially help save students the money they are spending to be able to listen to their music during the school day.

Everyone has heard “Class, keep your eyes on your own paper.” It is a favorite line by teachers when suspecting cheating during a test. Now cheating is no longer just during tests and has progressively become as big a part of students school routine as lunch.

The Educational Testing Service defines academic cheating as “representing someone else’s work as your own. It can take many forms, including sharing another’s work, purchasing a term paper or test questions in advance, paying another to do the work for you.”

They also claim that 73% of all test takers, including prospective graduate students and teachers, most students do cheat at some point. 86% of high school students agreed.

Struggling students are not the only ones who are cheating on a test, but it is also students of all shapes, sizes, and type. The scary thing is it may be the 4.0 honors student who is doing the most amount of cheating.

The main reason for all of this academic dishonesty is the never ending desire for students to get the best grade possible. If students did not feel so pressured to get the highest grade they can, there would be no reason to cheat.

If they came into school every single day excited to learn instead of shuddering at the thought of the next unit test, there would be no cheating. Sadly, this is just fantasy.

High school is no longer about learning, gaining knowledge or expanding your mind. All that seems to matters now is getting a higher grade.

Students no longer learn, they memorize. They study over their assignments to cram the information into their brain, but after the test it is all forgotten.

The grading system needs to change. If students began to go to school for knowledge instead of just a passing grade, the amount of cheating would drop.