By Elizabeth Coscia ’12, Commentary Editor

Upon entering Newark Academy’s Rose Auditorium to watch the screening of the documentary “Promises” in anticipation of Faraj Faraj’s Global Speaker presentation earlier this year, I was somewhat disheartened by the vociferous group of rowdy middle school students who comprised the front portion of the audience. Noting various episodes of giggling and chatting during the documentary, I judged the group of middle school students as immature, present only for their mandatory humanities class. However, after the presentation I was genuinely stunned by the sheer academic quality of their follow-up questions – the most impressive asked by the smallest sixth graders – which served as evidence of their true receptivity to the material. Evidently, topical issues brought forward by the Global Speaker Series prove thought-provoking to the entire student body.

Global Speaker presentations often engender arguments within the student and faculty populations, including our well-informed middle school student population. However, believe it or not, the original purpose of the Global Speaker series was not to cause controversy among the Newark Academy community. Nevertheless, as a community, Newark Academy has come to expect and even look forward to the often divisive climate created by such presentations.  Tellingly, I heard one individual comment that we should “stir things up a bit” during the interactive portion of Dr. Abbas’ speech on Thursday, February 24th.

Because of its tendency to cause debate, the Global Speaker series has ironically become a unifying tradition at Newark Academy. Our community in the main intelligently discusses topical issues. In generating a reaction to speakers, the Newark Academy community proves closer knit and more interactive than ever. This kind of relevant collective-thinking increases the chances that members of our community will approach the development of solutions to real world problems.

Yet, the question of political variety continues to plague the selection of Global Speakers. While this variety should be considered, the Global Speaker committee should not seek to achieve political neutrality with each individual speaker. On the contrary, the most effective speakers strongly advocate one side of an argument. In hearing one side of an issue, community members should partake in the intellectually-rewarding process of  forming their own opinions. For this reason, 2008 Global Speaker Annie Leonard was one of our most influential speakers although arguably the most one-sided in her environmental argument. As an additional example, November 2010 Global Speaker Faraj Faraj informed the community that after he witnessed the murder of a loved one by Israeli soldiers he wanted to become a suicide bomber. Although this mindset is highly disagreeable to the Newark Academy community, the reality of its existence is important to hear. Moreover, the presentation of a counterpoint, as has been demanded by various members of the community, proves to be an unreasonable request because every issue is multifaceted, and there is never just one ‘counterpoint.’

The Global Speaker Series serves as a healthy dose of current events for the entire Newark Academy community. Current events should be considered one of the most important parts of educational curriculum, especially since future generations must solve the global issues of today. Although humanities classes occasionally incorporate current events, high-powered AP and IB history courses generally do not have time to stray from core test material. True to my personal experience, ninth graders in Ancient World and members of Mrs. Schottland’s “Politics of Change” class prove visibly more informed and able to consider world issues after discussing world religions and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict than those students learning only from a pre-scripted AP curriculum, for example. Current events should be incorporated into more classes, or a separate class solely on current events should be added to Newark Academy’s courses.

In ninth grade, my Ancient World class was required to draw a provisional partition of Israel as an assignment. I recall my bemusement with the assignment, appraising the challenge as a task not even the United Nations could surmount, let alone a fourteen-year-old. However, this exercise not only taught me the difficulty of the Palestinian-Israeli issue, but also encouraged me to have the confidence to tackle real world issues, including those with no feasible solution in sight. The Global Speaker Series and similar activities ensure that Newark Academy students challenge themselves beyond the competitiveness of rigorous academia and rightfully prioritize the salient issues of today.