Our society as a whole is becoming increasingly sedentary, but nowhere more than at school. PHS students go to school and sit for six hours or more, before going home to sit for another six hours to study and fulfil various responsibilities, most of which are completed from a desk. Sitting for such a large fraction of the day is unhealthy. Sedentary behavior is linked to many chronic diseases and conditions as well as decreased creativity and intelligence. The human body responds badly to extended sitting because maintaining the same position all day is unnatural, and	
graphic: Jennifer Ren 		         inevitably leads to an imbalance. Slumping back in 	         an uncomfortable metal chair all day accelerates spinal disk degeneration, among other problems which lead to pain and injury later in life. 
One might think that exercise fixes the problems of sitting too much, but it doesn’t. According to an article in Harvard Health Publishing from 2015, an analysis of 47 studies showed that sitting for extended periods of time is associated with adverse health effects regardless of physical activity. If you sit all day, you are more likely to die young, even if you work out with perfect consistency. This isn’t to say that exercise is unimportant; it has a variety of health benefits both physically and mentally, but it doesn’t fix this particular problem.
Though standing desks might reduce time spent sitting, they create problems of their own. Standing still for extended periods of time puts strain on the legs that can lead to swelling or even injury. The problem here is the same; staying in the same position for a long period of time is bad. The best way forward is a lifestyle change; we should all regularly vary our position throughout the day.
The nature of high school is what causes a lot of kids to adopt sedentary lifestyles. High schools need to allow kids to get up and move around in class if they feel tired or unable to concentrate. If a student wants to stand or sit on the floor for part of class, they should be allowed to as long as they are still paying attention and not disturbing their classmates. Opportunities for kids to get up and move around as part of the lessons could also improve class participation, as well as giving the kids the chance to change their position. Of course, as teens, we ourselves also have a responsibility to make sure we move around and reposition ourselves and if we absolutely must sit for a long uninterrupted interval of time, sit up straight. The part of the brain that processes movement also processes learning, so learning will actually be easier for us if we move around more.
To achieve a state of optimal health, we should combine traditional exercise with smaller changes in movement and good positioning throughout the day. Exercise is for strength, cardiovascular health, and weight maintenance, while microactivity and position changes are to promote spine health and avoid imbalance. It is essential to remember that physical self-care isn’t limited to time spent in the gym or training for sports. During your entire day, you should be thinking about how to make healthy choices in movement and positioning. We don’t have to allow ourselves to become a sedentary society.

A Sedentary Society

	For most freshmen, math at Princeton High School starts with either Geometry or Algebra, depending on what they took in middle school. However, some students skip Geometry over the summer between eighth and ninth grade, granting them the opportunity to finish the math curriculum at PHS by junior year and take a Princeton University math course as a senior. However, at recent school board meetings, the administration has considered taking action to prevent students from taking this path. If they eliminate the option of taking Geometry over the summer, the school would effectively remove the track that allows students to enroll in university math their senior year.
I wholeheartedly support this plan because it will reduce a source of stress on students. A big problem with the system is that many parents (including my own) pressure their kids to put disproportionate focus into math to reach the highest level. This is detrimental, but removing the option to skip Geometry before 9th grade would alleviate this problem. While it is inevitable that some parents will pressure their children, by taking this position, the school can minimize the damage. We certainly need to keep a distinction between different tracks to let people focus on their interests, but that would still be possible without the university math track. 
When the top students are rushing ahead to university level math, we risk making that the new standard. So many people are completely overscheduled with extracurriculars and high-level courses that further inflation in expectations is dangerous. The availability of the college math track propagates a cycle where people are pressured to overwork themselves and feel more pressure because of other people who are doing the same thing. By removing the option for rising 9th graders to take Geometry over the summer, that pressure can be alleviated. 
	Opponents of this new idea might argue that eliminating the option to skip Geometry stops students from reaching their potential in their subject of interest; while this change may be somewhat limiting, any students performing highly enough to take college courses in high school will certainly get the chance to take those courses when they are in college. No one is set back by having to wait one more year to take courses at the college level. Multivariable Calculus, the course taken by most advanced senior math students, is already extremely rigorous—even more so than the AP-level math courses—so making provisions for students to take a class above that level in high school is unnecessary, and in many cases, stress-inducing. On the contrary, the absurdly high pressure caused by the availability of college math courses in high school pushes students to increase their heavy workloads even further, inducing significant harm to students’ wellbeing. We must step back and acknowledge that most ninth graders who skip Geometry do so because of a frenzied race to get into college rather than a passion for math. 
Eliminating the option to skip Geometry over the summer doesn’t do away with the possibility for students to pursue their interest in math. Students can continue to participate in programs outside of school or extracurricular activities that allow them to flourish in a field that they are actually interested in. However, since such things would not be part of a school transcript, the motivation of appealing to colleges would be taken out of the picture, or at least dampened. The school’s decision would, therefore, encourage students to take advanced math courses based on interest in the subject rather than as a way of boosting a college resume. As a result, students would have less of a motive to take on work beyond their capacity. To help reduce stress without significant drawbacks, I highly recommend that the school proceeds with this change and implement it as soon as possible.

Soren Halvorson's Work