Rocky Hill School Turns It All Off

On any given day, when you walk into 's high school, you are greeted with a flatscreen TV displaying daily announcements as well as pictures and videos of recent school events. Projectors show class notes and presentations and students take notes on their laptops. One day last week, however, the experience was quite different as the school went off the grid.

Almost all the lights in the building were off and laptops or projectors were off limits.

The Defenders, a student club that advocates environmentally-friendly activities, helped to organize “Green Week.” The week was an effort to increase awareness of the human impact on the environment and to demonstrate ways to lessen that impact.

“Some of the teachers had a really hard time with it ... they aren't used to teaching without a computer,” said Kylee Yam, one of the environmental science teachers and co-head of the Defenders.

However, students were enthusiastic about the day's theme, and “some of the kids were fired up about keeping the lights and computers off,” said Abby Wood, the other environmental science teacher and co-head of the Defenders. “They got frustrated when some of the teachers were still using lights and laptops,” she added.

“It's going great ... some of the rooms still have lights and computers on, but overall we're doing well,” said Seth Curtis, a junior.

“I think it's a good thing because it's helping the environment, and it's a nice change from the usual chaos of electronics,” said Angelo Gemma, a sophomore.

“It's the proper way to achieve balance in an increasingly technologically-driven society,” said Matt Gnolfo, Rocky Hill's Latin teacher. “This reaffirms what it means to be human ... we aren't technology-driven, and we thrive on person-to-person interaction,” he added.

“I think it's a good sentiment. As an English teacher, I appreciate the opportunity to teach without technology for a day,” said Nick Barker.

Wednesday's No Lights/No Technology theme was just part of a weeklong schedule. There was Meatless Monday in the cafeteria, and some of the members of the Defenders gave presentations to the Lower School students about recycling. Tuesday was supposed to be Green Service Day (students were scheduled to work with Save the Bay to clean up Goddard Park's beach and the shoreline on the Rocky Hill campus), but it was canceled due to rain. On Thursday, the documentary Food, Inc. was shown in the lecture hall throughout the day and there was a bake sale after school. On Friday, students could pay to dress down (as long as they wore green); if they paid $2 or more, they received a “Live Green” bracelet. Money raised from the week will be used to purchase energy-efficient printers.