Political correctness and word choice have been very important to Blake’s community. Now, Blake questions whether as a school and community the use of terms freshmen or ninth graders differs at all or fails to keep up with the times.

When ten freshmen and two upperclassmen were interviewed, a bit more than half preferred freshman. The other half was split with more people who don’t care than people who favor ninth-grader.

Rohan Ajmani ‘20 and Imran Omar ‘20 both prefer freshman because it’s a new change. They both say, “Freshman sounds cooler,” as opposed to ninth-grader, which is duller because ‘grader’ has been used since first grade.

Upperclassmen seem to prefer the new grade names as well. Zehra Khan ‘18 says, “Within our society, it’s more mainstream.” Samantha Stocking ‘19 says, “Ninth-grader can be diminutive because ‘grader’ was used all through elementary and middle school.”Overall, many feel that the term freshman sounds cooler, because ninth-grader is more of the same school grade names used since first grade and ‘freshmen’ is a change.

For Kennedy Rupert ‘20, however, it depends on the situation. She says, “When talking to adults, I tend to use ninth-grader. When talking to other students, I tend to use freshman.” She also feels more comfortable using the term that the person she talks to uses.

Mathew Krelitz ‘20, one of the few people who favor ninth-grader, believes, “Freshman can be shortened to freshie.” Freshie, he describes, is a term that is often used to pick on the freshman, which produces negative connotations for him with the term. Also, he says, “It makes some grades superior to others.”

All grades should be equal and just because someone’s in high school, it doesn’t mean that there should be a new way to call them by. Overall, for many people, freshman seems to be the more popular term to use, but there are still people who prefer use of the term ‘ninth-grader’.