One of the longest JC traditions is coming to a close.  For the past 25 years, the annual senior
Variety Show has been held right before Thanksgiving. Now the administration is destroying that tradition.

The class of 2012’s Variety Show will not be held during the usual November time period. Instead, it will be held on Jan. 7, the weekend we return from Christmas break.

The administration’s reasoning for the change of date is to allow the senior class more time to prepare for their show. They also believe that with more time, cruel and hurtful content won’t seep into the script.

One of the first things that is wrong with this decision is the notion that with an extra month and a half to prepare, the seniors will be able to practice and perfect their show.

The Variety Show has always been known for being an adrenaline driven production with seniors and their moderators working by the clock.

According to math teacher and former senior moderator George Appleby, before he took over as senior class moderator, classes did not begin practicing for the Variety Show until the Friday before the curtain call.

Year after year people leave the Variety Show with a bad taste in their mouth because of
something said or done in the show.

Students that produced the show are automatically blamed for the tasteless performance, but don’t the administration and moderators read the script beforehand?

Typical Variety Show procedures regarding the script content includes the moderators and class officers reading over the script. Then, they send the script to the administration for a final review. The administration has the ability to keep and cut certain skits and other performances that shouldn’t
belong in the show.

However, the responsibility of hurtful content sometimes being in the script is shared between the students, moderators, and administration.

The students write the negative content, the class officers and moderators don’t catch the content, and then sometimes the administration fails to see it as well. Since multiple sets of eyes read over what goes into the final show, there should not be any complaints of content.

While it seems that the administration has good intentions changing the date, it appears that they don’t seem to realize that they are making a decision that will change at least 25 years of tradition. Tradition that included the senior class coming together to beat the clock two days before Thanksgiving.

The November show time has always provided a one year reunion for the current senior class and the graduating class before them. Variety Show allowed senior classes, for the past 25 years, to partake in the same tradition that classes before them all participated in.

But now that tradition is gone. The class of 2012 will forever be denied something that the classes before them had where everyone reunited during the Thanksgiving season to celebrate and help the
current senior class raise money for their prom.

No matter how many advantages the administration thinks will occur from the change, they should not have wavered from the November show. Instead, moderators and administrators should read over the script with a more critical eye and make changes in the show, not the tradition.