In the hallowed halls of CVHS, a school notorious for the academic rigor and mountains of homework assigned, a quiet change in education has been unfolding. Forget AP Calculus, physics, or the 5000-word reports in AP Research. The true mark of a Carnegie elite isn’t found in the mundane letter grades they get on report cards but in their unmatched skill at the New York Times’ word games.
Questions of “Have you done your homework?” are no longer the benchmark. Instead, you better be prepared to answer “How many attempts did you take for Wordle?” and “You finished today’s Crosswords, right?”
Wordle, with its daily five-letter puzzle, isn’t just a game; it’s a survival skill. It teaches persistence, pattern recognition and the art of deduction. Meanwhile, the Crosswords and The Mini are not merely puzzles; they are complex riddles wrapped in enigmas, teaching students to think critically about the world (and increasing their tolerance for frustration to superhuman levels).
Connections is a metaphor for life itself, showing students that everything is interlinked, from historical events to pop culture, reinforcing the importance of interdisciplinary study. The Spelling Bee, on the other hand, is a daily spelling ritual that ensures every Carnegie student can spell ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ backward, in the dark, while simultaneously solving algebraic equations.
The days of intently watching AP Classroom Daily Videos or solving dozens of practice integral questions are behind us. Do you want to pass that Macroeconomics Unit 5 test? Finish your word games. Yet, beneath this facade of academic enhancement lies the hateful idea that these games are just the ultimate time-wasters, a mere escape from the relentless pressure of Carnegie’s academic expectations. Only quitters believe these word games are not purposeful activities. They serve as a unifying thread among the student body, a commonality that says, “Yes, I too procrastinate by convincing myself that solving Letterbox will somehow prepare me for my AP exams.”
In the grand tradition of CVHS, the real lesson here is in the art of balance — balancing the exhaustive demands of academia with the joyful frivolity of word games. Mastering the art of Wordle isn’t just about wasting time in class; it’s about preparing for life’s challenges, one five-letter word at a time. And who knows? Maybe one day, the definition of academic success will be expanded to include a high score on the Spelling Bee.
