The Paw Print

A news publication created by Baruch's College Now high school journalism class

Tim Jin

An Appetizing Deal With a Side of Smallness

by

restaurant-449952_1280
The aroma of fine wine and lean meat greet customers as they step into restaurants all around the city. Entering four to five star restaurants, customers expect no less than a grand evening as they dine at some of New York’s finest eateries. However, something small did not meet their requirements.

For three weeks, restaurants are offering new and regular customers a deal that provides extravagant food for a low price. Hundreds of restaurants all over the city are offering deals for both lunch and dinner: 25 dollars for a three course lunch and 38 dollars for a three course dinner.

This year, NYC Restaurant Week takes place from July 20 to August 14, excluding all Saturdays. According to OpenTable, a website for restaurant reservations, there are 344 restaurants participating in Restaurant Week. Most of the restaurants acquired a rating of 4 stars or higher, which can be obtained by over-the-top quality food and service.

Le Cirque, a restaurant located at 151 East 58th Street, received a four star rating from Forbes Travel guide, according to Le Cirque’s website. “[Le Cirque] should honestly have a five star rating. The food is amazing and service is great, even during Restaurant Week! The deal they offer is amazing”, says Julia.

Julia, a woman with a full business formal attire, sat elegantly on the velvet seat as she waited for food at Le Cirque. Although she sat alone, she was still happy, smiling as the waiter brought the food to her. “I’ve been here multiple times. I simply love the food here; the food is extravagant,” she says.

Another customer of Le Cirque, Robert Lee, also believes that the deals are superb. “It provides small spenders a chance to taste gourmet food at a decently low cost,” he says. Robert believes that Restaurant Week deals are an opportunity that allows a restaurant to demonstrate its worth and attract new customers, as well as to please those who do not get a chance to enjoy gourmet meals on a daily basis.

However, some people don’t believe that it should be called a “deal”.

“It doesn’t seem worth it,” said Anna, a customer of Clement, a restaurant located in the Peninsula Hotel, “The portion of the food was too small.” She finished her entrée, a grilled monkfish with summer squash and black bean, in five bites. “The quality is there, but the quantity isn’t. With $38, I could go to Applebee’s with my husband and get an appetizer with two entrées.”

As for another customer, he said that, “ expectations were just not met.” As a regular customer and followers of the restaurant, he says that the Restaurant Week menu failed to offer a large variety, and “[limited] my choices. I didn’t find any of my favorite dishes on the menu.”

Each restaurant offered a different special menu specifically for Restaurant Week. As for Le Cirque, its menu only offered four choices for the appetizer, the entrée, and dessert.

Even a waiter at one of the restaurants, unnamed for personal purposes, noted that he did not fancy the event. “I work twice as hard, yet my pay barely changes,” he says, carrying two dirty plates, two empty glass wines and a bowl.

When people bet on a coin, they either win or lose. There are two sides, and many feel that Restaurant Week landed on both.

 

A “Con”test for Students

by

“These tests… are designed to measure students’ skills and help colleges evaluate how ready students are for college-level work,” according to the College Board. However, how can a 170-question test possibly measure a student’s capability?

Colleges supposedly base their admissions decisions partly on these test scores.. A student can take the SAT at most four times during his or her high school career. According to PrepScholar, an online test prep for the SAT and ACT, the national average SAT score was 1497 out of 2400. If the average SAT score is 903 less than the highest score, it would seem logical that the “standards” of the test poorly represent the performance of students in the education system. If it doesn’t represent education as a whole, how can the SAT tests accurately indicate how enlightened a student is.

Not only the SAT, but other “standard” means of evaluating students fail to actually represent student learning. Being forced to take an assessment not only intimidates a student, it limits the student’s ability to represent themselves. Tests force students to focus on a specific topic, perhaps a topic that the student does not find suitable.

For example, tests such as the ACT and SAT only test students on English, math, and sometimes science. However, not all students want to pursue a career in mathematics or in English. So students who focus on English and math have an ever-so-slight advantage over those who have an interest in other topics.

Tests pressure students. When a teacher or society burdens a student with a test, the student immediately feels obligated to study. However, a test should be a measurement of how a student can devise a reasonable response, not how well a student can memorize theories and data the night before. The idea that the test will drastically affect a student’s future educational choices, such as choosing colleges, will encumber them.

In a different light, tests can be seen to not evaluate the students at all. A student from Central High School in Pennsylvania says that he thinks tests are a “waste of time and paper. They require all students to take it as a way to test, not us but, teachers. For example, in Philly, if a school’s average in a standardized test isn’t higher than required, most of the staff is fired and replaced.” So, it seems that instead of examining how well a student performs academically, standardized tests evaluate the capability of the teachers.

Tests are being given a high priority. Teachers and the Department of Education seem to no longer value education. In the Bronx High School of Science, in-class tests often make up 40-50 percent of a student’s grade, with an additional 15-20 percent of their grade being composed of a mid term/final examination grade. Test grades in Bronx Science can account for 70 percent of a student’s grade.

When I asked a student from Bronx Science how she felt about tests, she said, “They’re stressful and weighed too much to test a student’s ability. Not everyone is a good test taker.” Those who are more accustomed to taking tests have an advantage over those who aren’t as suited to tests.

The original purpose of schools was to provide education for students to create a “brighter” future. Schools meant enlighten students both academically and socially, not to determine which student can be the next Cam Jansen.