This past year, great questions have entered the national dialogue that challenge this nation: Who is an American? What is America? How is this nation changing? Why is the rating system in the Register Forum reviews out of four Falcons rather than five? Is America a true democracy?

I chose to spend my summer mulling over one of these questions, as it seemed most important and prescient to our school community—and, more broadly, American society. For years—at least dating back to the late aughts—the Register Forum has rated books, movies, TV shows, albums, and whatever else there is to rate on a scale of one to four. While I like to believe this was a carefully planned, mathematically significant decision, it was most likely a matter of spacing. We can rarely fit an extra ten words onto a full page, so fitting another decapitated falcon head would have been nearly impossible. But, if there’s anything you should know about this year’s Register Forum staff, we never say the word “impossible.” (We usually use “unlikely” for factual reasons.)

During the 2017-2018 year, Register Forum editors yielded complaints from Rindge students and Cantabrigians across neighborhoods and party lines. We held countless town halls and spent long, agonizing, emotional nights poring over the impassioned letters of our readers.  As a newspaper, we want to give the people what they need, like Outfits of the Week and an excessive use of em dashes. So—readers—you are getting five Falcons.

This change will rock the paper unlike our transition to multimedia or the restructuring of our entire staff. It may take days, weeks, or even months to complete. But, rest assured, it will be completed—if not for our graduation, then our children’s.

This piece also appears in our September print edition.