Nick Jimenez

Journalism skills taught by dedicated teachers

Any journalism student who ever came under the tutelage of Edith King would remember her. King was my first editor and the first person who ever tossed one of my stories in the wastebasket. It was her way of saying my work needed improvement.
   King's career was teaching journalism to high school and junior college students. I came under her tender mercies during the decade that she taught at San Antonio College. A small wiry woman who could make her cigarette ash defy gravity as she pored over page proofs, she wouldn't tolerate reportorial sloppiness from the young journalists under her, even if they were all students, but she understood that mistakes are what teaching must tolerate. She was not unlike the teachers of journalism everywhere.
   There is no newsroom yet that has been assembled without the work of journalism teachers, and most particularly high-school journalism teachers. This is a brave band.
   Imagine, if you will, putting the power to report, write and air opinions in the hands of 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds with the power to attract attention that comes with a press. To some school officials, this is too much power and repeatedly there are instances of principals and superintendents squelching news stories and even entire editions of student newspapers. In most instances, the reason has little to do with journalistic principles - accuracy, fairness and balance - but more about the bigwigs saving themselves a little political heat.
   The value of high-school journalism teachers was pressed on me this week because high-school journalism teachers from the city's big five high schools gathered at the Caller-Times to talk about a mutual interest - journalism.
   It's one of my fears that high-school journalism will get shoved to the side in the rush to raise state-mandated scores. I support the program to install uniform standards in public education, particularly because I believe minorities have profited the most. But, as in the arts, speech, theater and those other non-tested subjects, the value of journalism as an intellectual exercise may not be fully appreciated.
   A kid may never again sit in a newsroom, but the study that must precede an interview, the clear thinking that is necessary to organizing a story, the rigor of concise and accurate writing and the creativity necessary to write a lead that attracts readers will pay off the rest of his or her life. And, oh yeah, the story is due tomorrow. This is not passive education.
   Cutting journalism departments
   Teaching is a distinguished profession, and the teacher who can influence lives to the positive is priceless. Journalism teachers, like athletic coaches, band directors, ROTC leaders and others who get to spend a lot of continuous time with students, have a special opportunity to imprint themselves on kids.
   Sadly, many high schools have no student newspaper and their students may never experience the value of live student journalism. For whatever reason, the student newspaper just isn't considered one of the necessities of education. Top salaries for football coaches, yes, but - well, let's not go there today. Let it be enough to say that if it's critical thinking skills that we are trying to build, a program that asks students to use their judgment, language and the totality of their education seems to fit the bill.
   It may be a small thing, but they will also never experience what still remains one of the special pleasures of writing - seeing your by-line at the top of a story.
   New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote a memorable piece about his high-school journalism teacher, Hattie M. Steinberg, who drilled the fundamentals into a generation of students in Minneapolis. Those fundamentals, Friedman wrote, stood him in good stead not only in his career, but also in his life.
   The same could be said of Edith King and the corps of unnamed high school journalism teachers whose students now populate newsrooms.
  
   Editorial Page Editor Nick Jimenez can be reached at 886-3787 or by email at jimenezn@caller.com.
  
  

 
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