CURRICULUM: Palo Alto's Esther Wojcicki's inspired arguement for high-school jouranlism education
Bill Densmore
Esther Wojcicki, director of Palo Alto [Calif.] High School's journalism
program (and chairman of the nonprofit Creative Commons), has written an
inspired argument for journalism education at the secondary-school level.
It's in the Summer 2010 edition of Nieman Reports, which came out in early
July. Here's the link:
http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=102407
A few of key excerpts. Read the last graf if nothing else:
"Most schools do not allow their students access to an uncensored Web;
this is a trait we usually ascribe to China and rarely acknowledge about
ourselves."
"The Hazelwood decision is now two decades old. An entire generation has
lived its entire academic life -- and is now moving into the professional
ranks -- under Hazelwood's influence. Far too many of our future
journalists, citizens and leaders unquestioningly accept that school
administrators -- government officials -- should have the authority to
dictate what they read, write and talk about. What this means for the
future of press freem in American remains unknown . . . . "
"The easiest way to pass on the skills and purposes of journalism is to
have an online program, which is, after all, the future."
"Today's journalism curriculum can revolutionize English education by
making the writing curriculum relevant and exciting. In the process, it
can train an entire generation of citizens -- many of whom will be doing
what journalists do today -- to be responsible contributing members of the
digital society."
"Journalism also teaches kids how to collaborate both online and offline
and how to work effectively with their peers both as leaders and as
participants. These are skills employers are seeking in prospective
employees."
"America is a nation that thrives on independence and on entrepreneurial
spirit. Yet our schools' curricula do just the opposite by driving
teachers to teach to the test and kids to be effective multiple-choice
test takers. Let's offer our kids at least one opportunity in school each
day in which they truly act with an independence of mind and with freedom
to speak to the issues in their lives. That course should be journalism."
--
-------------------------------------
Bill Densmore, Consulting Fellow
Reynolds Journalism Institute
201 RJI Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia MO 65211
573-882-9812 / VOICE MAIL/CELL: 617-448-6600
dens...@rjionline.org
@infovalet
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Andria
journalists, citizens and leaders unquestioningly accept that school
administrators -- government officials -- should have the authority to
dictate what they read, write and talk about. "
young co-workers, I think that this climate has actually led to a
genial dismissal of the institutions that try to stifle free
discussion and thought. Your place of business locks down social
media? No problem, use your own phone. Your school locks down
computers or confiscates phones? No problem, hack your way around it
and be more crafty about the phone use.
This emerging generation is the one that got cell phones because their
parents wanted to be able to reach them after 9/11. This generation is
the one who found out what was happening in New York and DC that day
because their teachers refused to turn off in-class TVs despite what
the main school office said.
In Charlotte, in 1968 and 1969, a young high school student and a
couple of his buddies created a newspaper using a donated mimeograph
machine from a church, out of a garage. They wrote about sex, drugs
and rock 'n roll, and the powers that were tried to shut them down
using zoning laws. They found an ACLU lawyer who agreed to take their
case, and they won. A brief flowering of free speech followed in town,
and then died down.
But that student went on to help create ibiblio.org, an open-source
online library, and he teaches students at the University of North
Carolina today about the principles of society, open communication and
journalism. He's (the real) Paul Jones.
Seems to me the more society tries to suppress, the more people find a
way to communicate. Backlash goes both ways. I suspect the suppression
efforts hurt the institutions the most, with students, workers,
citizens dismissing the relevance of those institutions. Perhaps
that's the strongest call for open and engaged government and media.
(sorry for preaching, been thinking about this a bit)
Andria K.
Aldon Hynes
Going Meta - Student Speech, Education, Sharks, Lady Gaga, Richard
Blumenthal, Linda McMahon and Colin McEnroe
http://www.orient-lodge.com/node/4230
Besides Ms Wojcicki's article, it also links to Paul Farhi's artice in AJR
about 'Traffic Problems'.
As always, thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Aldon
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Andria
http://rebekahmonson.com/2010/09/02/twentysomething-gen-y-work/?qergrge
A telling paragraph of how they see the corporate world, and I dare
say other institutions:
"We have a lot to be excited about, but less and less of that exists
within the current corporate structure. We communicate constantly. We
love to collaborate. We are data junkies. Many of us are imbued with
entrepreneurial spirit. We strike out. We tinker. We play. None of
this is particularly valued in the current corporate environment. But,
we value it in ourselves and in each other. We have interesting side
projects. (And, we keep them from you so that you won’t fire us.)"
On Sep 1, 4:27 pm, "Aldon Hynes" <Aldon.Hy...@Orient-Lodge.com> wrote:
> Well, I've finally gotten my chance to write my thoughts on this at
>
> Going Meta - Student Speech, Education, Sharks, Lady Gaga, Richard