As with any elective course these days, the numbers won't stay up simply because student media advisers know that journalism classes are the best way to improve skills, build citizenship, incorporate technology and critical thinking, and so much more.
Sometimes we just wonder HOW other people can't see how terrific student media programs are!
When advisers get together with one another, at a conference or online, there can be a lot of angst over how difficult it is to convince students to choose a media course. We bemoan the lack of support we get from counselors or even fellow teachers. We despair about how to counter the rising tide of STEM classes and the pressure for kids to focus on them. We see traditional journalism struggling to find its way in the new century.
We feel helpless, at the mercy of societal forces that seem to be set against us. What can we do?
My modest proposal: appeal to a population that cares more about the students than the educational institution, and that wields extraordinary influence over the academic lives of students. That population is parents (and guardians, of course). I know it is fashionable to think of parents as disconnected from their children, too busy to really communicate with their children, too focused on grade point and test scores to worry much about much else.
Baloney. They want their kids to learn to deal with adversity, to learn to work well with others, to have fun yet make good decisions. They know their children are more than numbers, more than test scores and more than bodies being prepared for careers.
So after identifying a group of promising freshmen or sophomores (or even some of the academic hotshots in your AP Lang course), how can we get those students to take the next step, and actually enroll in a journalism class?
As people in sales know, sometimes the most important part of the pitch is "the ask."
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Kenerski,
Please consider encouraging your son (daughter) to enroll in our student media course in the coming school year. I am writing to you, specifically, because your son is a good thinker, a good writer and a good citizen. The evidence is in the recommendations I have received from other faculty and staff, and from my own observation.
But I assume that "good" is not enough, for your son or for you as parents.
You want your son to part of something real, something that demonstrates his talents and passion. You want your son to be part of a supportive team, with goals that rise about individual glory. You want your son to be challenged, but with the support he needs to have the best chance to succeed.
Our student media course provides what you want.
We offer genuine leadership opportunities. We offer authentic publishing experiences, where your son can test his ideas beyond a single classroom or beyond a single teacher. We offer a chance for your son to actually practice being a citizen of a free nation, going beyond theory.
I don't want to deluge you with statistics about the growing popularly of college journalism and mass communications classes. I assume you understand the importance of being a smart consumer of media, which now comes at us relentlessly and without much of a filter.
Yes, our media course will help prepare your son for dealing with an increasingly complex and challenging world. Few of our students will become journalists, but all will consume journalism, all will need to be clear and persuasive communicators, comfortable working in groups, adept at sorting through the blizzard of information we all encounter each day. Those are exactly the skills we develop in our media classes.
But you already know that.
And here's what I know: in this hurried, often chaotic world, there are voices that children will listen to: yours. Your influence, quite rightly, outweighs that of the school, of educators and legislators, and even of friends.
When you sit down with your son to choose next year's schedule, please consider how his working on a Pleasantville publication can benefit him. A word from you can make all the difference.
You want the best for your son. I do, as well.
Sincerely,
Jack
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