Story ideas bursting from the radio

Nov. 8, 2013

I'm driving along, heading for a routine meeting this morning, listening to Morning Edition on NPR, and hear this:

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/08/243735209/sisterly-love-i-knew-that-we-had-each-other

First, tough to stay focused on the road when your eyes start to water. Second, some stories MUST be told by anonymous sources. Third, this is happening in OUR schools.

Then I hear this: 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/11/08/243779086/third-graders-react-to-video-games-tracking-their-play

First, those are some very cool third graders with an amazing teacher. Second, why don't we tell more stories about kids in our communities who have no voice? I know we should focus on high school or middle school, but we might be able to bring some unique perspective to helping even younger kids tell their stories, share their hopes and fears.

Finally, I hear:

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=243861506&m=243875466

First, where do such extraordinary, well-spoken and insightful kids come from, when we all know (well, I hear it everywhere, so it must be true!) education is a lost cause, led by incompetents working with the uninterested and unsupported? Second, there are no excuses for not finding amazing stories to tell. They are all around us.

Sometimes we just need to be the "curators" of the stories, funneling great ideas to our students. They can take it from there.

Make some time for this 6,000 word article on teaching, theater and culture

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/drama-truman-high-school.html?hp

Adapted from a forthcoming book, and published Sept. 15, 2013 in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, I ended up reading this twice before 7 a.m. Not for the first time, I started planning on how to work this into this week's journalism classes and then remembering that I don't do that anymore.

If you don't have access to www.nytimes.com (limits on number of downloads per month), I have posted the article as a 14-page Word document at http://issuu.com/chspa/docs/levittown_drama_program_-_ny_times_

All stories are about people, and editors sometimes need a reminder

Saturday morning, Jan. 1. I read a moderately interesting piece in the Denver Post about how the Baby Boomers start turning 65 today. It is a longish front page piece that jumps to the inside and concludes with a quote from a researcher at the Pew Center, saying that as a generation, "We are pretty glum." Okay. Depressing.

Once I have roamed through the Post, I turn on my Kindle, download the New York Times, and find the same article, now discovering that it was written by Dan Barry. This is probably a sad commentary, but I began reading the piece again. Imagine my surprise at finding that the Post editor had chopped the feature just before it became what I expect from Dan Barry (that is, insightful and people-focused)!

You see, Mr. Barry had tracked down one of three Americans who might qualify as the first Baby Boomers born (on Jan. 1, 1946), and that person lives in Buffalo. But we don't meet him until after "We are pretty glum."

It turns out that this first Baby Boomer has quite a story to tell -- he was not a newsmaker, not an inventor, just an ordinary guy, but his story is fascinating. Denver Post readers were not allowed to meet Aloysius Nachreiner, but you can meet him by going here. The web-version of the piece comes in two parts. The whole thing is worth reading, but be sure to meet Aloysius in part 2. Oh, and then bookmark Dan Barry's page so you can come back and enjoy "This Land" regularly.

If I had one piece of advice to share it would be: there are no stories about the Baby Boom -- there are stories about individuals born in that generation. There are no stories about girls basketball -- only stories about girls basketball players, coaches, spouses of coaches, team managers... There are no stories about American education -- there are only stories about individual students, teachers, custodians, food service workers... you get the picture.

And if you are looking to remind young journalists that they need to focus on people as we begin a new semester, think about pointing them to Dan Barry's latest.

Death of long form journalism exaggerated

Just when you might have thought that all that was left in scholastic journalism (or professional journalism) were short bits and flashy visuals, it is good to be reminded that there is still a large amount of significant long form writing out there, in newspapers, in magazines, on blogs.

Most people will agree that an increasingly complex world needs more thought, more reporting, than an infographic, or a page of 100-word briefs. But who has the time? Some of us moan: No time this morning. Gotta run to school.

But what if you could call up a long piece when you DO find some time (in an airport, waiting for a kid to emerge from soccer practice...)? Check out this article from Poynter to discover ways to store and access long form writing you want to read, through various miracles of technology.

Check it out at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=101&aid=188741