Inspired and respected

Today's visit to The Arizona Republic was fodder for thought about staff construction.  I enjoyed the way each beat for the entire media organization was represented.  I took notes on each level of the organization, and I envisioned a staff in which I have students making digital media suggestions along with print, photo, and editorial ideas.

Sitting in the grand room with other editors and reporters made me long, just a little, for a life as a career journalist.  I feel as if I left that part of my life behind when I went to graduate school and began teaching.  Though I may teach journalism, I rarely write like one, and being among other journalists, writing stories, and listening to tape make me wax nostalgic for an earlier time.

What I have appreciated throughout this experience is the acknowledgement that we are important to the future of journalism.  Teachers so often are criticized as incompetent, lazy, stupid.  Very rarely has anyone ever said to me, "You are the future of what we do.  You bring kids to these programs, to this career."  At Reynolds, there has been a true respect for us, for the ways we believe in this industry, the ways we foster its development in my classroom.  I felt this same respect from those at The Arizona Republic today.  They don't look at us like back-country yokels who have been given tickets to the big city.  I have felt like, and have been treated like, a professional throughout this process.

I wish that other industries could rally teachers in this way, for these programs are far too few.  When teachers garner as much respect as other professionals, we will find that more people seek to belong to the world of education.

Here is a picture of Emmanuel Lozano, photo editor at The Arizona Republic.

 

 

Hilari Anderson

Kentridge High School

Kent, Wash.