Here's a thought. And you know that it's one of my random ones, kinda like the towel thing. Always in the back of my strange brain whirling about...along with the art ideas and the loopy ideas that come out once a day, or hour.
Okay, you have heard of the teen who, before Christmas, jumped on a plane with his gift money and decided to do some immersion journalism in, oh, Baghdad for an assignment at his prep school. He returned home to Florida yesterday or today and his mother has been reported as saying she'll never let him out of the house again...that story?
Well, I've been thinking about that. First of being that horrified mother (I agree with her but wonder how she didn't KNOW that her kid was going to travel INTERNATIONALLY??? "Uh, Mom, where's my Passport? I need it?"), then hearing about the kid's teacher who was trying to let them in on 'immersion journalism' but certainly didn't ask the kids to do what THIS kid did...in fact, the teacher wasn't happy about a former assignment where the kid in question went 'too far'...then there's the kid himself...the born journalist, the new Studs Terkel if you will.
Yes, I'm horrified that he did what he did and glad to hear that he didn't get his American English speaking self shot or taken hostage while trying to get into that part of the world during this time of weirdness and war...but there's also a part of me that's about his age that says 'that does sound interesting' and wonder if I would have done something like that. Perhaps if I were a boy I'd be more apt to jump into something that crazy - as it was, I was a pretty independent little teenager as a girl but knew where my boundaries were. Well, that and being more concerned about where I was going to LIVE the next week was more of a priority for me at the time.
I too had a really super engaging, unspeakably good English/Journalism teacher in high school who really got the kids involved in the projects that he came up with - and my teacher was really into teaching us the immersion journalism way of reporting. He was a Buddist new agey kind of guy, bearded, bespectacled, almost geeky looking, but so sharp and so intelligent that he could ignite the learning fire in pretty much any child that walked into his class - even accidentally, as I did one day.
Being a slightly tortured little soul I was a bit restless in high school (shocker, I know), and occasionally I would skip a boring class (math or science) and join one of my more artsy friends in a jaunt to the 'cool' classes around campus that my parents would NEVER sign me up for. I learned so much doing those little jaunts - met so many new people and had so much fun.
Anyhow, one day I walked into Mr. Kepner's Journalism class and fell in love with journalism. My art, which was my passion up til then, took a backseat to this newfound love. The day I walked into the class he was going on and on about immersion journalism and the writings of Terkel, and how to report the spirit of the story along with the story itself. It was magic.
A week later, and again living with my best friend's family, with the help and blessing of my class counselor and my vice principal, I changed my classes to all things journalism and humanities. Kepner was the teacher for all of those classes and I thrived in that enriching environment.
I learned how to write a story, how to edit, how to input a newsworthy and printable story on a MAC, learned about pre-press, learned about deadlines (my drug of choice), learned about how to deal with all kinds of people - peers, adults and the outer community.
I soon joined the Yearbook staff and had the best year of my life at school in my Senior year. Most kids stuck around Kepner's huge classroom because of the welcoming feel to it, the interaction between kids who knew what mattered - it felt like you were a part of a larger family - and there were NO popular or unpopular people inside those rooms. Everyone was an adult. It was grand - I still look back on this year of my life and smile.
Immersion journalism is addicting. Literally. We were encouraged to do this type of work for all of our articles, and boy, was it fun. I found that I had a talent for it, and my mentor/teacher told me to run with it. It was a great escape for me at the time and gave me a sense of belonging, purpose and pride in seeing those stories run week after week in the school paper and in the local paper the year after. I kept going with my little obsession for many years after high school and did pretty well for someone with NO college degree. Even my well published high school teacher was impressed with me and had me come back to the school to talk to his new group of soon to be journalists from time to time.
I can tell you that I was idealistic and stupid at 17, 18, 19 and 20 and would have done just what this American kid did in December. What an opportunity! What a way to write THE holy grail of stories!!! ...oh yeah, and get myself killed...ooops!
The Gulf War started after I graduated from HS, and not a day went by when I wasn't wishing myself in the 'action' doing this 'immersion journalism'. I remember telling my journalism classmates this in college and getting the most awful looks from them. They would say that 'it's just a war and not worth reporting' - and I saw it as the ultimate immersion journalism story!
See, it was a type of drug, an obsession for a while with me. I had done all kinds of other stories - especially stories that I didn't fully understand, just for the challenge of doing the immersion journalism and making some sense out of it. That was FUN and interesting for me. Yes, I'm a geek, I admit it. LOL!
I would tell people about doing this kind of journalism and get laughed at. "Oh, you're so young and stupid" they would say. I guess they were right, but didn't have to worry about me taking Mommy and Daddy's money to fly to some war zone. They knew that I wasn't THAT stupid. After all, the mall had some really fashionable clothes that particular season...and don't get me started on the cute makeup colours!!!
So, I read the story about this kid with great interest and see myself in him. Stupid, brilliant, almost got himself killed and his mother will probably finish the job when he gets home (LOL!).
God forbid my son gets into journalism. I'm praying that he does something a bit safer...but watch, he'll go into something that will horrify me a bit as a mother, just like this kid did recently. Sigh!
Too smart for their own good these kids nowadays!!!
...and hey, isn't this kind of thought rambling what blogs are really for? :o)
1 comment:
I think it's really cool that he did that.
There's an author I love, John Taylor Gatto, who insists that this used to be the stuff of which Americans, especially American boys, were made. He doesn't like the public schools because they inhibit the kind of independence, self-reliance, and drive that used to lead men like Walt Disney to gamble for huge stakes, lose time and again, and eventually win.
There is a great children's book, "My Side of the Mountain" that was discouraged by parents for a while because it described a fantasy that many children have of being out on their own and taking risks and succeeding in self-sufficiency. "The Sign of the Beaver" does that too, to a lesser extent, and so does Mark Twain's books about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.
Maybe I am overprotective of my kids just a bit. I would be amazed if they could have a grand dream like that and follow it through to completion all on their own. My 12yo still asks if he can go out to the backyard to play. I like to think I'm training them to think for themselves, but I don't think they have the presence of mind to do something on a grand scale like that.
That boy is going to do some great things in his life. I wish there were more boys like him.
Post a Comment