Surveying the Percy Julian Middle School conference room table Thursday morning with Wednesday Journal editor Dan Haley, it occurred to me that I never had the journalistic opportunity that the students around the table have already had.
I didn’t have a student newspaper in middle school, so I wasn’t exposed to that career possibility until after I graduated college with an education degree.
Back then, I learned on the fly.
Not so for these five youngsters – sixth graders Lila and Eleanor, eighth grader Sarah, seventh grader Calvin and Fey, another sixth grader. They are a small contingent of the some 20 student journalists working on the Oak Park school’s Jayhawk Journal. But they all have one thing in common.
A cerebral approach to the craft, with a curious bent that implies a real nose for news and a passion to serve the 920 Julian students, along with teachers and administration, with hard-hitting news.
These are studious people who are soaking up every lesson from eighth grade social science teacher Kit Kadlec, who is the Jayhawk Journal’s staff moderator, himself a former journalist.
Like me, even today, writing is opening their eyes to the larger world.
“I’ve written about climate change and air pollution,” Eleanor said. “I learned that a lot of things that we do in our daily lives affect the world.”
Calvin writes a lot of sports, and his contribution in April was a rundown on National Football League free agency. Fey did a piece about school lunches and learned that Julian’s are actually prepared at Oak Park and River Forest High School and delivered.
I was impressed by the fact that Lila’s aunt was once a journalist for Al-Jazeera and now is doing podcasts. She was looking for a club to join as she entered sixth grade, and here she is. She’s come a long way over the course of this school year.
You want compelling copy? Try Lila’s in-depth, front-page story in the April issue comparing and contrasting her paper and the OPRF paper, the Trapeze.
In that story, you’ll learn that the Jayhawk Journal started in 2018, more than a century after the Trapeze. You’ll also learn that the Jayhawk Journal originally was only written by eighth graders but expanded over the years to include sixth and seventh graders.
Good thing, too, because each of these student journalists feel their skills have improved drastically.
“I feel like I write better,” said Sarah, in her first and only year on the paper’s staff. “I think my description has improved a lot.”
Eleanor added that effective copy is the impetus for reaction.
“I have improved on getting readers more in touch with their emotions,” she said. “The readers will feel something by the writing.”
These kids are also cognizant of the fact that writing will be a big part of their eventual careers thanks to the adults that joined Dan and me in the room: Marvin Childress, community learning and entrepreneurial coordinator; Dr. Eboney Lofton, chief of learning innovation; and Amanda Siegfried, senior director of communications and engagement.
So how much writing do they do on a daily basis?
“Every day, without question,” Childress said. “Designing projects, not only creating but also improving as I move along … self-editing, adjusting tone.”
Siegfried said she was a journalism major in college and even started a local news website in her career. Her writing on a daily basis includes content for e-newsletters that inform people about what’s going on district-wide.
“I’m writing all the time, sending information to staff all the time,” she said.
As for Lofton, she writes grants to bring money into the district along with many memos to the board of education.
Suffice to say, these students and their cohort will be writing in some form for the rest of their lives, regardless of career path.
But for now? Now is about the fun and enjoyment of the craft and the possibilities it affords. For example, Lila and Eleanor are planning their two-on-one interview with new school superintendent Terri Bresnahan.
“This is a club, it’s not a class, they show up on Friday mornings at 8 a.m. and they are writing for their classes but you all do this because you enjoy writing and I think that’s pretty special,” Kadlec said. “You’re doing this because you want to have your voice heard.”
And that’s one of the reasons Dan and I do what we do.
We enjoy it. Just like the students.