In what some may call the dark ages when I attended journalism school there were courses to prepare people to work in weekly journalism. That is apparently no longer true. Many colleges no longer train young people for traditional journalism careers. That is a mistake for there are still many opportunities and hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs to be filled in this country. Personally, I can’t think of a career better than the one I have with this newspaper.
This year a private company, Kansas Publishing Ventures has launched an online platform geared toward small community newspapers called “Earn Your Press Pass.”
The course’s goal is to take a person in a small community who has solid reading and writing skills and give them the basic journalism background to help them become a solid newspaper reporter,.
The purpose of the course is to give the basics to solid candidates who just need a little training to make them a good reporter candidate.
Lindsey Young, one of the Kansas Publishing Ventures owners, is a former journalism and public speaking teacher. With her husband, Joey Young, she has been associated with newspaper ownership since 2014.
Speaking about the course, she said, “I wanted to create something that feels more like a conversation with a well-informed friend than a traditonal class. There aren’t any homework assigments or quizes. Intead the “test” for Earn Your Press Pass users will be becoming a part of their community newspaper and writing about local issues.
As someone who has both the teacing background and practical real-world application, Lindsey hopefully will be able to impart the basics a potential reporter needs for.
The course outlines basics like newspaper jargon, interviewing skills, editing and simple photography.
Readers of this newspaper who may be interested in taking the course are invited to visit with me for more information.
With perhaps an inch of snow in Monday’s forecast I went to bed Sunday remembering snow days from my childhood.
When I attended Pleasant Valley School, we didn’t receive a text message announcing reporting school would be closed because of snow and there was no need to listen to the radio or watch television for Pleasant Valley snow days were never announced. I don’t know how the word was spread. My parents were one of the few homes in the district with a telephone. I suspect most parents just looked outside, assessed the weather and decided whether they would send their children to school or not.
Generally, my parents made the right decision but one time when they made the wrong decision, I was at my father’s gasoline station enjoying a break in the school routine. Junior Hasemeyer, a farmer who lived about a mile south of us, came in, looked at me and asked why I hadn’t gone to school. He reported he had taken his children to school.
I would be an hour or more late but my father didn’t let me skip school. Instead he made it a day to remember. He made arrangements for me to ride home with the Hasemyer youngsters and told me to get my sled, while he started the tractor. Soon we were headed south on Highway 14 with me riding on the sled and Dad driving the tractor,
That was the only time I rode the American Flyer sled that was once used by my mother and her siblings the entire two miles to school. It was also the only time I remember Dad pulling me on Highway 14, The highway must have been covered with enough snow and ice that traffic was minimal.
It was a fun ride.
The trip home wasn’t memorable but it would not be legal today. There were at least three and perhaps four youngsters riding in the front seat of the Hasemeyer pickup plus the driver and none us were wearing seatbelts---they were not yet available for trucks and automobiles. Seat belts were something reserved for airplanes and we didn’t plan to fly the truck anyplace.
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