The Latest
Spare the budget axe: Don’t cut skills-building journalism
Budget concerns are causing schools all over the country to cut one of the programs where students learn the most, journalism. Isn’t learning by students the primary goal of schools? Students in publication classes learn not only writing skills, they learn to work as a team to produce a publication. They learn to work with…
Pennsylvania paper reports students, school “seem pleased” with policy progress
A Pennsylvania newspaper is reporting students of The Spoke and school officials at Conestoga High School feel they are drawing closer to an agreement over what student media policies will be. Earlier this spring students and journalism educators raised concern over proposed changes in the policies which seemed to institute prior review. Today’s article can be…
Welcome back to a new school year
Watch this space as various members of JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission will share news, ideas and comments starting this week. Welcome back.
Good for discussion, even at the end of the year
Two articles today could be great ways to end your j-class – or spark discussion at the beginning of fall’s. One, about MySpace and online speech cases in Pennsylvania, looks at the problems judges are having with free expression issues outside of school. The other, from Washington state, raises the issues of how best to…
First Amendment issues in the news
Those interested in the latest First Amendment incidents and issues should note the following links: • Student literary magazine recalled, then sold with permission. See first article and then the followup. • Racial Comment in School Paper Sparks Discipline. See this article. • Glendale Union school’s newspaper, district battle over censorship. See the article. • Sixth Grader’s Project…
Two news items worth noting
Two items caught my fancy this morning. One is about the Tennessee ACLU suing two school districts for blocking LGBT Web sites. The other talks about book banning – and maybe even burning. Well worth some attention from your classes.
Iowa anniversary marks 20 years of state law
In a year of anniversaries, 2009 seems to be special. Twenty years ago this week, notes Mark Goodman, Knight Chair of Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, Iowa became the first state to not only pass a law drafted specifically in response to Hazelwood, but also the first to draft one from scratch. For the…