“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Max Planck
Schools are a big topic in this newspaper. Much is written about student achievement, test scores, and accomplishments. Much is also written on the editorial pages and by the on-line commenters. This (with the exception of the mostly negative on-line comments) is as it should be. The Barrow County school system is the largest local employer and it is hard to cross paths with someone whose life isn’t touched by the local schools. Covering the schools is the newspaper’s job — in good times and in bad.
For years this community had one paper reporting only good news from our schools. There was no analysis or critical thinking — simply the regurgitation of school generated press releases and some “it’s all good” coverage of events and school board meetings. In one way of thinking, that is good school news coverage. No controversy, no difficult questions, no tough issues — just supportive journalism that makes the community look good, right?
Well, maybe — except the underscoring reality, when it involves things like poor test scores and problematic graduation rates, remains part of the reality and not reporting on it does not make that go away.
When this newspaper arrived on the scene, things got shaken up. No more canned press releases; no more “it’s all good” school news. We started digging and it didn’t take long to come up with some problems in the schools that need to be addressed. Add to this, a new superintendent whose MO is transparency and all of the sudden the community is reading things about the schools it’s never read before. This has resulted in people becoming upset.
Whenever reality meets the pretty picture someone tried to paint of reality, there are growing pains and things get ugly. We are in the midst of that ugliness now with some school people saying “the press” is all negative and other people saying the schools need to be held accountable. The net result seems to be a shut down in constructive dialogue between “the schools” and “the press.”
Squarely in the middle of all this sit the students, teachers, parents and school staff who meet the challenges that occur when children are being educated every day, head on. Their enthusiasm, skill and obvious caring is the part of school news, as features editor, I am challenged to report on and I take that job very seriously. I am pro-teacher, pro-student and pro-Barrow County Schools.
I want to be sure this newspaper has as much interesting, uplifting, inspiring school news as possible — school news that goes beyond the welcome, yet sometimes not so moving snapshots we get from the schools of their events.
At the beginning of the school year I sent an e-mail to the 15 school principals introducing myself and requesting their help in letting me know about the unique, fun, touching and very special things going on at their schools. Each school has its own “personality” and the different schools have different things to offer school news-wise. I figured the invitation to a positive PR piece would generate some interest. So far, I have heard from one principal – only one. And, the story we talked about went into the paper the week after we talked about it.
So, what’s going on? Part of it is that principals are busy; part of it is that a lot of educators don’t subscribe to this paper, so they don’t know what they’re missing. And, part of it is that school people, like other people, tend to focus on the negative, while the positive rolls off their backs unnoticed or uncommented on.
At a recent school board meeting, one of the elementary school principals said: “…it is important for us to help re-educate the community. Our results are not declining; the bar is being raised…The media right now is often very negative about us and there are lots of wonderful things going on in our schools…People need to…see what we’re doing and see what it’s all about. The negative press really drags us down. It does a number on the morale of our teachers.”
Well, yes and yes. The reality, however, is that this paper generates way more positive school news than it does negative school news. In addition to our excellent school sports coverage and all the school-submitted news that we run, last year I generated 23 positive stories and photo features. Some of them ran on the front page, others were full page spreads on the front of our Community Living Section.
This year I have generated 19 positive school news stories or photos so far and we’re barely past fall break. It’s all about perspective. If you don’t subscribe to the paper, you miss all the good school news. If you only buy a paper when you hear there’s a negative piece about the schools in it, your perspective is skewed. When negative things happen in the schools, they are reported on. Conversely, we do our best to keep the good things happening in the schools at the forefront.
The decision to focus on the negative or the positive is a personal one school and non-school people alike make each day.
Negative stories generate more talk and on-line commenting, but that doesn’t mean the positive stories don’t have an impact. They do; we just don’t hear about it. An educator’s subscription to the paper is $8.65 per year, including our E-Edition. Why not subscribe? Then maybe it will be clearer that “the press” is simply holding up a mirror — it’s up to us as a community to shape the reflection we see into the one we want it to be.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is features editor of the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com.
DuWayne
People of Barrow county please have a heart. stop taking dope and face reality.
Further more most higher paid people in careers like computer programming and It dont even hold degrees in this field, yes many of the grunts went to school for it or networking and get mostly one third what the ones who are gifted get.
College isnt the GOLDEN key to money and happiness
Do not assume one is either educated in college or University based on how one types.
Some of the best writers are terrible spellers, some of the best typers are boring writers,
But some of the most judgemental people find them self in the wind because they have expected more then any normal person can provide!
At least the perfect critic is always correct!!! at least in their own mind!!!