Back in the Classroom

     Last week I found myself scribbling furiously on the whiteboard in the Ruch library, filling it with important points and diagrams, erasing everything, and writing more, as I used to do, before I retired from teaching in college. I was dashing through the differences between journalism style and essay writing, bouncing on my toes with enthusiasm.

        On behalf of the Applegater, the quarterly newsmagazine of the Applegate, I was teaching a crash course in journalism, free to interested participants. As both a writer and a former journalism instructor, I was certainly qualified to do this, though I wasn't sure how to teach a term's worth of journalism in four hours. I prepped hard, then made brownies for refreshments, figuring food would be as important as instruction. 

    After introductions, I went directly into the basic writing process and the particulars of writing journalism. I emphasized what I called the first rule: "It's not about you." Subdue your personal identification with the subject, I advised. The article is about that subject, not about you.

    After an hour and a half of whiz-bang lecture, I set the students up with an exercise to work with partners. Then they changed partners and repeated the exercise. It was a little complex, but it worked.

    Between the two parts of the exercise, one student said she had been confused. 

    I said, "Oh please, don't sit there confused. That makes me feel bad." 

    "It's not about you!" someone called out. 

    Everyone laughed. It was that kind of class.

    I ended with a half-hour of grammatical tips. One student confessed that she had grimaced when she saw that part of the schedule. But, she said, the grammar part had been fun, too.

    In fact, all the students, as they left, said they had enjoyed the class—and the brownies—and that they were leaving with new knowledge and confidence.

    As for me, I had enjoyed so much being in the classroom again. It was a barrel of fun.