Some First Amendment Cheer

As everyone struggles to tie loose ends before the holiday break, I hope this blog reminds you to start planning for this year’s First Amendment Symposium at the Indiana Statehouse, March 3, in addition to giving you some information that might make a good final exam or second semester project.

As a way to expand First Amendment activities, this year’s symposium competition will involve some new categories. In addition to the traditional essay contest and David Adams project competition, are a couple of specific categories for graphic artists.

The first is a poster design contest. The poster can be vertical or horizontal but should be 11x17 and illustrate the spirit of the First Amendment through text and/or artistic expression. This is a good way to include your art department or other students at your school in the IHSPA First Amendment initiative.

The second new category is a postage stamp design based on the irony of the Simpson family stamps that were issued last summer. One of the First Amendment studies discovered that more people were able to name the five members of the Simpson family than the five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. When I heard about the Simpson postage stamps, I checked to see when postage stamps had been issued to celebrate the First Amendment. The only thing my research uncovered was a Bill of Rights stamp issued in 1992.

Therefore, it’s time for Indiana students to design stamps that celebrate the First Amendment. The challenge is a set of five stamp designs representing each of the guaranteed freedoms. We will submit the winning entries as an idea for a book of stamps—like the Simpson family.

Anyone who promotes these ideas as assignments or First Amendment activities is encouraged choose the one or two best designs and essays and send them to dhadley@franklincollege.edu as a jpeg or PDF by Friday, Feb. 5

Feel welcome to use the sample "Final Exam" assignment from this IHSPA Web page. You'll find the link under "Miscellaneous Resources" on the right-hand side of the "Forms" page.

Don't Be Fooled

Advisers need to be aware that recent advertising for “free music downloads”also leads readers to a Web site that also promotes racially charged information.

According to an article in the Monday, November 23, Indianapolis Star, a spokesperson for the group that purchases the ad says the group is trying to recruit “white youth all across America to fight for the white race.”

The group is choosing respected and widely read high school newspapers to spread its message. As you can imagine, the fallout from such an ad in a high school publication gains attention from the professional media and increases the coverage.

Anyone who has been contacted by this group is encouraged to contact me, so that we can study the campaign.

Scholastic Journalism's Future

The Grand Forks Herald won a Pulitzer Prize a few years ago for its coverage of a flood in North Dakota that also destroyed the newspaper’s facilities and many of the reporters’ homes. In retrospect, the editor said the multi-faceted disaster tested what the staff was made of—and they discovered they were made of pretty good stuff.

Most people know the state’s teacher license proposal on top of other issues including the continuing challenge to journalism due to Core 40 have culminated into the perfect storm that has had Hoosier journalism educators in “disaster mode” most of the week.

Monday through Wednesday included a troubling public hearing and one bad E-mail after another as people from throughout the state shared concerns.

I’m not going to say that everything is fine now. Everyone is still worried about the future of scholastic journalism in Indiana, but we have moved from panic to action. We have joined forces to review the content of our teacher training and study the dynamics of the political process that may affect journalism programs.

IHSPA and our J-partners at the university level have contacted other organizations that are equally affected by this initiative, and we have shared information.

At this point we encourage people to check the link to the D.O.E. Web site and contact any members of the REPA Advisory Panel in your area before their November 18 meeting to share our concerns.

A major worry is that including journalism in the vocational/workplace/ occupational specialist license will end our effort to move journalism into a stronger academic position on the Core 40 Academic Honors Diploma grid to stop the drain
from many of the existing programs.

A second concern is that the goal to emphasize content might sacrifice the education classes that are also important. The result could be negative as new teachers go into classrooms and adviser positions without the combination of content and teaching skills they need to be most effective.

We hope to delay the November 18 action to provide more discussion and collaboration between all the parties involved, but we are already planning a coalition with media professionals, other organizations, former students and parents as we try to elevate the status of existing journalism programs and promote curricula in media literacy for all students.

This won’t be easy, but anyone who teachers journalism and advises publications didn’t choose the easy route in the first place. As an organization that has been around since 1922, we have survived other tough challenges.

Like the Grand Forks Herald staff—our people are made of pretty good stuff.

Professional Standards Board Members:

http://www.doe.in.gov/dps/visitors/boardmembers.html

D.O.E. Web site REPA information:
http://www.doe.in.gov/news/2009/07-July/REPA.html

Other relevant resources:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/11/04/11teachered.h29.html?tkn=VSZFWp9JniAvzNjpi4rqcK943GK9dL87%2Bc0C&intc=es

Remembering Ms. Grubb

Robert Hansen and Miss Jeannette Grubb, left, his newspaper adviser at Shortridge High School, attended the 2005 IHSPA convention where she was honored with a lifetime membership.
The days before the fall convention have given me the opportunity to talk to many advisers about a variety of topics, not the least of which is the stress of being a teacher of any subject let alone advising high school publications. As they reach mid-semester they feel overworked and under-appreciated.

Among the many E-mails that arrived on Tuesday was one from Bob Hansen, a former student who nominated Miss Jeannette Grubb for an IHSPA lifetime membership in 2002 when she was 102 years old. Although IHSPA started awarding the lifetime honor long after Miss Grubb’s career, her students remembered her and wanted to pay tribute.

Bob volunteered to be Miss Grubb’s escort for the day, and Senator Richard Lugar sent a letter that praised her leadership. She insisted that she had nothing to say publicly, but she allowed everyone to fuss over her a bit, and she said she enjoyed returning to Franklin for the fall conference she had attended with her students decades ago.

This week’s E-mail was news of Miss Grubb’s death at age 106. Senator Lugar has written a tribute which includes a new story for many of us about his trip to the principal’s office because of a column he wrote criticizing the “unhealthy habits of the basketball team.” He says the Echo’s headquarters were shut down temporarily, and he was told that unbridled journalism could have consequences for him, the school and Miss Grubb.

He adds that freedom of the press prevailed, and Miss Grubb was his “heroine.” Senator’s Lugar’s tribute to his adviser decades after his newspaper staff days have passed is a reminder that those who teach and advise make a positive difference in people’s lives.

We look forward to recognizing the efforts of other advisers next week at this year’s IHSPA fall convention.

Convention A Great Learning Experience

I think everyone will be excited with all of the opportunities available for the 2009 IHSPA convention at Franklin College October 22 and 23.

There are many ways to experience the convention thanks to a creative effort to meet a variety of requests and circumstances.

Those who choose to come on Thursday evening can choose between On-Site competition or social activities for students and advisers. Click here for a link to the On-Site categories and registration form (See Quick Downloads). Click here to see the full convention schedule which is available in a PDF format.

Friday’s schedule includes keynote speaker Thomas French, a new approach to the awards presentation, and two different kinds of learning experiences.

For those who want an in-depth experience there are intensive workshops that last 2-3 hours.

Preregistration (dhadley@franklincollege.edu) is needed for the following intensive workshops:

Intro to InDesign and Photoshop

Advanced Publications Design

Website Development

Broadcast

Preregistration is not required but encouraged for additional intensive workshops:

Story Development with Thomas French

Student Media Leadership

Photojournalism Skills (Students should bring a digital camera for hands-on experience)

In addition to the intensive workshops, there are 19 quick sessions in a wide range of topics available at the following link.

Registration at the $25 fee (which includes lunch) has been extended through Oct. 5. Anyone with questions is encouraged to send an E-mail or call 317.738.8199 or 317.341.4360.

Yearbooks Key To Positive Schools

Matthew Tully has been writing a series of articles about Manual High School for the Indianapolis Star as a way to shine a light on the state of the Indianapolis Public School system. His story told through the eyes of Manual’s teachers, administrators, students and parents is available on his blog here, or type in “Manual Project at IndyStar.com/MatthewTully.

The third article of the series printed in the Star’s September 13 issue discusses the inspiration and school spirit that have diminished at Manual as traditions have been eliminated.

Tully says, “I have seen many mind-boggling things during my first month at Manual High—including students arrested and teachers threatened—but I was still caught by surprise when informed about a tidbit of life at the school."

That “tidbit” is the fact that the school hasn’t had a yearbook in years. There is no student newspaper or student council, and the school hasn’t produced a musical in a decade. He doesn’t blame these things for Manual’s low test scores, graduation rate or attendance, but he describes them as additional signs that the school is not thriving.

Co-curricular or extracurricular activities may seem like expendables when budgets are tight, but they are valuable components for a positive learning environment. Those who have had the opportunity to meet students from across the country through workshops, conventions and high school visitations often conclude that students who attend schools that have strong publications programs and student government benefit in a variety of ways.

The opportunity for students to express interests and concerns about school activities and issues provides ownership. Not every student suggestion or complaint has to lead to change for the student body to feel that individual and collective voice matters. Communication between students with other students, teachers and administrators through publications and student government creates a dynamic that contributes to a positive school atmosphere.

An administrator at one of our member schools read last Sunday’s article and took the time to thank the publications adviser at his school for leading groups that play such an important role.

The Indiana High School Press Association tries to help schools promote programs that become the “tidbits” that make such a difference. Keep us informed of your successes and challenges as we try to share best practices with others.

A Friendly Reminder About Those Deadlines

One of my friends in the preschool business used to joke about the way their lives revolved around holidays. As soon as they gathered all the materials and activities to celebrate Halloween, they began to collect ideas for Thanksgiving. In a similar way many IHSPA activities revolve around deadlines that occur throughout the year. Even though we try to provide mini calendars and E-mail updates, it’s challenging to keep track of all of them.

The next big deadline is a September 15 postmark for yearbook Harvey entries. Information and entry forms can be downloaded from the IHSPA Website. The yearbook Harvey competition is a great contest for everyone, but it is also a good first competition for new programs and special individual efforts. I meet adults who tell me they still cherish Harvey awards they received many years ago. It is often the first award a journalism student wins.

I hope you and your students will have the opportunity over the next few days to gather some of the best work from the 2009 yearbook to submit for this year’s contest.

Then start looking ahead to the next deadline: registration for this year’s convention October 22-23 at Franklin College.

As always, keep us informed of your success and challenges, and enjoy the Labor Day weekend.

Welcome Back

I have talked to many IHSPA members throughout the summer, but it’s always fun to reconnect with everyone as we all start a new school year.

The first half of August still seems early for school to begin, but it’s a good time to make plans for the IHSPA fall convention at Franklin College October 22 & 23. A mailing is leaving Franklin tomorrow that will include membership information and a flyer that promotes this year’s convention with keynote speaker Tom French, a Hoosier and Pulitzer Prize winner who enjoys working with high school students. In addition to the keynote address, he will also lead an intensive writing session.

Traditional on-site contests, short sessions and intensives will provide a variety of opportunities for your students.

We are also planning to continue regional workshops throughout the year, and we encourage advisers to suggest locations and topics. The next workshop is a Scholastic Partnership workshop August 28 at I.U. Southeast. These workshops are designed to help advisers, administrators, and editors develop positive working relationships and promote the First Amendment in their schools. Anyone who would still like to attend the I.U. Southeast workshop should contact me as soon as possible at 317.738.8199 or 317.341.4360 or send an E-mail to dhadley@franklincollege.edu.

Good luck with the school year, and continue to share your successes and challenges.

Reflections On A Successful School Year

As we sprint or claw our way to the finish line, it’s a good time to share some information from the IHSPA epicenter.

Although business is down on a global scale, IHSPA has had a good year with a boost in attendance at the fall convention and the best crowd ever at for First Amendment Symposium. Those of you who can mark dates on your school’s master calendar for the 2009-10 school year can list Oct. 22-23, 2009, for the annual convention at Franklin College and March 3, 2010, for the First Amendment Symposium at the Indiana Statehouse.

As we continue to plan those programs over the next few weeks, advisers and students are welcome to suggest speakers or topics for sessions. Positive feedback from the double and triple session intensives at the 2008 convention encourage us to offer them again in addition to traditional choices.

Another plus for the past year was a partnership with J-Ideas to offer regional workshops at Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Crown Point. A regional workshop is already planned for the new school year at I.U. Southeast on August 28. Anyone who would be interested in attending that workshop or suggesting a site for 4-8 schools in another location is encouraged to contact me for program possibilities.

I have enjoyed visiting schools and attending awards banquets to meet the students who produce the publications that arrive in the mail. Indiana has much to celebrate.

As we continue to work together to share support and ideas, remember that I am eager to help disseminate news about honors, events, and job openings. (Several 2009 graduates are available to fill vacancies.)

Hoosier Star finalists for both yearbook and newspaper will be posted as a group as soon as I receive newspaper critiques from all the judges.

The Harvey Awards newspaper deadline is June 1, and the yearbook Harvey Awards deadline is September 15. Information about the Harvey competition can be downloaded from the IHSPA Web site:

http://ihspa.franklincollege.edu/

How Are You Handling This Tough Economy?

The economy has led the news for several months. It’s the primary business item at most meetings regardless of the organization and the chief concern among many families.

I have been holding my breath when I check E-mails for the last couple of weeks as I worry that school corporations will start to announce that journalism positions or programs will be cut. Any school that could benefit from IHSPA support is encouraged to let me know. I will try to help any way I can by writing letters or speaking to people who influence budget items.

Although I have heard from people who are worried, I haven’t received specific bad news from Indiana advisers at this time. However, I wrote a letter last week to try to save the Executive Director’s position of another state’s scholastic press organization.

Most high school publications send reporters to school board meetings on a regular basis anyway, but this is an especially important time to do so as huge decisions are made about funding for facilities, programs and personnel. Budget details may be difficult to understand and boring to endure, but they teach student reporters a great deal, and they often affect more students and staff than any other area. (We can even hope that budget stories will improve math scores.)

As the news reports economic challenges for different regions of Indiana, I always associate the areas with the names of member schools. We are interested in posting in-depth stories we receive about the economy on the IHSPA Web site. Everyone could benefit from the variety of angles. In fact, your editors might begin their planning by reading this column written a few years ago by the public editor of the Detroit Free Press.

In addition, if your publications have discovered ways to save money in a time of decreased advertising revenue and/or subscriptions, send the ideas to me, or write an article to share with others. Remember that everyone benefits when we share solutions with each other.

Good luck as you face the final deadlines of the year. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mary Beth Tinker: An 'Ordinary' Woman With Extraordinary Courage

Student officers for the Indiana High School Press Association listed Mary Beth Tinker at the top of a list of speakers for this year’s First Amendment Symposium.

Journalism teachers may have been more excited than the students when this “celebrity of a First Amendment landmark case” accepted the invitation to speak.

In 38 years of special events and keynote speakers I have never seen so many people gather before and after an event for an extra word, to shake hands, take a photo or express appreciation for her contribution to freedom of expression.

The irony is that the extraordinary part of Mary Beth Tinker is that she was and remains ordinary.

In 1965, Tinker was a shy eighth grader, and a good student who didn’t want to be in trouble at school. Yet she felt that she should be able to wear a black armband to support peace and protest war. She was suspended from school, and her family received hate mail and threats on their lives when they supported their children’s right of expression.

The Tinkers were as surprised as anyone when the case went all the way to the Supreme Court where a 7-2 decision ruled that Mary Beth should be able to wear an armband to school and that all students and teachers who enter a public school should “not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate.”

Today, Mary Beth Tinker is a registered nurse—still an ordinary citizen, but one who realizes that her name gives her the opportunity to encourage other ordinary citizens to “speak up, shake things up and create change that makes the world a better place.”

She emphasizes the fact that everyone makes history. She says that some people make history because they decide to make a stand, and others make history because they do not.

When she told one of her young patients that her name was Mary Beth Tinker, he sized her up as just another nurse and told her that he had seen the real Mary Beth Tinker one time.

Mary Beth Tinker could play the hero, but she has a new role as a cheerleader for activism. She realizes that when people see that she is more like them they are more likely to realize their own power to rise above the ordinary to the extraordinary.

Tinker Story One Of Courage, Patience

My recent voice mail message begins, “Hello. This is Mary Beth Tinker.”

I’m not generally a name-dropper, but I have taught the Tinker v. Des Moines case throughout my career, so it is exciting to have a Tinker kid return a call.

The Tinker family couldn’t have imagined that their symbolic protest against the Vietnam War would still be a landmark case for student expression 40 years after it went to the Supreme Court, but from the beginning their desire to protest required the kind of courage that it often takes to protect the First Amendment.

Tinker said that when administrators heard about the protest they called an emergency meeting and decided that any student wearing a black armband to school would be suspended.

“After that, we weren’t sure what to do. We had learned about the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment in school, and we felt free speech should apply to us too,” Tinker said.

She added that the young activists used the examples of civil rights protesters as their models for the courage needed to proceed.

Four decades later students think of the Tinkers as models of courage too. IHSPA student officers instantly named Tinker as their top choice for a speaker at this year’s First Amendment Symposium.

Although she is a full-time registered nurse in Washington D.C., Tinker still works for peace and rights for young people.

And that leads to the best part of the voice message—that she will speak at this year’s symposium. For more information about this event contact Diana Hadley. There is no registration or fee, but knowing the number of people who plan to attend helps us plan.

What Makes A 'Complete' Yearbook?

It’s that time of year when the IHSPA tide is going out and coming in at the same time. The mail service delivers yearbook critiques from the judges, and I send newspapers to be judged.

As I tabulate the results I like to see that Indiana publications score well with national judges; and I scan critique comments to get an idea of trends and priorities.

It’s a good time of year to emphasize a judge’s note on a critique I received this week. He reminded the staff that a yearbook has three vital functions. It should be a memory book, a history book, and a record book. A yearbook that isn’t all of these things may not receive the highest rating, but even more important—it may not meet the “test of time” and thus fail to provide its audience and the school with a valuable resource.

At many schools the yearbook may be the only place to locate information about athletic team records, school traditions, and curricular and facility changes.

I attended a meeting where people thought their local high school’s first football team was in the 1940s until I showed them a 1908 yearbook with a football team picture.

Looking through old yearbooks also provides historical links to the present…and new story ideas. For example, many schools are challenged to sell ads during a recession, and some are struggling to keep programs as the corporation tries to find ways to cut costs. Students from older schools may look through the yearbook archives and find that yearbooks weren’t published some years during the 1930s and 40s due to the economic challenges of the depression and World War II.

Despite the positive feedback from judges about last year’s publications, it’s also that time of year when advisers tell me their staffs have the “doldrums.” The fun of creating the theme and covering the first events of the school year evolves into a task that seems too big to finish in the days that remain. That’s because it’s a big job. It’s not easy to provide the primary memory, history, and record of the school year, but it’s still important and appreciated, and Indiana staffs have a tradition of dong it well.

Let us know how IHSPA can help as you continue the second half of this effort.

Note: Click Here to see the latest yearbook and newspaper Hoosier Stars. Scroll down on the IHSPA Home page to see these winning publications.

Mary Beth Tinker In Our House

It’s a big news day. Mary Beth Tinker is coming to “our house”—the Indiana Statehouse when we celebrate the First Amendment at the third annual symposium March 3!

It is impossible to bury the lead when a Tinker kid can share her experience with us on the 40th Anniversary of the Tinker vs. Des Moines Supreme Court Decision. Although Mary Beth has a full-time job as a nurse, she is arranging her schedule to speak to us because she knows how important it is to educate people about the First Amendment and inspire them to protect it.

A mailing went out today with information about deadlines for the symposium, newspaper Hoosier Star and Student Journalist of the Year. Some advisers already know the thrill of seeing their students recognized in the beautiful North Atrium of the Indiana Statehouse. We hope everyone will encourage their students to participate in the contests for that kind of experience.

Check out the information about this year’s symposium essay contest and the First Amendment Project competition in the mailing or on the IHSPA Web site. Although the event is free and requires no registration it is helpful to know how many people to expect.

I hope you will call or e-mail me with the number attending and any questions you have about the contests or parking at the Statehouse at:

dhadley@franklincollege.edu office phone: 317.738.8199 or cell phone: 317.341.4360