Imagine a quarter of the students of an 1,800-student suburban high school electing to take journalism and learning how to write. It sounds like fiction or some kind of exaggeration, but it is not. That is reality at Palo Alto High School, in Palo Alto, California.

Four hundred plus students are divided into six media outlets and four beginning journalism classes including a full sized newspaper, The Campanile; a news magazine, Verde; a sports magazine, Viking; a Web site, Voice; a literary magazine, Calliope, and a television broadcast program, InFocus. All the publications are consolidated on the Web site, Voice -- and most of the print publications have won major national awards for many years running.

The first question most people ask is why are all these teenagers electing to take journalism? What could be motivating all those kids at Palo Alto High to take a writing course? The answer is complex, of course, but the simple answer is freedom -- freedom to come up with their own story ideas and freedom from censorship. That is not to say they can publish whatever they want; they must conform to the laws governing the professional press. No obscenity, no libel, no promotion of illegal activities, but aside from that, they are free to pick their story ideas.

Respecting the First Amendment

Fortunately, the Palo Alto district administration has a healthy respect for First Amendment rights for students and so does the school administration and the advisers of the publications.

Sounds simple, you say. Don't all schools respect First Amendment rights of students?

Think again. In most states student ideas for stories are censored---- by the adviser and the principal. Laws even exist giving principals in most states the right to censorship. One is the Hazelwood decision passed by the Supreme Court in 1988 making it legal for school administrators to censor stories. Another case just last year was Morse v. Frederick that held that a school principal may restrict student speech as a school supervised event. In California, on the other hand, student rights are protected by Education Code Section 48907. But that is just in California. What about the rest of the nation?

Perhaps it is time to challenge these rulings as more than 50% of high school students in our fifty largest cities are dropping out before graduation, according to the Cities in Crisis report released in April, 2008. Maybe students are tired of being treated as second class citizens in public schools. Students need to relate to what they are learning and feel empowered and that is one of the keys to the Palo Alto journalism program. The empowerment comes through learning.

The Writing Process

All students in the program take an intensive beginning journalism class where they learn the journalistic writing styles as well as desk top publishing tools from Adobe. In that class students write ten assignments (news, features, sports, opinion, reviews) but they get no grade until they have revised their work so it is publishable. Then they get an A so they can make mistakes without the fear of getting a bad grade. All they need to do is revise. In the process of revising they learn both how to write and the importance of revision. They feel empowered when they know they can write well.

Real World Staffing and Skills

In the advanced journalism class students are organized into a learning community; there are editors, section editors, page editors, photographers, business staff, advertising staff, and graphics staff. They edit each others’ work and in doing so learn editing skills and writing skills.

All students are reporters and they work together to put out the publication. It is a team effort just like a sports team only this is an intellectual team of student journalists.

Keyword: Respect

Another aspect of the program that attracts students is the respect they gain from their peers and from the community for having produced the publication themselves. The advisers treat the students with respect and thus they are happy to be there and are proud of their work. At Paly (nick name for the school), there are now three additional journalism advisers: Paul Kandell, Ellen Austin and Mike McNulty. The philosophy of all the teachers in the program is respect for the students and belief that they can do good work if given the tools and the opportunity.

Teachers teach respect by showing respect. Doesn't it seem logical that people in general would flock to an opportunity where they can be respected and can have pride in their work? Students have the same psychological needs as adults and journalism programs in high school provide a natural opportunity for students to have these needs met. It would be great if more schools could encourage the development of journalism programs. Perhaps more students would feel connected.

Next, we'll talk to principals about the benefits of such a journalism program.

Esther Wojcicki is the driving force behind the development of Palo Alto High School’s award-winning journalism program - the largest high school journalism program in the country. She focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.

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