When I first started teaching at Palo Alto High School in 1984, the journalism program was small like most high school journalism programs. I taught three levels of English and journalism, a typical assignment for a new teacher. I remember being exhausted most of the time and sick every other week. Back then, I used a typewriter and a ditto machine to make copies every morning. My hands were permanently stained with purple dye from the ditto masters. I do not recall those days fondly; they were long hard days. Rather I remember how excited I was the arrival of my first computers in 1988 -- six Apple Macintoshes. The computer changed my life and changed the way I teach. I still have my first Apple Macintosh hidden away in a safe place in the closet.

Today the journalism program has grown into a very large media program involving four teachers, six publications and 400 kids. It is the largest high school journalism program in the country and all the publications can be found online at http://voice.paly.net. All the students are taking the classes as electives, not as requirements. We have Beginning Journalism, Newspaper Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Sports Magazine Journalism, Web Journalism and Television Journalism. Getting to this place was not easy and teachers trying to set up programs like this in their schools should know the problems they may encounter.

The Right Teacher

The first problem is finding a qualified teacher. Most teachers of journalism programs are English majors and new teachers who know nothing about journalism. New journalism teachers can find help and support at a variety of Web sites including Journalism Education Association (JEA),
J-Ideas, Texas Association of Journalism Educators (an amazing resource), National Scholastic Press Association and Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Financing

Second, is the financial aspect of the program. Setting up a school Web site is basically free. There are no paper costs and no circulation costs. In fact, school Web sites can make money for the school by using Google ads on their pages. The Palo Alto High School Web site is an excellent example. The Web site, know as Voice, is run by and written by students and has Google ads. The ads are relevant to the content of the site and are not flashing or offensive.

Involving Community

If schools want to set up a newspaper, it can be much more expensive than a Web site or television because of the ongoing paper costs today. The American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) encourages a great Web site with supporting materials for administrators and teachers. It can be found at www.HighSchoolJournalism.org and makes setting up a program easier. When I was re-conceptualizing the student newspaper at Palo Alto High School back in the 1980s I decided to get the community businesses involved. The paper provided an inexpensive way for businesses to advertise and to reach the parent community. They became long term supporters of the school paper and continue to help pay the publishing costs. Getting the community involved also made them feel a part of the school and conversely made the students and parents loyal customers of the advertisers.

Free Speech

The third obstacle to setting up a good program is administrative fear of what the students will write about. We need to remind ourselves that this country was born out of a need for freedom of speech. It is part of our heritage and ingrained in the fabric of society. To restrict teenagers from expressing themselves until they are out of school is failure to teach them how to be active, participating citizens in a democracy. Students need to practice to learn and schools need to train them for active participation in a democracy.

High schools today need journalism programs more than ever. They provide real world skills by integrating the curriculum in exciting and on-going project based learning.

Thomas Jefferson said back at the founding of the country: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter..."

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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