Perspective Dont teach journalism by censoring
students By JOHN L. ALLEN
JR.
Recently I came across an article about the efforts of Jesuit Fr.
Lawrence Biondi, president of St. Louis University, to rein in the
universitys student newspaper. The University News had criticized
Biondis decision to put the SLU hospital on the auction block and had
lampooned a fawning tribute to him in the alumni magazine. Biondi then
demanded, and got, control of the process by which its editor is selected.
My reaction at the time was a resigned so what. As a former high
school newspaper advisor myself, I know this kind of thing to be standard
operating procedure at schools, both Catholic and public, at all levels. Page
through the journal of the Student Press Law Center, a Washington-based
advocacy group for student journalists, and youll see scores of similar
cases of censorship, intimidation and bullying every issue.
I was prepared to let the Biondi news pass as just more of the
same. But a couple of days ago, I got a call from a former students whos
now working toward a journalism degree at the University of Southern
California. Even in high school she was a talented, tenacious reporter, and
Im sure well be seeing her byline on some major stories in the
years to come.
We reminisced about the fun of late nights with all the student
editors, putting out the paper, eating junk food and exploring which corners of
the school seemed spookiest after dark.
We also swapped memories of slugging it out with the
administration over several censorship battles. She reminded me, with gentle
good humor, that halfway through her senior year I resigned and moved on to
other things, leaving her and her fellow editors to fight on alone.
Our conversation renewed the nagging sense of guilt I have always
felt about that act of desertion, however justified it may have been under the
circumstances. Consider these comments, therefore, a payment on an old
debt.
Heres what I have to say to the Biondis of the world: If
youre going to have a newspaper in your school, let it act like a
newspaper. To have a newspaper and censor it or to expect the students to
censor themselves is both immoral and poor educational practice.
Censorship tells kids we want mediocrity, not excellence. The
better journalists students become, the more they probe, question and speak
out, and the more likely an administrator is to snap them back. Ask student
editors, and theyll tell you: We could produce meaningless drivel, and no
one would care. Its when we put out good, provocative journalism that we
get called on the carpet.
Is this really what we want kids to learn in our schools -- to
shut up and stay out of trouble?
Censorship also sends the message that lying is OK when adults do
it. However you slice it, calling something a newspaper but refusing to let its
editors act like journalists is a lie, and schools tell that lie all the
time.
Censorship is also, of course, poor teaching. What coach fields a
football team but refuses to let his kids run the ball? What debate coach
refuses to let her kids argue? If you dont allow students to test their
skills against real world standards, youre not serving them well.
Some defend censorship by arguing that kids need limits. Yes --
the limits of good journalistic practice. They need to write stories that are
accurate, fair, balanced and non-libelous. They need to write editorials that
are well-researched and well-argued. They need to be held accountable when they
dont. What they do not need is to be hemmed in by the shifting boundaries
of administrative convenience.
Others might argue that Im stirring up a tempest in a
teapot, that the fate of school newspapers is not that important in the total
sweep of things. Wrong. We tell students to take their education seriously, to
care about it, to believe that it matters. We must not undercut that message by
allowing a school administration to distort the learning process in order to
serve its own ends.
Moreover, by not helping students learn to act as responsible,
independent journalists, we miss an invaluable opportunity to train the next
generation of media professionals. This is an especially acute point in an era
of widespread concern about the quality of mainstream journalism.
Despite all the reasons why I think schools should have student
newspapers -- because they teach the craft of journalism, because they serve
the school community by raising important issues, and because they give kids
invaluable experience in writing, editing and thinking -- if administrators
dont want the hassle, my suggestion is simple: Dont call something
a newspaper if thats not what you intend it to be.
Instead, call your program public relations and tell
the kids up front that they are to act as a mouthpiece for the administration,
not to think and speak for themselves. At least such an approach has the virtue
of honesty.
If youre uncomfortable doing that, then dont have a
newspaper at all. The school will survive.
Administrators, dont think that if students and advisors
havent said anything to you, that they arent churning over
censorship. Frankly, theyre probably afraid of you. They figure they just
have to take it.
Do they?
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR opinion editor. He can be reached
at jallen@natcath.org.
National Catholic Reporter, October 16,
1998
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