Field trip to PCN office scheduled...now what?

What could more exciting to a group of high school aged, young adults than a trip to the local newspaper?

Watching water drip from a faucet comes to mind. Listening to Grandpa snore would be an option. What about the rip-roaring good time known as insurance seminars?

The list goes on and on, but when Malta High School’s Ashley Pankratz -- who teaches English and Creative Writing -- asked if she could bring a group of students to the offices of the Phillips County News, who was I to say “it will bore them to tears?”

On March 20, these students -- who are on the high school newspaper staff -- will visit our office and because my ego is too big (and I figured I could figure something out to make their visit interesting) I am now left with the task of deciding what I will do that day to show these students the wonders of journalism. So far, my biggest, brightest idea, is to put them to work stuffing Albertsons inserts to North 40 inserts.

Brilliant! Talk about “wow-factor,” eh? I can almost hear all those applications to J-School being signed.

It’s not like the good old days of newspaper creation where I could show the students how to set type, take them into the darkroom to develop some photos and then let them watch as we run the huge spools of paper through the press to see the finished product.

The fact of the matter is when I’m not out reporting, I’m sitting in front of my computer doing all the above mentioned, old-time, activities on expensive software. While technology has made creating a newspaper a lot easier, it is also made boring to watch.

Media pundits and “experts” are always crowing about how young adults don’t read newspapers. I know that isn’t the case in Phillips County as the teens I know often talk to me about the stories in the pages of this paper -- typos and all. This will be a great opportunity to show these youngsters that the Fourth Estate is alive and well in their hometown ... hope I don’t blow it.

I suppose my first course of action is to ask them if they have any questions about journalism and newspapers. When those 10-minutes have expired, I will let them watch Pierre type in the school menu.

Sheesh.

I look forward to hosting these folks on that Friday, I just hope I don’t send them kicking and screaming into the street, bored to death.

Have some thoughts on what I can do to make the day stimulating? Send them to [email protected].

Mahalo and Aloha.