He reminded people: “Share everything. Play fair. Clean up your own mess. Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody. When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all — LOOK.”

This spawned spin-offs such as “All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From Star Trek” which reminded us that “Non-interference is the Prime Directive. Humans are highly illogical. Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting; it is not logical but it is often true. When going out into the Universe, remember: ‘Boldly go where no man has gone before!’ ”

Or “Everything I Need To Know In Life I Learned From Watching ‘Star Wars’” which reminded us “Use the force. No matter how many people you kill or how many galaxies you destroy, one good deed can make up for everything. No matter where you are or what you’re doing, someone is going to have a bad feeling about it. Do or do not. There is no try.”

Or even “All I Need To Know About Life I Learned From My Dog” that reminded us: “Run, romp, and play daily. Be loyal. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t pout – run right back and make friends.”

The list could go on and on, but you get the idea. Look them over. Such wisdom shouldn’t be left in the ’80s.

Now, I’ve been Mac loyal since about five years after my dad brought home a Macintosh from Motorola to play with back in the holiday season of 1985, I think. It was a cute “toy.” Complete with MacWrite, MacDraw, MacPaint, a floppy disk drive and a black-and-white monitor, who would need more. Ha. I purchased an IBM PC-XT. It had a real keyboard.

Sooner rather than later, I came around. I’ve been Mac loyal since. Plug and play. I love it.

But with Snow Leopard, gone is AppleTalk. Now, I can’t just plug in my HP LaserJet 5000 printer connected by Ethernet and “go.” After 30 minutes of setting the IP address on the printer (geez), my Add Printer bar is still spinning. (Geez2.)

What was wrong with plug and play? Us users sure loved it.

But what happens when that respect isn’t returned?

I’m a big believer that respect is earned.

So what happens when, not matter what a teacher does to show the concern and respect for the students, that respect isn’t returned?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve come to the conclusion that you just have to take the high road. The only person you can change in this world is yourself. So, by taking the high road and doing what’s right — because it’s the right thing to do — will either give the students the opportunity to earn respect or it won’t. Can’t change the students.

And if they don’t, try to minimize the damage done in the short-term and wait for the long-term.

Amen.

It’s this thinking that will keep newspapers alive for a long time to come.

The regional newspapers such as the Boston Globe, the Raleigh News & Observer, the Durham Herald-Sun, the Austin American-Statesman, those are the papers that are in real trouble. They’re too big to cover local news and too small to cover national events. Plus, readers get their national and international news from television and the Internet. Forget that.

Cover the local stuff.

All politics is local, former House Speaker Tip O’Neill said. So is news. Cover the city council and the impact it is having on gardening by individuals. Cover the school board and the teacher layoffs. Cover the local transit authority and how they decide which potholes to fix first. Cover the high-school football team’s season. Those are the stories that impact people on a daily basis. That’s news.

And it’s that kind of news that will keep newspapers alive for a long time to come.

For a related story from NPR.org, CLICK HERE.

Kate Parry, Minneapolis Star Tribune. Photo by Bradley Wilson

When Kate Parry of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune spoke at the opening of the ACP Summer Journalism Workshop at the University of Minneapolis, she spoke of the seduction of journalism and how addictive journalism is. I agree. 

But more importantly, Parry talked about how journalism is the voice of those whose voice is missing in society. Ordinary journalism, she said, leaves out great swaths of society. “We have an obligation to the voiceless people in our society.”

And she challenged reporters to ask whose voice is missing every time they generate story ideas, every time they critique the paper, and every time they look at the Web site. On a college campus, she challenged college journalists to ask “who is invisible in your campus conversation.” For example, on our campus, we know we fail to cover students in the College of Engineering and, notably, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences consistently. They are invisible in our publications on a regular basis.

She also challenged every reporter and photographer to get out of the office and to find out what the readers view as their most important problem, what issues they want to read more about. Just get out and ask: What’s important to you? 

After all, isn’t that what journalism — and reporting — is supposed to be? What is important to readers? Let’s all make it our challenge this year to find out and then to report on those topics instead of the routine and the same stuff we report on every year.

We decided that it’s best not to let the computers get the best of you when learning new stuff. Computers weren’t designed to make life easier; they were designed to do repetitious and arduous tasks.

Thanks to Greg, Jan, Sue, Josette, Jessica and Jim, here’s our list of five things to keep in mind.

1. Be patient.
2. Take small steps that lead to larger ones.
3. Get your hands dirty. Get in and play in the software.
4. Repeat the process. Produce one-page fliers, programs, posters, anything to get in there to use the skills.
5. Utilize your resources, handouts, books and other students/advisers.

I was also impressed with their work ethic. Sometimes, high school students whine about having work to do in the summer at workshops. These students didn’t. In fact, they wanted more work. That bodes well for their scholastic programs.

However, this class, like many over the years, suffered from ADD. After they got the stories and photos on the page, they were done. They didn’t take the time to polish, to line things up, to check spelling, to make little changes that make a big difference. Their lack of willingness to polish is indicative of high school and college students today. Good enough is good enough.

But in the real world, that’s not good enough. I hope over the years, their advisers will take the time to help them polish the pages, check spelling, look for inconsistencies in spacing or font choice or rule-line width. Pay attention to the smallest details.

That goes for the photographers who need to work on cropping, color correction and even the proper grammar, spelling punctuation in their captions. That goes for the reporters who need to work on avoiding passive voice  and getting a variety of sources in their stories. And that goes for editors who need to develop leadership skills, push their staff members to achieve more and to cover their campus community fairly, accurately and with the richness in diversity it warrants.

The adviser is a coach. Artwork by Kevin Necessary.

Adviser — an educator who advises students in academic and personal matters. An expert in a particular field of knowledge. The adviser walks a fine line between leading the organization and giving the organization the strength to lead itself. The adviser is an integral part of the organization. The adviser is probably the only individual with the history, the big picture and the experience.

As advisers, we emphasize teamwork. Just as a quarterback can’t lead a team with no other players on the field and no championship basketball team will win with only one player, producing publications is a team effort, photographers, designers, reporters, copyeditors and editors working together. As advisers, we avoid the prima donnas (those who are egotistical, unreasonable and irritable, with a rather high opinion of themselves not shared by others) and emphasize the teamwork.

As advisers, we foster communication. We provide information, present alternatives, encourage responsibility, support creativity and challenge students. None of that can happen without regular, frequent, open and honest communication — in both directions.

As advisers, we stress meeting deadlines. Time management is a challenge for students who need to learn to balance their academic lives, their personal lives and their role in the media. For time management and learning to meet deadlines are skills that go beyond the classroom or newsroom.

Advisers, we push for excellence. Most students, especially those without much prior media experience, have no idea what a quality publication is, and there are fewer and fewer great publications out there to serve as role models. Chances are, they aren’t even consumers of the mass media. So we have to teach them high standards in everything from cropping photos to writing leads to using white space appropriately to avoiding use of anonymous sources to maintaining high ethical standards. Just as a coach pushes students to achieve more and to raise their standards, advisers push and push for better and better.

As advisers, we provide information, present alternatives, encourage responsibility, support creativity. We challenge our students to develop as leaders. We push students to learn from their mistakes, to learn from the past, and not to repeat the mistakes of the past, constantly producing better media outlets that serve the communities they cover. It’s all a part of leadership.

As advisers, we are role models, through our words and actions. Like all good leaders, an adviser’s ethical and professional behavior all leave a strong impression on students, as does their attitude toward work habits, including meeting deadlines and achieving excellence.

As advisers, we know there is no good way to summarize what we do on a daily basis, especially when dealing with media as varied as yearbooks, video outlets, radio stations, weekly newspapers, literary magazine and/or daily newspapers.

Certainly, as advisers, we know advising isn’t easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

CLICK HERE for a great article by the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy.