This semester the ACHS Journalism Club has been focused on "going online," and the process has been educational. Jen Bellingham has learned the frustration behind the old lament, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." She has tried every trick we can think of to get the members to write their stories, but they just don't seem to be thirsty horses. Meanwhile, she has not posted any stories either! When I mention to her that she should lead by example, she tells me the challenges that have kept her stories from being posted. They are real. So are the challenges that each of the members of the club are facing.
As hard as all this has been, the learning curve for the designers in the club has also been steep. We are all learning together, since neither I nor my friend and club coach Jay Gamel know the ins and outs of Wordpress or the tricks behind our chosen theme, Sliding Doors. Yet, I do believe we're nearly ready to show our results to the world.
I'm feeling a bit schizophrenic at this point: one part of me thinks it is bizarre and unacceptable that we have not "published" anything this semester, and I'm embarrassed when I think about that; the other part of me thinks we are poised at the edge of a landmark achievement, which will turn out to be a spectacular addition to our school's publication/communication landscape. OK, the truth is somewhere between those extremes.
The schools sports teams, in only their second varsity season, have done extremely well, playing in postseason competition in four sports: golf, girls tennis, water polo, and football. We don't have a story about that!? I cannot believe that we cannot get this done. Now I'm thinking we need to cultivate a system of stringers to achieve something that deserves to be online. I don't know if anybody on campus will feel proud to put THAT on his or her resume, but I think it's worth a try.
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