It has been many months since my last post here, and reading my last account of the year's plans is nostalgic. John led the club through one print edition and resigned. Then all the other members of the club stopped coming, and the other officers resigned. I thought it was probably the end of Journalism at ACHS, since all we had was a student-led club and no students.
Before I recount the rest of the history, I should note the stated reasons for the former members' desertion: John said that he couldn't succeed because of the apathy of the members and that the pressure to raise money as well as get the stories written was too much. He just didn't think he could do it, and he had a lot of other activities that took up his time. One other officer hung around for a few weeks, saying that she felt honor bound to pay the printing bill for that first print edition, but then before long she too had quit.
I examined my conscience, of course. Did I fail them in some way? Could a better adviser have energized the club? I keep coming back to the fact that clubs are student-driven, so if there is little or no interest in the club it won't succeed. I do fault myself for allowing them to print a paper without the funds to pay the bill, a move I had previously said I would never do again. They seemed so sure! And, the ASB adviser had been encouraging when I spoke to her about funding the paper.
With no members, the club probably should have simply stopped operating. What to do about the debt? Instead, I made a list of all the ways I could recruit new membership and proceeded to do them all. I found four very strong students who wanted to make it work. All four were in my Humanities 10 classes. Then, a fellow teacher asked if we would be willing to do a bilingual paper, with his Spanish for Spanish Speakers class. I said yes, of course. He brought some 10 students into the club and we were back in business.
This idea does energize the group. And they are all great kids. That was December, however, and not one of them has written anything yet! They are all completely raw recruits, so we spend our meeting time getting them some information about how to interview, how to structure a story, story ideas, and technical matters. All this, and no stories.
Every week I wonder if I should tell the principal I am no longer earning my stipend. Every week we continue to talk about how we could be a bilingual news source, connecting our Spanish-speaking community with the mainstream.
We know we have to pay off that old debt. We are planning to sell T-shirts. We have a small amount of money from dues and old T-shirts. The kids talk about selling ads, but if we don't have stories, how can we promise to show ads to anybody!?
This is hard. I've already told my principal that I would be willing to turn over the adviser position if he finds a new teacher qualified for it, since he is hiring for next year. With my retirement looming (in two years), I could be around to answer questions if somebody took over now. I suspect that a more enthusiastic teacher might help the students to build their enthusiasm, so I am working to keep my own energy positive.
The year is getting pretty far advanced now to expect something to happen, but we will persist. I think the kids are learning some lessons of journalism, so that is a good thing, even if we are unable to publish a credible product. Right?
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