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A journalism association works to strengthen a tenuous but invaluable resource.
Not long ago in The New York Times, foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman paid homage to Hattie M. Steinberg, his high-school journalism teacher. "I took her intro to journalism course in 10th grade, back in 1969, and have never needed, or taken, another course in journalism since," the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner wrote. "She was that good."
Friedman is among the legions of newspaper folk who say their passion for journalism was sparked in high school. Yet the leaders of most scholastic journalism organizations say that despite some bright spots, high-school newspapers today are not in the best of health. It is estimated that 20 percent of high schools lack a student newspaper, most notably in urban areas and rural communities. At those schools where newspapers exist, the situation is often tenuous. Concerns abound about censorship, dwindling resources, veteran teachers who retire and are replaced by untrained newspaper advisers, scheduling of classes that makes it virtually impossible for students to take electives (such as courses in journalism), and the perception among some aspiring journalists and their advisers that the professional press is not interested in nurturing them.
With such circumstances at the highschool level, it's no wonder that newspaper editors lament the difficulty of finding and retaining staff and accredited university journalism programs scramble to get students into the print journalism track. "Teens who don't get exposed to hands-on journalism are being denied not only a potential career path, but also miss out on gaining a better understanding of the...