There is no way around it. “The Weekly” needs to be a class. If it continues to not be a class, it will die.
No one on staff can really speak about when “The Weekly” was a class, but we have seen our staff shrink and issues decline. Slowly but surely, each position (not member, but position) has dwindled in meaning. We are still proud of what we get done as a newspaper, proud of the work that is put in, and proud of the rising ranks of “Weekly” members who show dedication and talent. However, in order to do right by these students, “The Weekly” needs to have the backbone of a class.
Ray Salazar, a CPS teacher and blogger, wrote in favor of linking newspapers to classes. “There’s no way a quality school newspaper can be consistently, thoughtfully published as part of a voluntary after-school club. (But if you’re doing it, let me know how,)” he wrote. “In a journalism class, we cover general reporting and editorial practices, and students can be held accountable for producing high-quality pieces.” Salazar explains that this model allows dynamic managing of the newspaper workload, especially as some students become second semester seniors.
“The Weekly” benefits from community and gathering. This has been partially replicated this year with weekly staff meetings at Monday lunch in the Humanities Center, but these are not super well attended and lack the organization of a class.
Our journalistic and writing skills as a newspaper are also in decline. This is partially the fault of our leadership’s lack of bandwidth and editing know-how, but also an unavoidable byproduct of not having a class with a curriculum and a present faculty instructor.
Our faculty advisors are wonderful and dedicated to “The Weekly.” This year we took the necessary step to establish bi-weekly meetings between them and the Editors-in-Chief but their presence should be felt and benefited from by the whole staff which is not feasible when “The Weekly” is a committee.
“The Weekly” realizes that the English department has been dealing with randomly plentiful hiring questions in recent years making it difficult to take on the exploration of a journalism class, which would possibly require a new hire. Still, we urge them to make time for this.
Though we are not experts in the new schedule, we suggest a part-time teacher could lead the class during an arts ensemble block or after school for a couple of days in each eight-day cycle. Or, it would not be ridiculous to make the class take up a letter block. Even if not every member of staff could be in the letter block class, having this time for at least some of the staff would be transformational for “The Weekly.”
A curriculum also exists for this class. The English Department has these resources and only needs a space and group to distribute them to.
“The Weekly” is not about to die, but, maybe worse, it has many years of weakening ahead. There is a clear solution possible to our issue. Parker needs to reinvest in student journalism.
