Talk about a teachable moment.
Over at Hillsborough High School, the principal stepped in to censor a story in the school’s newspaper. It had to do with achievement gaps on the FCAT among white, black and Hispanic students.
According to Hillsborough Principal William Orr, the content – a story and a chart — was inappropriate even though it was based on familiar enough data the federal government routinely publicizes under the No Child Left Behind Act. Orr felt that running the story wasn’t worth the possible impact on those students negatively characterized by the story and chart.
“If it’s something that has a potential to hurt students’ self-esteem, then I have an obligation not to let that happen,” explained Orr. “I don’t think it’s the job of the school newspaper to embarrass the students.”
There are several issues in play here.
First, the principal is the de facto publisher of a newspaper written by student journalists. (Since professional journalists have been known to screw up royally, the ultimate in adult supervision over teen scribe wannabes is an exercise in both prudence and common sense.)
The principal, not unlike real-world publishers, is responsible for what he signs off on. That can’t be delegated to a faculty adviser. There may be fact, libel or taste issues. There are inherently gray areas when it comes to appropriateness. The principal has the authority – and, indeed, the obligation – to make the call that is in the best interests of his institution. The Supreme Court has formally agreed.
Second, student self-esteem is not irrelevant. To not be sensitive to those in their impressionable years is to be ignorant of the maturation process and life in the peer-pressure lane. Having said that, however, self-esteem is not its own disembodied end; it’s a by-product of accomplishment – even a modest one such as grade-level reading and math. Arguably, feel-good curricula are part of the accountability problem in American education.
Third, of course it’s not “the job of the school newspaper to embarrass students.” But it is the school newspaper’s raison d’etre to be relevant – in general to the student body and specifically to the student journalists. These are not incompatible concepts.
But do keep in mind that we’re not talking about your parents’ school newspapers here. Today’s budding journalists are bombarded and immersed in media. The better ones are pretty savvy and no less idealistic than their predecessors. They are not satisfied with cafeteria surveys, boosterism stories, coach profiles, concert updates and sanitized Q&A’s with administrators. And they will push the envelope, because, well, that’s what teenagers do – let alone teens with ink by the barrel at their disposal.
It’s up to the adults in charge to channel student-journalists’ legitimate, real world concerns about drug use, bullying, birth control and FCAT obsession. Sure, it will involve the word “no” and censorship, but it also entails taking on important, albeit controversial, stories – and treating them responsibly.
One such is the appalling achievement gaps between white and minority students that still persist. It’s hardly unique to Hillsborough High. It remains an ongoing national disgrace more than half a century after Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for the entire country.
And if there’s any place where this subject should be part of the conversation it’s in the citadels of failure themselves. It’s the elephant-in-the-drawing room syndrome. Let’s just pretend that it’s not there. Or worse yet, let’s just accept that this is the way it is, a racial reality not unlike the composition of the basketball team.
It’s defeatist, insulting and, frankly, racist to not run a story this germane for fear of self-esteem fallout. Unless this is a story on eugenics, it needs to run and hopefully provoke a breach in the status quo .
The question never should have been: Do we censor this or not? It should have been: How good can we make this? As in: What kind of a black-white-Hispanic package – with salient side bars and pertinent profiles — do we want? What community resources should we avail ourselves of? How is Hillsborough High, whose enrollment is about 70 per cent minority, a microcosm of a seemingly intractable, self-perpetuating societal scandal?
And to cut to the scholastic chase, is academic achievement among some minorities still seen as “acting white?” If so, that self-inflicted heresy needs to be on public display for all of its counterproductive perversion.
And, sure, this approach won’t please everyone. That’s another journalistic lesson.