Expanding the Culture of Publication & Connecting Students to a Statewide Audience

Five years ago, when I became the advisor for our school’s student newspaper, the Chronicle, I discovered the cause that will define my career: working to sustain Vermont’s vibrant civic culture by empowering student journalists.

The Chronicle is more like a sports team than an academic class. My students, motivated by their shared purpose and accountable to a real audience, push each other to excellence. They’ve covered serious issues in our community, sometimes holding our school’s leadership to account, embodying John Dewey’s conception of democracy as an active habit of civic engagement. Their reporting has clear civic value: every citizen benefits when young people are heard.

Student journalism empowers students, enriches our civic culture and supports the individualized, project-based learning Vermont has committed to pursue, yet many schools have abandoned their school newspapers. I believe we’re only scratching the surface of what student journalists can achieve in Vermont.

My fellowship will pursue two projects. First, I’ll work with my colleagues to make U-32 a model for what I call a “culture of publication”: encouraging teachers across disciplines to find authentic audiences for their students’ work and exploring ways to use published student work as a resource for classroom teaching.

My second project will be to work with VTDigger to connect Vermont’s student journalists with a statewide audience. This will take the form of a digital platform, embedded on the VTDigger website, with resources for students and teachers to guide their work toward publication. Ultimately I hope to develop a dual enrollment workshop course, conducted through live web conference, giving every student across the state the opportunity to pursue journalism. Please help spread the word about these exciting opportunities.

I see student journalism as a civic mission. Today’s young Vermonters are more aware and more eager to engage than at any time since the 1960’s. We need to work harder to include them, not just as children to be taught, but as coequal partners in the effort to restore our civil discourse.