Fern Valentine, JEA’s 2023 Carl Towley Award recipient, gave the following speech during the Adviser Awards Luncheon at the 2023 NHSJ Fall Convention in Boston on November 9.
Learn more about Fern Valentine’s amazing career in scholastic journalism here.
Receiving this award leaves me amazed and honored. When you are just a month away from turning 90, you consider yourself to be a has-been, and in many ways, I am. Since I have been retired for 30 years, journalism classes today are very different than mine were. When I first started advising, computers were not available, and my students certainly didn’t have cell phones. Yearbooks and newspapers were the only school media, and magazine shapes existed because that was the only size paper school print shops could employ. Our layout was done on sheets of paper tacked down to bread boards with stories and photos run through hot wax machines before they were pasted down. Headlines were done using rub off letters, and we had a supply of exacto knives to replace misspelled words by cutting correctly spelled one from old layouts. Photos were developed in a janitor’s closet, and surely the fumes would be considered toxic today.
However, some things never change. We teachers always want our students to learn as much as possible. I truly believe students in media classes learn far more when they are the ones in charge of its content. Our title of adviser defines our role. I believe we can advise our students about sources to check, help them decide questions to ask and provide an environment where they feel part of something important. As the provider of media their audience needs for news and entertainment, they learn unique teamwork and leadership skills.
The topics of interest and methods to display it may change, but the opportunity to learn doesn’t. Students in media classes do research by interview as well as by internet. They learn to seek out people who have the information they need to bring a story to life, but also they face these sources one-on-one and ask the important questions needed. Certainly, journalism students are more informed consumers of media no matter what career they choose.
Schools love to say they are teaching students sellable skills. School media is a wonderful example of those skills. Students work as a team to produce a product of interest to their audience within a budget and a deadline. What other class does that?
As English teachers, we are in charge in other classes, and our students may explore literature or learn grammar or punctuation rules and how to avoid passive voice. Photography teachers teach the skills needed to make photos live; although students now learn them without dark rooms full of the smelly solutions my students endured.
However, student media where the students are in charge and the teacher just an adviser are classes where their language and photography skills are more important to them because they know the whole school will see what they produce. A media class with the teacher in charge may avoid passive voice and have perfect grammar and proper punctuation, but it robs students of this opportunity to learn the most possible, every teacher’s goal.
My working for Student Free Speech after retirement was applauded. Quite frankly it was easier after retirement. My children were adults. I no longer had ungraded essays and lesson plans waiting, and my wonderful husband had long ago made his peace with my being off to battle windmills again. I was free to work on long-term goals like getting New Voices legislation passed in Washington state. That battle only took 31 years. I was free to attend conventions like this without students to chaperone. I could teach at workshops and work with wonderful friends and colleagues promoting the cause I hold most dear. Although my active participation is less after 50 years, 30 of which were after retirement, I treasure the friendships and sense of purpose this cause has given me. The very fact that you are here shows you are seeking ways to learn more about advising or ways to help your colleagues learn. Seek a mentor or become one.
Find ways to improve your program and show off its excellence. If your students win prizes here or at state contests, ask to be on your school board’s agenda. Show off that your students are recognized statewide and nationally. Take the certification tests and hang the certificate in your classroom showing you are a nationally certified journalism educator or, better yet, a master journalism educator. This credibility will keep programs going and attract students who want to excel. Everybody loves a winning team.
I can’t tell you how satisfying it has been to see the teaching and learning going forward. The challenges and opportunities are very different today, but the goals are the same. You help the students learn important lessons they will use all their lives. Thank you all for recognizing that instead of a has-been, I am a once-was and for a few days maybe a still-am.