In case anyone missed it, our Deputy Editor, Richard Just, had an opinion piece in Saturday’s Post about the challenges currently facing high school journalism. It reminds me: Back in my days as a high school newspaper columnist, when I wasn't penning columns about the "exhorbitant" price of cafeteria popcorn chicken (and that's how the editors spelled exorbitant in the headline), I once found myself subject of a “talking to” by the assistant principal for having potentially libeled the members of the committee advocating grade-weighting, all of whom were parents of honors students, as self-interested. My entire argument against grade-weighting (quite counterintuitive, in TNR style, as I was myself an honors student) was premised on a single source--my father's friend, who was president of admissions at a college in Pennsylvania. He reneged under pressure from the angry parents, admitting that maybe grade-weighting wasn't such a bad idea. The memory still rankles! Both the assistant principal and I, it seems, could have used some of Richard’s advice.
Anyway, it's a great piece, so read it when you have a chance.
--Ben Crair