Anna Kaiser knows about adults not appreciating her work. Once, she worked on a story about teacher salaries for The Blotter, her school's publication at New Albany High School.
She later received a personal e-mail from a school board member accusing her of bias after the article ran. Not only that, the member accused her of poor writing.
But this week, Kaiser worked on a paper outside of her high school. She and her colleagues wrote, reported, shot photos and designed by themselves with more freedom and pressure then most high school students experience.
The Ball State Daily News ran a workshop called the DN Experience, a new workshop for Ball State University's Department of Journalism that had high school students work for a college paper. Out of 290 students at the journalism department's workshops, 17 of them worked for the paper.
And it's great these students had a chance to work in an environment that enables them to perform without adult supervision. Students edit students at the Daily News, and the adviser offers advice when the students ask for it.
At some high schools adults can restrict what the students work on and write. Sometimes they might check for libel or misquotes, but at the professional level, these students won't have adults guiding them in the right direction.
Daily News adviser Vince Filak said he remembered having the idea for the workshop after he surveyed high school principals, who had little regard for student journalists' freedom of speech.
So, he wanted to put advanced students into our professional atmosphere to prepare them for college. Because, how can readers expect responsible journalism if someone doesn't give them the responsibility to practice it.
"Treating them like children makes them act like children," Filak said.
Soon, their student colleagues will guide them in the right direction on a story. But for the time being, they need to realize what it's like to have more journalistic freedom.
So far, the results have been tremendous. These young journalists have worked on stories with responsibility.
Isn't it amazing how well students work when they have a significant stake in what the outcome will be?
They've done all the work under conditions a Daily News staff member would see during the year; they even have some classes during the morning. Also, they delt with closer deadlines and had problems reaching sources like any Daily News staffer.
It's a shame they could only put out one issue of the paper, but they not only created good clips, but also had experiences they could take to other publications.
And they've learned what it takes to practice First Amendment rights. It lets them see the amount of responsibility needed to work in a newsroom where the standards are high, but someone isn't around all the time.
Once the students finish the experience, they will walk out of this newsroom with more confidence and skills. They'll know what it took to run a paper without adults eyeing every detail of a story.
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