A group of grade six students at Point Cook’s Saltwater Primary School have recently begun a journalism class as one of their electives.
Wisely the class teacher Tammie Edie thought it’d be a great idea to get a real life reporter along to discuss the news business with them.
Unwisely, Ms Edie asked me; reporters at The Age, the Herald Sun and the ABC must’ve been busy.
We were supposed to discuss topics such as what it means to be a journalist, what makes a newsworthy story, the audience you are writing for, the writing process, interviewing and journalism ethics.
But with it being a large class and your erstwhile correspondent being fashionably late, we barely got through introductions.
The kids were enthusiastic and inquisitive though, which for journalism, is a pretty good start.
I brought along plenty of copies of the Wyndham Star Weekly to hand out which the kids gleefully accepted then looked at like they were historical artefacts displayed in a museum.
One girl said she recognised it because her grandmother read it.
Another student seemed amazed all the stories were written by me (it amazes me too).
They’re making a school paper and we discussed what topics their fellow students would be interested in, what information people want to know and what questions they need to ask to get it.
I then told them one of the most important things for a journalist was to be organised, following which I looked at the time and noticed I was late for another interview.
Thanks to Tammie Edie and students at Saltwater Primary for having me and hopefully I’ve inspired some of them to one day follow in my footsteps.
And be on time.
