Why Journalism is the Best Class at Lakes

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Rieley Peak

Journalism Staff

Brookelle Barnes, Editor/Reporter

As an incoming Senior next year, I have been a part of Journalism for the last two years of school. You may be asking yourself, “Brookelle, how did you not get tired of Mr. Clark?” Well, sometimes I did. Yes, I did take Visual Communications my Freshman year, Journalism my Sophomore year, AND Journalism + Yearbook my Junior year (All taught by Mr. Clark himself). But to be honest with you all, Mr. Clark has changed my views on education as a whole. I would like to credit him as the reason I like the Journalism course so much, but of course he is not the only reason I have enjoyed this class so much.

Outside of Mr. Clark blasting the Beatles best hits, this class has not only helped my writing skills, but also urged me to look deeper into media and news. The power that media has on people, why we need to be informed, politically based news, biases, source citing, importance of grammar, understand the first amendment, but most importantly, the freedom to write anything you feel is important, relevant, or entertaining. One thing I’ve noticed while being in this class and looking at other news sites, people need good news just as much as they need to hear bad news. This class has fully extended this idea, as this is a student based class. I owe that to Mr. Clark for giving all of his students that creative freedom.

I recommend this class to people who want to further extend or improve their writing skills, anyone who has strong biases, or anyone who feels the need to speak out on a topic! This class has improved my writing, my social skills, and also gave me a sense of community while collaborating with other staff and students as well as other Journalism students. I would like to thank everyone who’s been a part of the Ledger these last couple of years and I would especially like to thank Mr. Clark for being such a supportive teacher and inspiring all of us to talk about things that are often overlooked.

This class will always have a special place in my heart. <3