Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy
Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy Fall 2005 PDF - Milton Academy
Journalism on CampusAt Milton, the student publicationsare as much a draw for student energy asever:• the number and diversity of publicationshas increased• entrepreneurial efforts at new publicationsregularly surface—some stay, somedisappear• online publications attract an audienceThe aspects of the field that are alluring,challenging, gratifying—the reasons studentsdevote passionate effort to publications—readslike a lexicon of the journalismwe remember, but whose essentialsmay be changing. Are students naïve, orhave they experienced a basic training thatwill anchor an ocean’s worth of changingcurrents in the years to come?Milton Measure and the Milton Paper arethe two major news journals on campus,and during their Class I year, members oftheir editorial boards live out an intensecommitment to the field. What do theirreflections on that leadership experiencereveal?Power attracts“I remember, in my Class IV year, MiltonPaper co-editor Charlie Riggs says, gettingthe Paper in the basement of Ware onFridays. This was one of the cooler institutionsat Milton, I thought—those werecool people, handing out the Paper, andthey seemed to know everything that wasgoing on, and have their own cool insidejokes about what they knew. Of course,now I see that as sort of self-indulgent, butat the time it made me want to be part ofthe whole thing.”“The work you do, for a high school student,”says Dan Corkum, co-editor of theMilton Measure, “is almost unnaturallyconsequential. When our first issuearrived at School—the stack of hundredsof papers—the sheer mass of them drovehome what we do.”“That really did hit home from the get-go,”Siobhan Atkins of the Measure agrees. Myfirst article was about how the non-facultystaff felt about working at Milton. I waspassionate about the subject and reallyliked my article; Mr. Pollans (historydepartment and Measure advisor) warnedthat I needed to be sure of my sourcesbecause the article would have a bigimpact. It did. I’ve written about lots ofissues like that one.”“If you have a complaint, you don’t feelhelpless,” Liz O’Neil, Measure editor,points out. “You can take on those substantiveissues that bother you; it’s theantidote to lethargy.”“I like when people say, ‘I’ve read about itin the Milton Paper,’ editorial board memberMolly Cohen says. From an overallsense of the pulse of the community, theeditors think it’s their job to get peopletalking about what’s important. “I like gettingreactions from people,” says AbbyPadien-Havens, also of the Milton Paper,“you know you have an effect on the community.”“Even if we don’t do it perfectly,”says Charlie, “we get people talking,because this is a small community.” Theeditors believe that faculty and studentsoften take the same position on an argument,but don’t “get it coordinated.” Bothgroups use the papers to back up whatthey think.Legacies are at work, as well: Numerousstudents on the two boards heard fromolder brothers and sisters that the papersStudent Journalists24 Milton Magazine
were what to get into at Milton. Many studentsadmired the people ahead of them:the style, dedication, awareness level andprominence of other editors in the Miltoncommunity. Sometimes the models hadeven greater stature. Noah Lawrence, Paperco-editor, aspires to the gravitas accordedWalter Lippmann’s comments, andadmires the trust Mr. Lippmann earnedfrom the public. All the students admirethe persuasive force of numerous op-edwriters from the New York Times, the L.A.Times and the Globe, as well as on the Web.“Arranging ideas”for the community“We have the potential to play the gadfly,like Socrates, ” says Noah, Milton Paper coeditor.“Loving it from the inside, youwant the School to be so perfect you endup criticizing it. Milton is a two-newspaperSchool; there are two response outlets.The Paper has to be responsible, but itshould urge creative, edgy conversation.Its editorials should unearth ideas peoplewould otherwise not think about. The editorsshould stake out a position on pricklyissues; you have to be very careful withthat and being careful takes energy. Ajournalist has to exist in a community,though. He’s working for something biggerthan himself. Journalism is a communityin conversation with itself. Becausethe Paper is weekly, it’s embedded in thefabric of the community.“We try to cover the facts, quickly,” Noahcontinues. When we do, it’s with the goalof starting the conversation about ‘whatshould happen next?’ When we reportedabout the end of ‘Dog Day’ (this Class Ispring tradition ended in 2005), we triedto ask, ‘Where do we go from here?’Because we’re a weekly, we can assignurgency to an issue, just by covering it.”“Because the Paper is the one thing thateveryone on campus reads,” Abby asserts,“it provides a common source of conversation.It does a good job of taking on theSchool, but we also tried to applaud theSchool when that was necessary. By beingbalanced, and serious, the Paper influencedthe School to take the steps to makesome changes.”Milton Measure co-editors from the Class of 2005 (left to right), Siobhan Atkins, Dan Corkum and Liz O’Neil.“The Measure, because it’s biweekly, hasthe time to think through issues. So we’reless about breaking news and more aboutreflection,” says Dan. When the headmonitor crisis happened last year, forinstance (a head monitor lost his positionin a disciplinary decision), the temptationwas to go the tabloid route—that wouldhave had more splash. We had to zoomout from the immediate, though, and findthe greater issue at stake. When things arewritten, they hang out there for two fullweeks,” he says. “We are responsible forsomething that is quite influential andlong-lasting.”“Our goal is not to personalize,” Siobhansays of the Measure. “It would have beeneasy this year to point blame for the lossof senior traditions, for instance. Evenwhen it’s hard to figure out the largerissue, we try to. We try not to point a fingerwithout suggesting a solution or adirection.” The Paper has done the samething this year.“The role of the Paper is to inform, toentertain, and to set the tone for discussions,”Charlie explains. “This is tough todo well,” Noah notes. “The fact that lots ofnews outlets pander to the people doesn’tlessen the importance of appealing to youraudience. It’s only a paper if people readit,” he adds. “The Paper is an institutionwith a great history,” says Charlie, “andfun, quirky traditions, but at this point inits trajectory it needed to raise its standardson reporting the news. The mark ofthis editorial board is in the news and editorials:we were more serious, more thorough,and we held ourselves and our staffmore accountable.”“We don’t feel that publishing the Measureis just another activity,” Liz says. “It’s consequential.I wrote, in Class III, an articleabout sexism I saw at that time amongcertain boys. I was held accountable forthat, and I still am, two years later. TheMeasure is an element of our culture, andwe cared about doing it right.”The hard parts of the jobCreating humorIs it the medium? Humor is an essentialingredient in a School newspaper; creatingit successfully is an intractably hard partof the job, claim the editors unanimously.Knowing what to laugh at, translating aconversational joke into parody or cartoon,achieving edginess along with balance,making people laugh without hurting anyone:these are challenges. They’re particularlydifficult when the “humor section”comes at the end of all the researching,writing, editing and layout. The humorsections are slipped in at the end, withurgency in the final minutes before printing,but in prime locations—so as toattract and entertain the audience.Training writers“Milton writers are some of the best you’llever find,” says Molly, “but while they’recomfortable with the five-point essay orshort story, news writing is a whole newgenre to them. There’s a real teachingrole.”25 Milton Magazine
- Page 3 and 4: 283440Journalism at Milton24 Studen
- Page 6 and 7: One piece of AOL programming that h
- Page 8 and 9: puter) and read a piece. Bored? Pro
- Page 10 and 11: decrease in the amount spent on res
- Page 12 and 13: “The biggest change is corporatei
- Page 14 and 15: Jesse Sarles ’93“It’s a flexi
- Page 16 and 17: Felicia Taylor ’82Ned Roberts ’
- Page 18: “I don’t go through a lot of me
- Page 21 and 22: This summer, Peter was in the midst
- Page 23 and 24: Ty Burr ’76“On one level what I
- Page 25: Later, she enjoyed stints at Workin
- Page 29 and 30: Charlie Riggs, Abby Padien-Havens,
- Page 31 and 32: They say that the tough part was th
- Page 33 and 34: Co-editors of La Voz, 2005:Emma San
- Page 35 and 36: In its three to four annual issues,
- Page 37 and 38: 6 Sam Minkoff ’06 andJamal Sabky
- Page 39 and 40: Student graduation speakers Tanner
- Page 41 and 42: The Robert L. Daley PrizeCreated by
- Page 43 and 44: 1 Llewellyn Howland ’552 Derick F
- Page 45 and 46: 11 Robin Robertson with the MiltonM
- Page 47 and 48: The Head of SchoolMilton’s Magazi
- Page 49 and 50: I began to inventory the sensations
- Page 51 and 52: Hadley Davis Rierson ’89speaking
- Page 53 and 54: Emmy Norris is a prowler for “cul
- Page 55 and 56: A collection of symbols, none more
- Page 57 and 58: Middle School Tackles Complex Probl
- Page 59 and 60: Gratwick Performersdents prior to t
- Page 61 and 62: He changed his mind, though,soon mo
- Page 63 and 64: Creating Cityscapes:Third-grade stu
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- Page 67 and 68: Hugh R. SilbaughUpper School Princi
- Page 69 and 70: Academy. Jorge was singularlyfocuse
- Page 71 and 72: There are many variations foreach s
- Page 73 and 74: Class of 1950, front row (left to r
- Page 75 and 76: Class of 1955, front row (left to r
Journalism on CampusAt <strong>Milton</strong>, the student publicationsare as much a draw for student energy asever:• the number and diversity of publicationshas increased• entrepreneurial efforts at new publicationsregularly surface—some stay, somedisappear• online publications attract an audienceThe aspects of the field that are alluring,challenging, gratifying—the reasons studentsdevote passionate effort to publications—readslike a lexicon of the journalismwe remember, but whose essentialsmay be changing. Are students naïve, orhave they experienced a basic training thatwill anchor an ocean’s worth of changingcurrents in the years to come?<strong>Milton</strong> Measure and the <strong>Milton</strong> Paper arethe two major news journals on campus,and during their Class I year, members oftheir editorial boards live out an intensecommitment to the field. What do theirreflections on that leadership experiencereveal?Power attracts“I remember, in my Class IV year, <strong>Milton</strong>Paper co-editor Charlie Riggs says, gettingthe Paper in the basement of Ware onFridays. This was one of the cooler institutionsat <strong>Milton</strong>, I thought—those werecool people, handing out the Paper, andthey seemed to know everything that wasgoing on, and have their own cool insidejokes about what they knew. Of course,now I see that as sort of self-indulgent, butat the time it made me want to be part ofthe whole thing.”“The work you do, for a high school student,”says Dan Corkum, co-editor of the<strong>Milton</strong> Measure, “is almost unnaturallyconsequential. When our first issuearrived at School—the stack of hundredsof papers—the sheer mass of them drovehome what we do.”“That really did hit home from the get-go,”Siobhan Atkins of the Measure agrees. Myfirst article was about how the non-facultystaff felt about working at <strong>Milton</strong>. I waspassionate about the subject and reallyliked my article; Mr. Pollans (historydepartment and Measure advisor) warnedthat I needed to be sure of my sourcesbecause the article would have a bigimpact. It did. I’ve written about lots ofissues like that one.”“If you have a complaint, you don’t feelhelpless,” Liz O’Neil, Measure editor,points out. “You can take on those substantiveissues that bother you; it’s theantidote to lethargy.”“I like when people say, ‘I’ve read about itin the <strong>Milton</strong> Paper,’ editorial board memberMolly Cohen says. From an overallsense of the pulse of the community, theeditors think it’s their job to get peopletalking about what’s important. “I like gettingreactions from people,” says AbbyPadien-Havens, also of the <strong>Milton</strong> Paper,“you know you have an effect on the community.”“Even if we don’t do it perfectly,”says Charlie, “we get people talking,because this is a small community.” Theeditors believe that faculty and studentsoften take the same position on an argument,but don’t “get it coordinated.” Bothgroups use the papers to back up whatthey think.Legacies are at work, as well: Numerousstudents on the two boards heard fromolder brothers and sisters that the papersStudent Journalists24 <strong>Milton</strong> Magazine
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