Middle-schoolers ask intelligent questions about news reporting

It's not often I have the opportunity to talk to students about the life of a newspaper reporter, and to encourage them to follow a similar career path.

So, it was a privilege to participate in Bernotas Middle School's first-ever Journalism Day last week.

Meeting young students who are trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives is a fun and educational experience for all parties involved. I learned what eighth-graders thought about journalism, and they found out about the nitty-gritty side of newspaper reporting.

Reporters from area newspapers spoke to each class for about 15 minutes at a time.

The students -- though some looked like they had just rolled out of bed, as did I -- asked very wide-ranging questions, from "What's the most dangerous situation you have been in?" to "Do you drink lots of coffee, and what's your favorite kind?"

For a group of youngsters to function and pay attention as intently as the students at the Crystal Lake school did for each of my 15-minute sessions was fantastic. The students were respectful and asked all kinds of thoughtful questions that I had not encountered in my journalism career thus far.

In particular, the students were extremely interested in the writing process, and how a story moves from an initial idea to a front-page story in the next day's newspaper. From rewrites and editing to setting the stories out on the page, the work involved seemed "cool" to many of the students.

It reminded me of how I first got hooked.

In the third or fifth grade, my class took a tour of the Sydney Morning Herald newsroom and printing press (I'm from Australia).

We learned about the 5 Ws and H and the inverted pyramid, and then watched the printing press spit out hundreds of newspapers in seconds flat. From that point on, I wanted to be a reporter. Journalism seemed a fitting career for someone who enjoyed writing, liked to talk to people, loved learning new things and topics and had an inquisitive mind.

Despite the Bernotas students' interest in the behind-the-scenes workings of a newspaper, very few actually read the paper online or in print, which of course was disheartening for me.

There are many, many benefits to reading the newspaper -- from improving reading skills to learning about the world around you.

To be a well-informed individual, it is crucial to know what's going on outside of your insulated box.

If more students became interested in how the newspaper is put together, then perhaps more young people would want to pick up the printed version of the newspaper and read it.

I would like to thank Scott Dalzell and the other teachers who invited me out to talk about my job.

The only down side of the day was that it was cut short after a student pulled the fire alarm, and students, teachers and visitors spent about 45 minutes in the cold.

I would have liked to have spoken to all of the students, but the stunt ruined a very useful and informative day.

• Larissa Chinwah covers Carpentersville, East Dundee and West Dundee. To reach her, call (847) 931-5722, or e-mail lchinwah@ dailyherald.com.