The Washington times., 1922-04-09
NEWSPAPER WRITING ENCOURAGED in CAPITAL HIGH 81
TINE SET ASIDE
IN ENGLISH
CLASSES

Teachers Asked to Give Stu
dents Some Training In Writ
ing for Newspapers and
Magazines by Head Of Eng
lish Department.
BY EDWARD J. DUFFY.
AYEwSPAPER WRITING is
IN being encouraged in the
high schools of the Capital
by English teachers these days,
upon instruction from Sarah
Simons, head of the scholastic
English department.
Should any articles of merit
be judged worthy. The Times
school page will print the in'-
tial journalistic endeavors OF
students.
GOOD ENGLISH ESSENTIAL.
The use of colloquiai English
was encouraged by tho teachers,
who had for their aim the highest
standards of writing attained by
the modern newspapers.
Formation of Journalism classes
IN different schools has been en-
couraged lately by Enuglish de-
partments OF American schol sys-
TENS, as the American type OF
newspaper work is so different and
new that it is well to have the boys
and girls trained in rules of the
game.
At Western several classes in
Journalism are doing much active
work under Miss Gardner, who
ably instructs her students In the
art of telling news and human in
terest stories
A journalism class was recently
started at Tech. and has been do
ing much good work. The boys
and girls found themselves so far
taken by the thrill of obtaining
news, the Tech student publicity
committee was formed by Lieuten-
ant Colonel Tolson, who has seen
that Tech is not sighted in the
press.
MILLER TALKS.
The Interscholastic Press As
sociation meeting was held at
Central last week. Representa-
tives were present from Eastern.
Busines, Tech, and Central. Mr..
Kirk Miller, of The Times. was
the speaker of the afternoon. He
Is well known as Skillet" Finn.
Esquire.
Mr.. Miller gave a very interest
ing account of the birth OF
'SkiIlet'' Finn. at had just come
onto the staff of The Times from
the Star, and wanted to do some
thing to secure my position. All
the baseball teams had tpst gone
20 the South to train; so con-
ceived the idea Of taking an
imaginary team to train at the
North Pole. However, dirisible
had just had an unexpected trip
70 Labrador, lost itself. and IL
naIly landed at Moose Lake. So
took my team to Moose Lake
for six weeks. At the end OF the
six weeks I wanted to stop, but
the editor told me to keep It
upr 1t is terribly hard to write
funny.
"I have tried many jobs In the
last few years, but found none as
fascinating as Journalism. Every
day is different from the last.
Every thirty minutes brings a
change in the whole news. We
have. say, two columns ready;
the phone rings, and something
else overshadowing that news
item IL told us, and we change
the whole plan of the page. On
one trip, I called up the office
three times in forty-five minutes,
each time a different story Of
things which had turned up. each
overshadowing the other. You
can see what a nerve strain 1t
must be. But it's worth itr'
Association business occupied
but a short time. although several
important motions were passed.
Refreshments were served, and
after a most enjoyable social period
The meeting terminated. Another
gathering was arranged for April
es.
READING ENCOURAGED.
The reading of text books on
newspaper writing Is being en-
rouraged by teachers OF English.
Every class has been instructed to
report on some reliable source of
reading, and as a result the
libraries OF city and school have
bsen filled with students seeking