The art of journalism-Grant Miller speaks on the joy of teaching
By: The Weaver Bulletin
Tags: Schools, Teaching, Journalism, Photos, High School

By Ariana Whitely

Grant Miller sits at his desk. Photo: Ariana Whitely

Dressed in a blue and white tie, former journalist and now journalism teacher Grant Miller enters class daily with a chirpy mood. When most meet Miller, their first thoughts are, Wow, We must be an intelligent man due to how he speaks. Some might say he’s uptight without really knowing him, but Miller is a laid back, sports loving guy. Still, he gets really serious about homework and man does he mark’s work with an iron fist!

Miller is as obsessed with basketball and boxing as they come. When you enter his classroom, the first thing you see on the wall beside his desk is a framed picture of Chicago, Illinois. And on the door he has a drawing of a LeBron James and a bull in a Chicago Bulls jersey.

Miller teaches Intro to Journalism at Weaver High School with his experience and passion for the journalism profession and for education.

Though Miller loves sports, he also has a rather good academic background. He has a B.A. in English from Fairfield university, a J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law and a M.A. in journalism from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism.

Miller sat down for a few brief questions on November 23, 2021.

The following is edited for clarity:

AW: What was your life growing up like?

GM: Well, I think I had a pretty blessed childhood. I group in Stratford, Connecticut; south end of Stratford if you’re familiar with it. I didn’t really want for anything. My parents pretty much provided whatever they could.

AW: Why did you choose this career path?

GM: You know I say this all the time, and I don’t know if my students believe me, but this is the one of the few jobs I’ve had where I am excited, and at least not miserable, when I wake up every morning. I actually enjoy teaching. I enjoy the hours I work, and I enjoy the freedom in my schedule a lot. It’s pretty much a win-win.

AW: Based on the struggles you might have faced pursuing your career, what advice would you give young people that would like to consider the same career path?

GM: Give yourself a chance to improve. I feel like no one is a good teacher when they first start. And it’s not because they’re not meant for it, or because they’re in the wrong profession, but because it’s a profession where you are going to make mistakes and learn from them. The teacher you are ten years in is not going to be the same as the teacher you are in your first 10 months.

AW: What are some struggles you faced?

GM: Relating to students who weren’t self-motivated. I was mostly self-motivated as a kid. I mean I wanted to please my parents, but I genuinely wanted to do well and not just at school but really at anything that I spent my time on. I wanted to be good at it, and I did not understand my classmates who did not have the same desire. I did not understand students who did not have that same desire when I [first became]a teacher. I didn’t understand a kid who was willing to settle for a C. It drove me nuts, and I’ll admit even now I have a hard time relating to folks who do things that are detrimental to their education because maybe it was the way I was raised or just my personality. It seemed pretty obvious to me how to stay out of trouble and how to do well in school [growing up], but that’s not always the case for everybody.

AW: What are some of your most important achievements growing up until now?

GM: I would definitely say earning three degrees. I consider those very important because they give me options. If for some reason tomorrow I decide you know what, forget teaching. I want to be an attorney. I could study for the bar and go for it. If I wanted to go back to being a journalist again, I could apply for a journalism job. I can get my foot in the door somewhere. But to maintain my teaching career, I just keep my licenses up and keep applying for teaching jobs. I can go three different paths if I so choose. I think for all the money that it cost, and all the time and effort it took ,the reward and the freedom it gives me was well worth it.

AW: Are you into a lot of sports, and if so, would you choose any of them as a career path?

GM: No, no, I would not. So I’m a big basketball fan, [and] boxing is what I’m into now. I still do kind of boxing training. I haven’t sparred in a while but I used to, and I would spar with guys who are competitive boxers on the amateur level. I would never pursue boxing as a career. The life of a boxer is pretty insane, and I like having my full functioning brain. It’s kind of hard to have that when you’re getting punched in the head every day.

With basketball in my younger days, I probably would have considered it if given the chance. I don’t know if I would be happy as a professional basketball player now that I think about it. Even with all the money it would pay you, the life of travelling all the time and never having any real stability and having to look over your shoulder to make sure the guy on your team isn’t going take your spot, and as a result possible take your contract. At some point, I might want to settle down and get married and raise a family. But it’s awfully hard to do that when you’re on the road most of the year. I think the life I have is pretty good and I don’t see a reason to choose another one.

AW: Would you say journalism as a subject or a career helps to build an individual as a person?

GM: Can you repeat that one more time? It helps to build an individual?

AW: It helps to build an individual as a person.

GM: If I’m understanding the question correctly, I would say journalism helps people. First, the nature of the profession is to inform the public. As a person who informs people, you have to be informed yourself, right? So the constant curiosity, the constant learning, the constant research never goes wasted. To always be learning, to always be seeking out new information, to me is one of the greatest endeavors and also one of the most avoided because a lot of people don’t see the payoff immediately. I happen to enjoy learning. I think that [journalism]feeds an appetite for learning, and if you don’t have it, you can gain it if you take journalism seriously. As a class, I think the journalism subject teaches you transferable skills to your other classes. If you are learning how to research, how to find reliable sources, how to write an opinion substantiated with evidence, that helps you in all of your English classes and your history classes. How to find information and use stats, that helps in your math classes. I think that a journalism class really does help you in school, and the journalism profession can help you and others around you.

AW: Throughout your years being involved with journalism, what would you say are some aspects of it that have stuck with you throughout your daily life?

GM: Never stop asking questions is one thing that stuck with me. [And]the value of human relationships. Journalism is a profession where if you have no friends you have no job. If you can’t have a list of people who you can trust to give you reliable information and who can trust you enough to tell their story, honestly you’re pretty much useless as a reporter. I think journalism teaches you the power of information, facts, and truth. I think we’ve learned, just lately in the past few years, that if we forget what’s true, we forget almost everything.