The New Republic

In case anyone missed it, our Deputy Editor, Richard Just, had an opinion piece in Saturday’s Post about the challenges currently facing high school journalism. It reminds me: Back in my days as a high school newspaper columnist, when I wasn't penning columns about the "exhorbitant" price of cafeteria popcorn chicken (and that's how the editors spelled exorbitant in the headline), I once found myself subject of a “talking to” by the assistant principal for having potentially libeled the members of the committee advocating grade-weighting, all of whom were parents of honors students, as self-interested. My entire argument against grade-weighting (quite counterintuitive, in TNR style, as I was myself an honors student) was premised on a single source--my father's friend, who was president of admissions at a college in Pennsylvania. He reneged under pressure from the angry parents, admitting that maybe grade-weighting wasn't such a bad idea. The memory still rankles! Both the assistant principal and I, it seems, could have used some of Richard’s advice.

Anyway, it's a great piece, so read it when you have a chance.

--Ben Crair

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