My Letter from a Future Journalist

It's been a long time since I stood in front of a class of young students, so when I recently initiated a sixth-grade class into the sacred mysteries of the journalistic fraternity, I had forgotten about the final pedagogic handshake---the arrival in the mail of a packet of thank-you letters, penned by each member of the class.

Here's the one that stood out:

Thank you, Mrs. Rosenbaum, for coming to our class and telling us the steps that will make us better writers. You changed my life because now I am thinking of being a journalist. I think from your work I am going to be a better writer.
---Christopher Yu

Dear Christopher,
I'm so glad that I interested you in a journalistic career, but I forget to tell you about reporters' meager pay and about how many of them are currently being laid off by newspapers and magazines around the country. That said, I really love what I do, and I genuinely enjoy speaking with and learning from most of the people I meet in the course of reporting---even the ones I don't agree with. Most of all, I love writing. If you still have a yen for the pad and pen in a few years, here are some more instructive letters from a more distinguished journalist: Letters to a Young Journalist by Samuel Freedman, author, NY Times columnist and professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Come to think of it, maybe Mrs. Rosenbaum needs to read this book:

Beware when you find yourself falling into chic misanthropy, ascribing the basest motives to any public official as your starting point. Being adversarial sounds righteous except when it is a mere reflex, just one more way of imposing black-or-white absolutism on a world washed in grays.

"Chic misanthropy"...hmmmm.