the newspaper business

At a high school in Naples, Florida, if you want a good grade in journalism, you better be prepared to sell some ads or spend some money.

The syllabus says $600 will get you an A, $500 will get you a B, $400 gets a C, $300 gets a D and less than $300 worth of ads sold will earn a student an F on the assignment.

It would be pretty unusual for kids in journalism class in ultra upscale Naples to actually go out an “sell” an ad. First, Daddy and/or Mommy would probably buy the ad for the family business or favorite charity. Second it’s not really “selling” it’s asking for a donation.

What about the less affluent kids? I guess if they are working two jobs after school, they could hit up their employer, that would go over well.

A brilliant school board member said:

… the district needs to take a closer look at this class, and others, to find a better way to grade students.

There has to be a way to encourage participation without it being related to money,” said Abbott.

Gee, ya think?

Hat tip.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.