As part of my social media class I’ve asked the students to follow Daniel Pink’s advice and write their sentence. It’s like a mission statement or what sums you up. I want to write my own sentence, but it’s tough.
Here’s what I’ve come up with:
I teach and every day try to practice the idea that the power of telling people’s stories accurately, colorfully, compassionately in any medium can help change the world.
That’s a strong sentence. And my students probably think: “Hey, that’s not what I hear from her every day.” They hear: “What’s AP style? Use commas correctly. Where’s the nut graf? How many sources have you talked to? Don’t miss deadlines. Plan. Work hard.
Through all of those statements, I’m trying to show students that every person’s story is important. We owe it to people to tell them accurately. We can use journalism to make the world a better place. We can treat our sources like people and recognize that every story is important to someone.
