Making a difference, every day, any way
At The Enterprise, one of our community roles is to encourage young writers discovering and developing their talents.
Part of the reasoning for that is self-serving: We would love to develop talented young writers who, one day, might work for The Enterprise. We also think encouraging writing (and reading) among young people is a positive thing, both for our future as a newspaper and for the world in general.
Writers are usually readers. Readers are generally seeking knowledge of some type and therefore are more likely to pay attention to the world around them, vote and become involved in community (or state, national or world) issues.
That’s the long way of explaining why I’ve spent part of the past week judging a literature contest for a local high school. It IS worth the investment of my time to encourage and help mold young writers – the young voices who might well be speaking up for all of us in decades to come.
The theme of the competition was, "I can make a difference by . . ."
The theme of this blog should be, "What I learned from young people this week."
I learned they are deeply concerned about our environment. They get as irritated as the rest of us when someone throws trash out of a car window or fails to stash their trash in a garbage container rather than just dropping it wherever they might be.
But they’re also concerned about the ozone layer, dependency on petroleum products, the cost of gasoline, increasing sun exposure contributing to increased skin cancer and a whole host of other environmental issues.
They care about the homeless, the needy, the disabled and the elderly.
They care about other countries and know that our neighbors in Mexico could use some help and that Africa isn’t a great place to live right now.
And they also recognize the power of the individual. They know their smile, their time, can make a difference in another person’s day – maybe even that person’s life. They know what a strong influence they are on younger siblings and recognize their need to set good examples.
Southeast Texas has some promising writers attending high school right now and some thoughtful and sharing young people who want to make a difference in their world. They deserve our praise, and our gratitude.
Part of the reasoning for that is self-serving: We would love to develop talented young writers who, one day, might work for The Enterprise. We also think encouraging writing (and reading) among young people is a positive thing, both for our future as a newspaper and for the world in general.
Writers are usually readers. Readers are generally seeking knowledge of some type and therefore are more likely to pay attention to the world around them, vote and become involved in community (or state, national or world) issues.
That’s the long way of explaining why I’ve spent part of the past week judging a literature contest for a local high school. It IS worth the investment of my time to encourage and help mold young writers – the young voices who might well be speaking up for all of us in decades to come.
The theme of the competition was, "I can make a difference by . . ."
The theme of this blog should be, "What I learned from young people this week."
I learned they are deeply concerned about our environment. They get as irritated as the rest of us when someone throws trash out of a car window or fails to stash their trash in a garbage container rather than just dropping it wherever they might be.
But they’re also concerned about the ozone layer, dependency on petroleum products, the cost of gasoline, increasing sun exposure contributing to increased skin cancer and a whole host of other environmental issues.
They care about the homeless, the needy, the disabled and the elderly.
They care about other countries and know that our neighbors in Mexico could use some help and that Africa isn’t a great place to live right now.
And they also recognize the power of the individual. They know their smile, their time, can make a difference in another person’s day – maybe even that person’s life. They know what a strong influence they are on younger siblings and recognize their need to set good examples.
Southeast Texas has some promising writers attending high school right now and some thoughtful and sharing young people who want to make a difference in their world. They deserve our praise, and our gratitude.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 11:44 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home