Pro-Choice?
Posted on March 30th, 2009 in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
The Times has a new education blog, “The Choice,” about “Demystifying College Admissions and Aid.”
Aside from contributions by Times education reporter Jacques Steinberg, the blog appears to be entirely writtten by high school seniors.
As April 1st approaches quickly, I am finding it exceedingly difficult to muster the courage to check the mailbox each day…
If I were editing the blog, here’s how that sentence would read:
As April 1st approaches quickly, I am finding find it exceedingly difficult to muster the courage to check the mailbox each day…
(That is a knock on the Times, by the way, not the writer.)
While the use of high school kids surely makes the blog cheaper for the Times, it does limit the appeal.
Also draining some of the tension: The Times has chosen the kinds of people the Times always chooses—diverse but homogenous, if you know what I mean. So far, not one of the kids has gotten a rejection…..
It’d be nice to see the posts of a total fuck-up normal kid whose experience is a little less valedictorian-esque.
4 Responses
3/30/2009 7:53 am
I think the point of the blog is to hear the students in their own (only very lightly) edited voices.
3/30/2009 8:18 am
I know. But it’s patronizing to the students, and doesn’t do them any favors, not to edit them. Students say a lot of “likes” and “you knows” as well, but those utterances are not interesting merely because they are spoken by young people. When it comes to grammar, students are not a protected class.
As with all of us, they will convey what they mean more clearly, more precisely, with a bit of editing.
3/30/2009 8:20 am
Also: I don’t mean to sound cynical, but it’s hard not to think that the Times has created this blog as a way to draw young readers to the paper, rather than because it believes the blog has any great merit.
And, you know, why not?
3/30/2009 2:21 pm
Glad you weren’t my Daily Themes editor Rich…would have been a struggle to get to 250 words.