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Journalist and Pulitzer Center grantee Reese Erlich spoke to Alabama high school students via Skype about reporting he's done in Syria, Cuba and Iran. The Anniston Star covered the Skype session in the classroom.
“I learned it all on the job,” Erlich told students, adding a fact teachers might not appreciate: “I never took a class in journalism.”
“I would argue that journalism is the best job anybody can get,” he said.
Erlich spoke for more than 30 minutes about his beginnings in journalism — which he said was mostly accidental and coincided with the peak of U.S. anti-war sentiment in the 1960s.
Oxford High teachers Holley Harmon and Julia Hill have been thinking about how to incorporate experts and professional journalists into their classrooms.
“I can see opportunities for this,” said Harmon, whose pre-advanced placement English students spoke with Erlich. “I want them to know there’s a world beyond high school, and beyond Oxford,” Shadrix said. “It’s about helping them think.”
The full story is available on The Anniston Star website.