A previously unknown supply of budding journalists has been found in an unexpected location: the grade-10 computer-studies class at Victoria Park Collegiate Institute (VPCI) in Toronto, Canada. More than half a dozen student reporters were uncovered by their unsuspecting teacher at the school, which is located in that country’s largest and most diverse city.
“I was taken completely unawares,” said Michael Arkin, the only full-time computer-studies educator currently teaching at the secondary school, which serves a range of academic programs to more than 1400 teenagers. “I’ve a long-time interest in newspapers in particular, and writing and editing in general, but I never thought I’d find such talent in a CS class,” he said.
The fledgling journos were discovered quite by accident, during a routine assignment meant to boost the school’s OSSLT results, which have been less than stellar in the past. Successful completion of the OSSLT, the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, is a provincial high-school graduation requirement.
At the end of last Friday’s class, Mr. Arkin assigned students the task of writing a news report on the class’s discussion of ways to select a representative to the newly created VPCI Senate. He uncovered the unheralded scribes only today, while marking those assignments.
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