Campus Voices
Middle School
As a reporter, it is the scene you hope for: dozens of students standing in hallways, leaning on lockers, crowded on couches, noses deep in the newspaper, absorbed in the article you’ve spent weeks preparing. You spend the day eavesdropping on people talking about it, accepting praise on your work, and answering the questions it has raised. On November 16th, Middle School students had that experience for the first time.
The Spark, named after our location on Sparks Street, is a student newspaper and literary magazine whose premier edition featured articles, photographs, artwork, and fiction by BB&N Middle School students. A staff of 13 seventh and eighth graders spent nine weeks reporting, writing, and editing articles as wide ranging as the controversial changes to our dress code, the debut of our science club, and the history of the mansion which houses our school.
We meet for an hour a week, brainstorming story ideas, learning the fundamentals of news reporting and writing and putting the paper together. The content is student-driven and the environment is collaborative; students are asked not only to be reporters, but also editors, page designers, and photographers. On this past issue, these beginner journalists were surprised and challenged by the prospect of reaching out to the larger BB&N community for information: two seventh graders found themselves confronting coaches and faculty members about sports cuts; an eighth grader discussed interior design with the architect who renovated our library; another found herself seeking out senior faculty members who could speak to the days when 80 Sparks Street housed just the Buckingham School.
Journalism has been a part of my life since high school, and no matter how I have been involved—as an editor at my college newspaper, as a freelance writer for The Boston Globe, as a teacher of journalism—it has made an immeasurable difference not only in the quality and discipline of my writing, but also in the care and curiosity with which I think and observe. It has taught me to pay attention to detail, to think creatively and critically, and to be accountable for my work, all skills that are an essential part of any middle school curriculum.
At the very least, I would like students involved with The Spark to become more engaged with our Middle School community, and hopefully become inspired to seek out and tell stories from beyond Sparks Street.
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