Journalists Would Do Well To Assist The Public With Problem-Solving

Let’s turn the tide, out with complaints, in with solutions.

Let’s demand that everyone who complains about anything, from household to world, be required to pose a solution at the same time they articulate a problem.

Frank Denton, editor of the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, wants journalists to help (New York Times, Feb. 27, 1995). He is sick of old-fashioned journalism that simply points out problems.

He believes that news professionals should actively work to improve public life rather than simply describe its breakdown.

Denton’s paper invites leaders to meetings where reporters discuss their findings and the articles they are writing. The meetings concentrate on solving the problems the reporters are writing about.

Some have criticized Denton for getting too close to public figures, but he says that “… gathering influential people and giving them advance information was an innovation that made journalists less adversarial with prominent people in the community. Instead of making them feel like targets - and almost victims - of our journalism, we are trying to make them, ultimately, instruments of solutions.”

Think about how much easier it would be to offer new solutions to problems, or even to run for public office, if journalism balanced its important watchdog assignment with public problem-solving. Think how much more we could do to improve our community if we did the same.

Too much information and too many complaints wear us down.

Americans are doers. We could swim in these new waters if the professionals will just give us a hand.

Dear Ms. James: You suggested recently that we send our schools a list of what we feel they should be teaching.

I am a retired teacher and I have five grown children. Aha, I thought - this is in my area of expertise. What a wonderful challenge!

As I sat at my desk, pencil in hand, sifting through the data in my mind, I wrote down two items:

1. Basics.

2. Patriotism.

3. —.

It has now been 24 hours, and through all the daily chores I have been searching thoughts and teaching goals in my mind for additions to my list.

If asked, most parents would say they send their children to school to learn the basic facts in all the functional areas needed to live a balanced, productive life.

Thank you for your always thoughtprovoking columns. - Marion

Dear Jennifer: We need a class in “real life” in every grade.

Periodically there is a large outcry about how kids don’t know how to read, etc. That’s fine, but we’ve got a whole bunch of people running around who are lacking many basic coping skills.

For those who think much of this belongs in the home, one of my arguments is that many parents don’t have a lot of these skills themselves.

I saw a program showing intensive counseling of abusive men. After many hours and days, they could begin to finally understand how their victims felt.

Somehow, they had never learned this as a child.- Kay

Dear Marion and Kay: It warmed my heart to imagine you going through your day thinking about my question. I wish I could have published all of both your letters.

Parents tell me that they are not sure what “basics” are today.

They know about reading, writing and math but not enough about communication and computers. They believe patriotism is important, but it is changing as we become international citizens.

Good citizens now question their country’s military, environmental and social policies. Once those citizens were told that they were being unpatriotic. Remember “Love it or leave it”?

I’ve gotten letters from a fifth-grade class discussing the nature of civilization. They want to know if concrete and Costco mean we are more civilized than forests and communalism.

What is basic to an educated person in 1995? How much of it has changed since we were in school, and how much of it is the same? My answer to what we must teach, bottom line, was responsibility.

Psychiatrist and anthropologist Carl Jung believed that consciousness was crucial to morality. Most people are unaware of what they are doing (abusive men or dishonest women), or why they are doing it.

He and others have referred to it as our “shadow side.”

People are able to hurt others, to not take responsibility for themselves or their education when they lack self-knowledge.

The more aware you are, the more you are able to recognize “the basics,” and the more willing you are to learn them and live them. - Jennifer

xxxx

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jennifer James The Spokesman-Review