More jobs are coming to Joplin, according to this morning's Joplin Globe. Freeman Hospitals held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $47 million addition to Freeman West.
Though the article did not specify how many jobs would be added (most likely because hospital officials did not say), it clearly is good news for southwest Missouri.
So why was it buried on page 2C of The Globe in something ridiculously called the "Your Money" section.
The Globe has a well-earned reputation for singling out the controversial stories at the expense of good-news items. It did so again this morning.
Page 1 of the A section featured a lengthy article on Missouri Southern State University's choice of a new health insurance provider. The Board of Regents selected a firm which offers faculty and staff an incentive to use Freeman's doctors and facilities. Apparently, the company's bid was nearly $175,000 more than the bid submitted by a company associated with St. John's. MSSU officials say they chose the Freeman-affiliated company because it would cost the workers less money out of their own pockets.
The story is definitely worth printing. Any expenditure of taxpayer money is worth time and space. The question is should this situation have been front and center on the most prominent page of the newspaper, while a newsworthy expansion of the hospital which will create jobs was relegated to a less prominent position.
By their choices, editors are telling the readers what they (the editors) think is important. Apparently, a chance to stir up a little controversy (something newspapers should do, by the way) is more important to Globe editors than a major story that has a positive focus.
***
Even more troubling was the Globe's editorial this morning, not because of what the Globe editors said, but because of what our state legislature may try to do.
A House and Senate subcommittee examining the problem of teen drinking has come up with some worrisome proposals. According to the Globe editorial, "Schools across the state would be required to come up with plans outlining the 'consequences for students caught drinking' even though they were not on a school campus at the time. What those consequences should be, of course, will be up to legislators to determine."
As laudable as the battle against teen drinking is, those solutions are disturbing. Schools should not be coming up with plans to deal with student behavior outside of the school setting, much less leaving it up to legislators.Our elected officials tend to see the schools as a cureall for everything that society cannot handle. If too many kids are getting pregnant, let's have sex education. If they can't keep themselves in good physical condition, we will offer P. E. We require schools to do so many things that have nothing to do with the function of providing our youth with the tools necessary to succeed in the work world and participate in our government, and then we lament that our children are not learning.
How are they going to be able to learn when state and federal officials keep whittling away at the amount of time schools actually spend on academic purposes?
***
A 45-minute after-school detention for a kindergarten student was the subject of an article in this morning's Globe and several recent postings on www.senecaforums.com
Detention for children that age seems to be rather ludicrous. But what is even more ludicrous is that Maryann Anderson, the mother who brought the situation to the attention of the Seneca R-7 Board of Education, had to go to that body to get the situation resolved.
Surely, the officials directly over the elementary principal could have worked out a solution. Detention, long after the actual trangression was committed, does little or no good for children in kindergarten. This circle the wagons approach to operating school districts does not work. There is nothing wrong every once in a while with telling principals that they should change what they are doing, or bringing in all parties to resolve a situation.
These are not the kinds of problems that should make it all the way to the Board of Education.
Perhaps if some school officials would live up to their promises to consider parents as equal partners in the educational process, and not look at them as potential adversaries in lawsuits, we might have less people considering lawsuits against school systems. Then everyone would benefit.
***
As usual, I would like to praise my kids in the South Middle School Journalism Club. Approximately 25 participate in the club on a full-time basis with others doing articles from time to time. They have been working extremely hard and their items can be found on the Top News and South Spotlight pages on my class and Journalism Club website, www.room210.com
They have a long way to go, but they are working hard to improve with each story they do. They have been meeting every Thursday after school, then working on their stories throughout the week.