A mother's musings on journalism (and my own)

Interesting and thoughtful piece from the San Francisco Chronicle in which a mother discusses whether she should encourage her daughter's desire to start a journalism career in college. It's a subject that I think about a lot, especially at this time of year in a period when students are hunting journalism jobs, that aren't out there for the most part. (Some are: I've seen several Marquette University journalists land jobs with media, including newspapers. There just aren't many.) But like this mother I think of two things: 1) It's still wonderful training for all sorts of professions (frankly, better training than my soon-to-be-newly-graduated son with his degree in comparative religions), and, most important, 2) it's something that students want to do. Over the years I've had a number of jobs, and I've come to realize the most important thing is to do something you like. For many of these journalists, it's worth it. So I proudly teach journalism, knowing that my graduates are going to be trained in how to gather facts, analyze them, present them. And their going to find a way to make it work.