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Thursday, September 26,1974
University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FEATURES
Journalism teaching brings self-renewal to Young
Editor's note: This is the last of five articles on the 1974 HOPE (Honor to the Outstanding Progressive Educator) Award finalists.
By MARK MITCHELL
Reporter
After being nimbled for the HOPE Award five out of the last seven years, it doesn't appear that Lee Young needs to do much for an enclosure. Yet it is the encore performance he thrives on—the continual self-renewal that he says teaches brings.
"I's always new," Young said of his journalism teacher career. "The subject matter we're dealing with is always new." He added, "We don't know what news but the students make it new, too."
"NO CLASS IS EVER like the class you had before. The subject matter may be going in the same direction, but then you're getting a different mix of human beings that you're dealing with. I don't ever feel that I'm going backward."
Ten years ago Young left a successful career as a magazine co-owner and writer to come to the University of Kansas. He said that he wasn't certain why he left, but that he thought it seemed he was on a treadmill not falling behind, but not progressing either.
"I was at that time a part owner of a magazine and I was quite content with the business aspect of it, and yet I had the feeling that 'I'm repeating the same experience I had last year and next year' repeat the same experience," "Young said."
THIS SITUATION bothered him till he had to pull out and start something, he
Pepsi-Cola inspires play about U.S.
If two oversized Pepsi cans chased by giant straws run across campus in the next few days, don't be alarmed. This is the Pepsi generation and the University of Kansas department of theatre plans to capitalize on it.
PUBLICITY IS ONLY ONE of the concerns of director Ronald A. Willis, associate professor of theatre, and playwright Eric Anderson, McPherson graduate student, as "Pops Thredenes," a member of the KU season, nears its last rehearsal.
The play is the KU entry in the National Playwriting Awards program, developed as part of the American College Theatre original plays written by college students.
The playwright chosen for the national award will have his play produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington; he will receive $2,500 from the U.S. government for an offer of an agency management contract; his play will be published and distributed for stock and amateur production for professional royalties by Samuel French, Inc.; it will be distributed among its peers of more than 200 colleges by American Playwrights and will be given an offer of full membership to the Dramatists Guild.
Anderson said that when he first had the idea for the play there were issues introduced that he wasn't prepared to write about.
"PEPSI THRENODES, a two-act play about the social sensibilities of America in the late '50s compared to the late '60s, will feature three of the Inside The William Inge Memorial Theatre in New York."
"I didn't want the embarrassment of going out on a limb. How could I do that?!" she replied.
Anderson wrote the play as partial
instrument of his master's degree in theatre
at KU.
He said he was lucky to have help from Willis, the director, because he said he thought Willis had an astute sense of theatre.
A TOTAL of 19 actors play more than 50 characters in the 47 scenes of the show. The movie centers on a young American family at an angel on the catwalk of the theatre. Even Smoker the bear gives us the same message.
Pepsi-Cola, a technology device used in the play, might have been a financial liability if the Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers Inc. in Houston, CO., hadn't agreed to donate the beverage.
Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers have donated an equivalent of 185 cases of Pepsi to the entire audience needed for the entire run of the show and the remaining Pepsi will be distributed free to the audience during intermission. It would cost KU $'00 to buy the beverage, Willis said.
ANDERSON, WHO WROTE his first piece, a musical about Jack the Ripper, in junior high school, said he didn't have himarna to go to New York to pedal his plays.
Anderson won a playwright fellowship established by the Dramatists Guild in honor of William Inge and also was the 1972 National Scholarship awarded to student playwrights.
Tickets for "Pepsi Threnodies" are available free at the box office for KU students who have current certificates of registration.
said. During his undergraduate years, Young said, he thought about teaching, but his forte was American studies and history, not journalism.
His college adviser encouraged him to pursue his doctorate in history so that later he could teach, Young said. However, he began working on the school newspaper and yearbook, and his interests turned to journalism.
After graduation, Young worked for several publications but he finally decided
"At age 38, I just pulled out and quit the magazine," he said. "I came to KU to start work on a masters degree and found out that I was where I was going to be happy."
Young said he had planned to teach high school history, but the dean of the School of Education advised him to try journalism because of his considerable experience. He was interviewed and accepted, and later he received his degree from the School of Journalism for several years.
HIS SPECIALTIES are advertising and magazine courses, which cover journalism production in these areas—writing copy, photography, television management. Most of his courses are like seminars, he said, and operate in an environment where the medium is premium for participation and class discussion.
"I try to get the flavor of life," he said. "I remember when I was a student that I was studying things, but I didn't know what they were like, in the sense of being in them.
"So I try to invent a real life situation along with the factual material so that my students can have some sort of notion of what it's like to work on a magazine or in an ad agency, or what happens when you deal with a certain personal situation."
For example, he said, in his Magazine and American Society course each student must use a prototype and design a prototype book. In the Advertising and Copy Writing course, students design and write copy for advertisements, and each student produces the Jayhawk Journal.
THE QUESTION OF ETHICS in journalism often arises, he said, especially after the recent Watergate exposes by the press. Young said it was the duty of the press to be honest and accurate regarding the situations had been mishandled because of the human factors of error and misjudgment.
"They (journalists covering Watergate)
they (researchers) list of mistakes and the
been nearly 90 years since they
Lee Young
personal benefit out of what they've been doing," he said. "On the other hand, collectively I think they've done a magnificent job."
Young said the system of judicial process should be credited as much as journalists for exposing Wategrae. In spite of these accusations, he did not increase of cynicism in his students.
"In a way, I think there's reason for more hope. This is the first time we've actually brought something like this well out in the open and made the public aware. It gives us hope that political leaders in the future are going to have to be more honest."
"I NOTICED GREATER cynicism a few years ago at the height of the protest against the Vietnam war," he said. "I don't care if you get bullied or depressed about this then they were before."
Truth in advertising is possible, he said, if people can accept the fact that some imagery is used to sell a project. For example, a washing machine couldn't possibly grow 10 feet tall when a certain detergent is used.
"Truth to me would be not being fraudulent and not making deliberate misstatements about what a product can do. I don't know why that advertising can and should do this."
The principle of ethics in journalism is the same principle of ethics in any human relationship - being concerned with how you deal with other people. This is the case
whether you're in journalism, law, the ministry or running a shoe store."
THE FIRM FOUNDATION for everyone's life is a strong commitment to happiness and satisfaction, Young said, not solely in the bedside sense, but rather the happiness that comes from work, family, accomplishment and a good education.
According to Young, the broadest education is the best education, although specialization may be desirable later. He recommended that anyone, regardless of level, attend a degree applicable in liberal arts, which he helped t. develop a person's general awareness.
AS A TEACHER, Young finds that boredom is a constant enemy to be confronted, fought and finally conquered. He said he continually evaluated his classes, learning how to communicate with him communicate with his students. This communication is essential to Young.
"You can't be a good journalist just because you've developed skills as a reporter, photographer or editor--you've got to have things in your mind," he said. "You can't be much more aware of the human condition before you can specialize meaningfully."
"It's very easy to lock into a routine, to get dulled by the seeming repetition of things, to start going through the motions," Young said. "You can get weary."
"You have to fight that by getting yourself involved, by staying close, by re-examining everything that you do. I find that I tear apart my courses on paper and in my mind at the end of every one to see how well they work to communicate this. I get some way off from student feedback and I get some of it from my own intulation."
(Pd. Advertisement)
ATHEISM MAKES
what he could do. Although the experience
what he could do. Although the experience
he found, he found that he was bad
but KU than him.
"I honestly don't believe at this stage I will be teaching, Young said. But I may tomarrow to teach."
You said he had been tempted several times to leave his teaching career but he didn't think he would ever leave teaching for good. Last summer he took some time off to be an editorial consultant for a magazine. He said he took the job just to see
Focus On: New '74 Fall Fashions And How To Pull Them All-Together
Let's face it . . . sweaters are tops! Shades of the 20' s turtleneck & the new big far-out looks of the "two-zies"—matching sweaters and shirts. Turtleneck $13, sweater vest $13, shirt $14, pants $16.
Jose Feliciano with special guest Dave Loggins
Tickets on Sale Now
October 5,1974 Hoch Auditorium 8:00 p.m. Admission $4 & $5 Sponsored by
All Class Cardholders will receive $1 off ticket. Tickets will be sold at SUA Office Kansas Union An SUA Production
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