Mendota Heights Cub Scouts Take Role of Cub Reporters

The communications badge earned by Cub Scouts has often given boys insight into the world of journalism through tours of newsrooms and printing presses. 

As a reporter, it was always exciting to see young faces exploring the office at my previous job at the South-West Review.

On Monday, I got to introduce some local Cub Scouts to the world of journalism in a different way, from the eyes of a reporter on assignment.

While the snow fell persistently outside, inside  we settled into a downstairs classroom—complete with a chalkboard and teacher desk, to talk about journalism.

I gave them a quick lesson on what it means to be a reporter and some terminology (objective—"like a referee in a basketball game," was one analogy that came to mind). We then dove into a reporting activity.

Entertaining a crew of energetic fourth-graders (and one brave third-grader!) is not something I'm trained for, but luckily they were intrigued by asking questions of the "witnesses" I had briefed and taking notes in their team's reporter notebooks.

In the end, they wrote a great lede sentence for their story about a fictional fire, made some ethical decisions about a statement they couldn't back up and showed a real interest in getting the facts right. 

It was refreshing to reach a crowd that is enthusiastic about journalism and not afraid to ask questions. Thanks again to Sandy Johnson of the Webelos for the invitation and to the Scouts and parents for your awesome energy.