Published on page six of Saturday’s edition of The Union Daily Times, The Red Devil Journal was the product of Susan W. Smith’s seventh-grade class at Lockhart Middle School. The students spent a week learning about newspapers which even included a visit from Times’ staff writer Derik Vanderford who spoke about what it’s like to work at a publication. As part of their studies, the students were assigned to write news stories which were then published as The Red Devil Journal.
The stories they wrote covered a wide variety of subjects including why their school is important to them; asking for the public’s help in winning the school a $500,000 grant; the importance of learning keyboarding; and profiles of the new Spanish teacher and the new principal. Sports were also covered with a story about the start of volleyball season and a look at the Lockhart members of the Jonesville Wildcats. There was also a story on horses and even a poem extolling the virtues of lemonade.
Reading The Red Devil Journal is a pleasure, not only for the stories themselves but for what it says about the students, their teacher, school and community. The stories are a product of the curiosity, talent, intelligence and discipline of the students, qualities they no doubt display when tackling other assignments and other subjects. These qualities have been nurtured and encouraged by the hard work, dedication, skill and insight of their teacher; the learning environment provided by their school; and the support received at home and throughout the rest of their community.
The Red Devil Journal is a reminder young people want to learn, they want to be creative and they want to achieve. These desires must be nurtured and supported and the end result applauded and celebrated by the community. The community that does so finds itself the recipients of the kind of blessings that come from encouraging the young to channel their energy and enthusiasm into positive and uplifting activities.
We here at The Union Daily Times are proud to have had the privilege of publishing The Red Devil Journal. We’re confident the work the students did on writing The Journal is just the beginning of the positive contributions they will make to their school, their community and this county.
We hope to see — and report — more such accomplishments from them and the rest of the young people of this county in the days and years to come.
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