Strictly as a joke, I recently wrote to some Facebook friends that I was considering returning to full-time teaching. Why? To save time, which I’ll explain in a few graphs below.

The career move would be iffy — especially for one who gave up the tweed jacket with leather elbow patches about 16 years ago. Would I even stand a chance, given that Latino professors with doctoral degrees have become more plentiful lately.

Today’s stable of professors probably grew up in the iPhone era and wouldn’t recognize a pencil and a reporter’s notebook.

But to get to the point, I joked to friends on my Facebook page that even a 24-hour-a-week job at the Optic can be daunting. I added that seeking full-time teaching work, at Highlands, Luna Community College or even the United World College, would give me the time I need for things I enjoy, like traveling across the Atlantic and this year — (we already have the tickets) — flying to Puerto Rico.

My returning-to-work reference apparently drew the attention of a number of people. “What do you plan to teach?” “Will you try to get your old job back?”

My old job was teaching journalism and speech at Highlands. It lasted 28 years. The administration at the time must have figured Highlands could save big bucks by simply killing the journalism program when I retired. Yes, there have been a few attempts to resurrect the campus Newspaper, La Mecha, but they were short-lived.

As an outsider looking in, in the sense of a former campus newspaper adviser, I regretted seeing empty newspaper racks around campus. A few attempts to pump news into the weekly became instead long essays, written in dorm rooms, without the writers even attempting to do a bit of face-to-face research.

Eventually, I got over my hope that Highlands would hire a trained journalist — not necessarily me — to restore a program that had a long history. The name Harry Lancaster comes to mind, as do those of Eddie Groth and Ray Newton, advisers of yesteryear.

Part of me also wonders whether a real weekly campus newspaper would suffice. After all, we can get our fill of the news by going online. Many major newspapers have online access to their news, features, photos and editorials, but there’s often a catch: a paid subscription.

Because I vowed that this Democrat would try to gain at least a modicum of information regarding the current Republican convention, I assigned myself several hours of watching what the GOPers are up to, as I will when the Democrats hold their convention. Irrespective of my good intentions, I’ve found it exceedingly difficult to discern much objectivity.

Fox News, for example, makes it no secret that even though that cable network won’t give The Donald a full frontal hug as an endorsement, the reporting bias will favor the Republicans. Of course, voters on the other side will make the same accusations about how certain networks give more favorable coverage to the Democrats. Feeling the palpable manipulation of news, I wonder whether the possible resurrection of Highlands’ La Mecha would also become a forum for some to tout their pet causes. It annoys me when it becomes patent that alleged news organizations build in bias, going so far as to try to get readers-listeners to digest what the “news” organizations feed them.

The editorial section of newspaper, including that of the Optic, makes it clear that the page welcomes opinion. That opinion doesn’t necessarily have to be our opinion as well. That’s a fair use of the opinion section.

What rankles, however, is the notion that readers and televiewers are too stupid to form their own opinions and thus, the writers and producers need to package the material in such a way that tells them what to think.

A few years ago, my wife and grand kids and I visited Missouri and spent an afternoon touring the campus of the University of Missouri, home of the prestigious journalism school, the oldest in the nation. I received a master’s degree from there in 1979.

Touring the offices of the campus daily paper, The Columbia Missourian, I thought, “What if? What if I were to take on a summer course or two to brush up on J-school techniques?” I realized my training in the writing craft goes back almost two decades. A glance at the journalism course schedule there, which took as much space as the entire Highlands course offerings, convinced me I’d have been a lonely student if taking only courses I felt comfortable with.

Clear prose is good, but the offerings were anemic. What has replaced much straight news reporting? The catalog listed numerous courses on the mechanics of preparing newspapers. There were units on how to edit photos, how to get more productivity out of a Macintosh, and hints on making the front page more attractive.

Included were several classes on radio and TV broadcasting.

With no false modesty, I declare next to no interest in those kinds of offerings. I’m barely above the rank of Neanderthal when it comes to simple typing (like this), and my interest still is clear writing.

You know that pipe dream I wrote about, in which I thought of returning to my old job?

Well, it’s not going to happen. I’m content simply churning out a weekly column. I’d like to stick around until I reach my one-thousandth column. There are about 220 to go, and I’ve never missed a week.

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