Tables Turned On Patch Editor in Ladue's Video Class

So who says you can never come home?

Don Goble, video teacher extraordinaire at Ladue Horton Watkins High School asked this Patch reporter to come and speak to his students about how Prop 1 election, the Ladue School District tax issue was covered.

He wanted to know how the tools of the trade, i.e. video, photos, feature writing, polls were all integrated to tell the story during the Prop 1 campaign.

I was allotted 20 minutes to present; I left after a 40 minute session.

I couldn’t wait to get my portion of the presentation completed because I wanted to hear the students questions and find out what was on their collective minds.

They didn’t disappoint me at all.

They wanted to know how video was used; why Phyllis Schflafly, a national political figure weighed in on a local race; how did I meet all my deadlines and things like that.

No one can convince me that our future leaders will not come from the present day students. Students master the tools of the trade (video editing suite) as if we could only dream of doing. The student videos are works of art. Students can be great story tellers. When I was in school, video wasn’t even thought of.

I tried to frame the presentation (like I always do) to coax students to be totally prepared for the next step in the educational process.

I asked them to learn how to open up to a bigger world; how to focus on big issues and how to tell their stories in only ways they could.

If you saw the videos produced by Don Goble’s gifted students you would totally agree with me. Their work is excellent. In fact, in some cases, its down right exceptional.

Ladue seniors, in particular are given a lot of freedom to move about. They have passes to be out of school and in the community working on their video projects. They might spend the balance of their senior year editing down just one 10 minute video.

It had better be awfully good.

I told them it would take me about 10 seconds to tell if a student’s heart and soul was in their work, or if they are just going through the motions. Mr. Goble says it takes him just 3 seconds to make that determination.

So this is why we do the things we do. None of us is going to holding onto our jobs forever. I told them that Patch truly represented how news would be covered in the future.  I think they believed me?

Wouldn’t it just be grand to walk into Ladue High some day and meet the student who is ready to tackle the World, and among other things be the next Patch editor.

I believe almost all the students in Don Goble’s class took that message to heart.