Acclaimed Journalist Might Not Be Writing Were It Not For This Teacher (actually two teachers)

From Teacher Stories by Teacher Stories

April 9, 2024 · 24 min

About this episode

Acclaimed journalist Clarence Page reflects on the influence of his high school journalism teacher and his grandmother on his career.

Clarence Page has been writing for the Chicago Tribune for over 50 years and has been the recipient of numerous journalism awards. Now a columnist, he says his job is to explain, not just report the news. "Our own country is more complicated for the average person, and that's probably because communication is so much better. You learn about so many different crises going on here and there with a level of immediacy and contact that we didn't have before. So I feel like my mission is more important now than it ever was." It's quite possible that Page would have devoted his career to something else, perhaps being an astrophysicist, if he had not been inspired by his high school journalism teacher, Mary Kindell. "I learned everything from her...People ask, where did you learn journalism? I said, well, mainly [writing for] my high school newspaper," Page says. So confident was Mrs. Kindell that Page would be a successful writer, she left a note in his high school yearbook asking that he remember her when he won his first Pulitzer Prize. But Page had another influential teacher in his life - his grandmother. Reflecting on the divisive nature of today's political climate, Page said, "My…

People in this episode

Guest: Clarence Page

Topics covered

journalism
education
inspiration
teachers

Keywords

Pulitzer Prize
Chicago Tribune
Mary Kindell
grandmother

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Pulitzer Prize