Students help publish supplement

    Students at several area schools recently put their artistic abilities and news gathering skills to use to create the latest layout of Newspapers in Education, the annual student-created edition of the Aroostook Republican and News.     This marks the seventh year the Republican staff has teamed up with area fifth-graders to create ads for Newspapers in Education, also known as NIE. Every spring students are recruited by the newspaper, serving as graphic designers for this special project. Given a blank piece of paper and a brief description of a participating business or organization, youngsters are left to use their imagination to design advertisements for a variety of businesses, including florists, car dealerships, grocers, insurance agencies and restaurants.
    Creating advertisements this year were fifth-graders from Caribou Middle School.
    In addition to the ads and photos, essays and poems appear in this year’s issue. Editorial copy and photos were submitted by students from Caribou High School, Caribou Middle School, Hilltop Elementary School, New Sweden School and Woodland Consolidated School.
    The concept of using newspapers in the classroom has been around almost as long as newspapers themselves. This excerpt from the June 8, 1795 Portland (Maine) Eastern Herald still rings true today.
    “Much has been said and written on the utility of newspaper; but one principal advantage which might be derived from these publications has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools, and by the children in families. Try it for one session — Do you wish your child to improve reading solely, give him a newspaper — it furnishes a variety, some parts of which must infallibly touch his fancy. Do you wish to instruct him in geography, nothing will so indelibly fix the relative situation of different places, as the stories and events published in the papers. In time, do you wish to have him acquainted with the manners of country or city, the mode of doing business, public or private; or do you wish him to have a smattering of every kind of science useful and amusing, give him a newspaper – newspapers are plenty and cheap – the cheapest book that can be bought, and the more you buy the better for your children, because every part furnishes some new and valuable information!”
    We hope readers will enjoy the finished product almost as much as we enjoyed working with these talented young students and their teachers. Newspaper staff planned to celebrate the completed NIE supplement with a donut and juice party for the students.
    Plans are already under way for next year’s issue.