Newspaper takes teaching role in Ivan's wake

September 28, 2004
PENSACOLA, Florida (AP) -- School may be out for another two weeks in one Florida county hard-hit by Hurricane Ivan, but a newspaper and a school district have teamed up to keep children learning at home.

Parents are being mailed eight lesson plan packages to help them continue their children's education while the Escambia County School District is repairing buildings.

The district said Monday schools would reopen no later than October 11.

"I think that's one of the most creative ideas I've ever heard," Gov. Jeb Bush said of the partnership between the district and the Pensacola News Journal.

Ivan, the third of four hurricanes to strike Florida in six weeks, ravaged the Panhandle on September 15-16. The most recent, Jeanne, bypassed Escambia when it plowed through the middle of the state over the weekend.

Lessons in the first edition have a "Survivin' Ivan" theme, and call for children in kindergarten through sixth grade to draw pictures and write about what happened to them, their parents and their neighborhoods during and after the storm.

Seventh and eighth graders are asked to read the newspaper to find out what solutions people have proposed for various problems.

Ninth and 10th graders are asked to find examples of how propaganda techniques are used in advertising, political campaigns, letters to the editor and other expressions of opinion.

"The remaining seven (editions) will be curriculum-specific with the emphasis in reading, math and writing," said Sheila Reed, director of the News-Journal's Newspapers in Education program.

Escambia School Superintendent Jim Paul said the Ivan Institute of Learning may "become the standard for continuing the learning process after disasters in this state." He said a teacher-staffed hot line would be available for parents.