ABSTRACT
I did not come upon this idea from any school courses that I took. When I first entered high school, coursework was the furthest thing from my mind. I had grown up in a down-at-the heels factory town that emanated a distinctly anti-intellectual ethos, and academic learning had little appeal to me. But then I had an experience during ninth grade that changed my attitude towards academic pursuits forever. This experience occurred because I joined my high-school newspaper. I did this in order to cover sports: I was too young as a freshman to make the school teams, but I enjoyed watching the games and hanging out with the older players.
