THE PUBLIC MIND: SCHOOL PAPER ADVISER DESERVING OF CREDIT

To the Editor:

The staff of the L.J. Schultz Middle School newspaper, The Paw, is well deserving of the banner headline, photo, and lengthy article (Southeast Missourian, Wednesday, June 5) which announced the state and national writing awards won by a number of the members of the staff.

At the end of that fine article was this sentence: "The adviser is Pat Heckert." Maybe Tina McCloskey, the Paw staff writer who authored the Missourian article, was merely practicing a proper journalistic rule in omitting any further comment about Ms. Heckert. Nevertheless, further comment is definitely in order because if it were not for Pat Heckert, it is highly unlikely that Tina McCloskey would have had occasion to write her article at all.

Pat Heckert has taught a number of schools in the area, and it is no coincidence that while at those schools she was able to exert such an extraordinary influence upon young student writers that many of them won important writing awards.

In fact, it has become almost a truism that wherever Pat Heckert is, students under her charge learn to write exceptionally well. The members of The Paw newspaper staff, then, are much more fortunate than they may know, because it is in large measure through the ability and dedication of their adviser Pat Heckert that so many of them developed into award winning writers.

It is appropriate, then, that Pat Heckert be given an award of her own, "The Adviser Extraordinare" award, an award which we at this time bestow.

John C. Bierk

Cape Girardeau