Old dog teaching old tricks

Lake County Examiner’s Ryan Bonham took a half an hour out of his day to speak to students

A journalist by trade, Ryan Bonham is admittedly not a public speaker. 

“I’m not one who likes to talk about himself,” Bonham said. I have a hard time thinking about what to say.”

Yet, he was tasked with such an engagement Saturday, January 22 when he was invited to speak to a large audience about his career path and the drudgery or inspiration that is writing. Bonham felt nerves not being accustomed to being the focus.

These were not seasoned journalists attending a seminar Bonham spoke to or a class of aspiring college journalism majors listening intently to an insider. This was a group whose typing skills likely amounted to the pinpoint and press practice we all painfully endure.

Bonham spoke to fourth, fifth and sixth graders at Union Elementary School, schooling the bunch on the value of writing and journalism, essentially reversing roles from the interrogator to the interrogated.

 “I told them it’s a profession worth pursuing,” Bonham said. “You have the opportunity to interact with a lot of different people, especially working in a small county like Lake County. There’s a lot of work to it and some things are harder than others to cover than others but you definitely get to talk to a lot of nice people.”

Bonham hearkened back to a time when he would create creativity rather than allow a video game to limit his environment and choices. Bonham recalled the first stages of an infatuation with creative writing as a fifth grader.

“When I put pen to paper, I could write whatever I wanted to; it was a liberating thing,” Bonham said. “It’s important for kids to realize that, that it never limits their imagination. It’s really important for kids to foster their imaginations at that age.”

Deb Watts, a teacher at Union for 31 years who arranged the event, said Bonham provided a unique experience for the students, a break from the inevitability that is her voice. Watts said she regularly attempts to bring in guests to introduce students to a different dimension of the writing process

Given the students’ assignment, to create a newspaper encompassing advertising, cartoons and news articles, bringing in Bonham seemed an appropriate direction.