Spring Break
Tidwell: A teacher of teachers
Kristina Peters/Campus Reporter
Issue date: 6/24/08 Section: News
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"I got the bug back in the ninth grade," said Tidwell, professor of journalism and chair of the Journalism Department.
An English teacher at his high school got a group of students together to start a newspaper and although he wasn't present at the first meeting, it didn't matter.
"I didn't go to the meeting, but they named me sports editor," he said. "Right away, I said, 'Oh my god, I love this.'"
Tidwell never once changed his mind about journalism and on Aug. 7, Tidwell will receive the Scholastic Journalism Division's Journalism Educator of the Year award.
It will be presented to him during the SJD business meeting at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication convention in Chicago
"So many people change their minds and majors, but I didn't," he said. "I guess I was boring."
Leaving his mark
Tidwell continued to work with high schools as executive secretary of the Illinois Journalism Education Association from 1988 to 2005. He stepped down to focus on his Eastern duties as journalism chair.
John J. Gonczy, vice president of IJEA, said the organization's goal is to support journalism teachers, advisers and students by promoting quality media programs in high schools across the state.
"It is hard to imagine IJEA without James Tidwell because he has been such an integral part of this organization from the beginning," Gonczy said. "His years of service to IJEA, his leadership and his willingness to support us continue to keep our organization vital."
Gonczy met Tidwell seven years ago during a fall conference at the University of Illinois. Gonczy was taking the roles as an adviser for a high school paper and thought it seemed like a good idea to attend conferences and workshops on high school journalism.
"(Tidwell) was leading a session for new advisers," Gonczy said. "Well, that's what the program said. But it was a ruse to get warm bodies and fresh blood involved in IJEA. "The next thing I knew, James talked me into being on the board, and now I am vice president."
Tidwell continues to help out high school advisers with a summer online course he teaches.
People from all over the United States and a few from other countries have taken.
Tidwell said he has taught people from various places like Italy, France, California, New York and Texas.
Sarah Doerner, president of IJEA, took several of Tidwell's advising courses. She first met him around 1990 when she was elected as the IJEA regional director from the southern part of Illinois.
"As a small school journalism teacher and yearbook and school newspaper adviser, at first, I was awed by his quiet command and support of the subject at hand - scholastic journalism and his empathy for advisers," Doerner said.
Now, Doerner considers Tidwell a friend who she can now call "James."
"It has been only in the past few years that I have been able to stop saying 'Dr. Tidwell' and instead say 'James' when talking to him or referring to him," she said. "At first he was an educator, then a mentor, and now he is a friend."
Tidwell's work with high school journalism extends. He worked with the Illinois High School Association to develop a statewide journalism contest.
The contest is in its third year and high school students are brought to Eastern in April to compete.
"The IHSA competitions give students from all over the state the opportunity to engage in journalistic activities, practicing their writing, editing, designing and photography skills under deadline pressure," Tidwell said. "The enthusiasm and excitement demonstrated at the awards ceremonies are a site to behold."
Tidwell began working at Eastern in 1987. Throughout the years he has also taught news writing, journalism and democracy and media law. Media law is the only class he teaches now besides a summer course. Tidwell calls the media law class his "baby."
"That's the one course I sort of would be lost if I didn't teach," he said.
The course material for the class is Tidwell's book "Media Law in Illinois," which is required reading for anyone working in Illinois media.
Tidwell said about 700 of 1,222 journalism graduates since 1987 have taken his law class.
'A good gig'
Tidwell's interest in law began when he took a constitution law class at Oklahoma Baptist University. He received his bachelor of arts from there in 1970 and received his masters from the University of Oklahoma in 1972.
It was in 1976 when Tidwell became more involved with law.
He was working at the Tulsa Community College as a journalism instructor when the school paper ran an editorial that the college did not like.
Tidwell said they threatened to fire him, but the media stepped in and supported him.
"They sort of calmed things down," he said. "Out of that, I thought I should go to law school."
The college didn't fire him, but he left in 1978 to work at the Indiana University Southeast. He said he was the only faculty member in the journalism department who didn't have a doctorate.
"I felt like a second-class citizen," he said.
Tidwell then applied for law school in the fall of 1981 at the University of Louisville School of Law. He received his degree after three years and is licensed to practice law in Indiana and Kentucky.
Tidwell had an opportunity to take a job as a lawyer, but he chose to continue his work with journalism.
He said he thinks he could have been a good court attorney, but he has no regrets.
"Higher education is a good gig," Tidwell said. "I'm not complaining."
Kristina Peters can be reached at 581-7942 or at kmpeters2@eiu.edu.
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