GSI Students Skype with Michael Slackman
Source/Author: Richard Beaton, GSI Director
November 12, 2015
On Thursday, November, 12, Shorecrest Upper School students in the GSI program had the opportunity to Skype with Michael Slackman, Managing International Editor for The New York Times. Mr. Slackman opened the session with an overview of his understanding of the role of journalism. He spoke of the importance of a free press to the functioning of democracy. Journalism's mission is to bear witness, to make sure that the world pays attention to situations in which, most often, the lives of human beings are at risk for one reason or another.
Mr. Slackman fielded questions from students that ranged over a wide variety of topics including the Sino-American tensions in the South China Sea, the Arab Spring, the downed Russian airliner and the current immigration crisis in Europe. Mr. Slackman delivered candid, well-informed responses that balanced complexity with succinctness. “Democracy is about values,” he proposed, “and values take time. Democracy also requires diversity, tolerance and compromise.”
In his response to what turned out to be the session's last question, he said that his experience as bureau chief in Moscow in the late 1990s helped him realize that his own experiences and assumptions were very different from theirs, obliging him to ask questions and broaden his worldview. Without realizing it, he wonderfully articulated the goal of the GSI itself!
GSI Members are grateful to Upper School History Teacher, Ron Heller, for his assistance in making the conversation with Mr. Slackman possible.
GSI Members are grateful to Upper School History Teacher, Ron Heller, for his assistance in making the conversation with Mr. Slackman possible.
