Among the fortunate events in my life was the day in 1976 that my parents moved me to El Cajon, Calif., two blocks from Grossmont High School.

It was fortunate because one of the teachers there was Geoff Anderson, the best journalism teacher (probably best ever) in San Diego County. I’m not making this up. Mr. Anderson’s papers have won more journalism awards than any other in the county. For years I took it for granted that a high school journalism education taught all the basics of news gathering and writing. I was shocked when I became editor of my college paper and found that every freshman we tried to put on the staff couldn’t write. They didn’t know the first thing about news style. That’s when I realized what a good education I got from Mr. Anderson, and I was, at best, a half-ass student.

Daniel Weintraub is among the best newsmen covering California politics. Weintraub is also a former student of Mr. Anderson (about two years ahead of me, so we didn’t know each other in high school, though we met later). Now he has a blog. You should check it out, especially if you’re a cal-poli fanatic (link found thanks to Dean Esmay).