Let the games begin

I was forced to vamp through my first class this evening. I had pretty much everything written out -- discussion points, introduction of self, introduction of class -- but only five of my 12 students showed. Four of them, they revealed, are taking my workshop because they must to graduate. They revealed that they have no interest in journalism or reporting at all. Most want to be in corporate communications and public relations. Most seemed pretty put off by my plans for the class: Assigning them each a beat and sending them out to find and cover municipal stories.
Apparently, in the past the class had been more of a chalk and talk. Lots of theory, no doing.
"I thought we'd be doing more public relations," a faux redhead said after I coaxed some feedback from my stunned class.
"I hate public relations," I responded. "Good reporters break public relations people."
I was trying to provoke discussion. They smiled at each other, but it ended at that.