WHERE DO STUDENTS COME FROM, MOMMY?

Ah, nothing like the last few grafs of a school story to get the blood flowing. Especially when the story delivers news you can use -- information that's vital to your everyday life.

A story in Friday's News-Leader, by Ryan Slight, is the perfect example. Writing about the Nixa School District, Slight banged out a kicker that should be required reading for all budding journalists:

Nixa Superintendent Stephen Kleinsmith gave board members a demographic presentation. The district now has about 4,800 students — an increase of more than 300 from last school year, he said.

"That's tremendous growth and a great deal of change, and we must be proactive in our thinking" to accommodate it, Kleinsmith said.

The superintendent partly attributed the student growth to Nixa's large number of women of child-bearing age.

Sperm also contributed to the increase in the number of students. Just FYI.