Should schools teach children how to assess news sources?

Yes, definitely. From about age 10 or 11 on. Although there is a danger in different areas and ideological parts of the country teaching trust in biased news sources, critical thinking skills are essential. We did try to teach them at the college I worked at.

I can guarantee you that conservatives would cry bloody havoc over this attempt at “liberal brainwashing”.
Unless they get to dictate the factors, of course.

No and Yes.

The “no” part is because is because the question is too narrow. Asking about news sources completely ignores all the other inputs that a kid experiences every day.

What should happen is that kids should be taught how to think analytically in general. They could be taught not to accept everything on faith, but to question things and think for themselves. (Of course, if that happened, churches would be out of business).

You’d be teaching them media studies and some sociology.

Can you imagine the right-wing heads exploding if children were being taught that at a young age?

I’m all for it really, but it would actually expose standard corporate media more than anything. They could be shown examples of manipulative editing techniques, how questions are framed, how some topics are marginalised, how air time or print space is dedicated to different views, how some topics are sensationalised and made misleadingly vivid—and lots of other things.

I’d also get a kick out of Chomsky having to be read by 11 year olds.

Gosh you can start teaching them a lot earlier than that @janbb. I started teaching my kids, and now my grandkids, to sort out when I’m being silly or being serious from the time they were toddlers. If they determine I’m being silly (“Fake News”) we discuss why.
The schools do teach “fact or fiction” as early as Kindergarten.
But, again, their home life is going to make a much, much bigger impression on them than anything they learn in school. Always.

Yeah, mine did, but it wasn’t a government school. It also taught me to avoid the products of problematic companies, critical thinking, etc.

Of course, under the current regime of Donnie “fake news” Trump and his “school kids need guns to fight off school-raiding bears” secretary of education, I’m afraid of what their lessons would be like!

Teaching critical thinking and analysis would be a good start but that kind of education does not seem to be appreciated by those who consider themselves to be religious.

@Zaku every “government school” I’ve taught at teaches critical thinking.

It is appreciated @rojo, by many religious folks. How do you suppose I arrived at my final conclusion about God? They are not mutually exclusive. However, overall, those who are religious do seem much more gullible than average.

@Dutchess_III and you stand as proof of why they do not value such teachings. Thinking leads to questioning which leads to reasoning which leads to understanding which leads to knowledge and those action are the bane of those who require only unquestioning belief in the tenets of their religion.
As that famous philosopher Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs once said: “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain”.

Oh, you don’t have to tell me that they frown on questions. But I was raised in a household that encouraged questions. My Dad was a scientist at heart. But they were both Christian, more or less.
I think what kids learn at home is much more influencing than anything the schools try to teach them.

A simple course in logic, including a discussion of the common logical fallacies. would solve a lot of problems.
The problem is, it would make political correctness a more difficult sell if everybody sort of understood the principles of logic.

They didn’t teach that where I grew up. They offered an adult ed course at a local college, and my dad made me take it when I was in high school. Not sure how he got me enrolled, but it was really pretty cool.
And it affirms that whomever is presenting it, there is a ton of “fake news” out there, and It doesn’t what your politics are.

I’d be all for teaching children how to research and decide for themselves. I would be totally against telling them what are good sources and which are bad. Just like teaching children right from wrong or how to spend wisely at the supermarket…it is our job as parents to teach them to reason and to make their own decisions. I consider parents to be bad parents if all they do is pour their own attitudes into their children. Teaching children to think and reason is what school is supposed to be all about.

Well, I’m against telling the students the answers too. What a teacher would do would be to present two news sites and then lead a discussion into which one seems to be the more legitimate one. Then present another two news sites. If they just tell them which one is what, that is not “teaching.”

Yes. That is what my school teaches us about. I get a talk about reliable vs fake every time I write an argumentative essay

No, kids can figure out how to assess news by themselves. Teaching kids how to access news might be helpful.

Any information should be taken with a grain of salt. News, or other.

Getting kids to even care about the news, would be a start. Most of the kids I know could care less.

Kids don’t vote so if this is all about bullshit on Facebook the point is moot when it comes to teaching the kids. The problem is my mom believes the last thing she reads on Facebook. My mom was taught how quadratic equations work in high school. She is 60 now and can barely remember 9*6.

And confirming your echo chamber feels so good…. So good.

Our best bet is getting Sweden all up in our elections.

I had a history teacher in high school who emphasized the difference between primary and secondary sources. It is a lesson worth remembering. Most of the news we get is from secondary sources and requires us to keep an open mind as to its authenticity. The one good thing about Trump’s tweets is that they are a primary source for what Trump said. Unfortunately, most of what he says is trash.

@kritiper That’s like saying kids can figure out math all by themselves. No, they probably can’t. And there are lots of kids out there who think that just because it’s in writing it must be true. Lots of adults still think that too. As teachers, it’s our job to make sure they understand that that is not always true.

@Dutchess_III Not so. Math is math, no matter who teaches it or who it is learned by and/or how exactly. But a teacher who calls blacks by the “n” word, for example, could make up any assessment in and by the news. And they, the teachers, cannot be limited in what they could say or emphasize or exemplify simply by my example here, as many forms of are out there.

There are some bad teachers out there. I know. But the majority are not.