Musing on Too Much News!
There are just too many opportunities to "catch up" on the events of the day, or "Current Events", as I used to call it when I taught. Friday was often "Current Events" day in my classroom where students were asked to report on an event they might have seen in the evening news or read about in a local newspaper or magazine that piqued their interest. Students clipped articles out of one of several newspapers available to anyone living in the metropolitan area: "The Daily News", "The New York Times", "The Staten Island Advance", "The Newark Star Ledger", or "The New York Post". Occasionally a piece from an out-of-town paper like "The Times-Picayune" from New Orleans or "The Washington Post" would find its way into my classroom especially after a holiday break when kids were traveling to visit family.
Most of the "Current Events" were often circled around three areas of interest for the tweens I taught in Middle School: sports, food or gory events.
Many of the students were strong supporters of the professional teams one might expect: the NY Yankees and Mets in the baseball realm were often presented with an ardor seldom seen anywhere else. Middle school sports fans are serious about who they like. Every once in a while, I would get a student who moved from another state whose sporting loyalty was often challenged, but, all-in-all, things went pretty smoothly with some ruffled feathers, but no fisticuffs. Local sports reporting also had a strong following. Many of the students had siblings or friends who played on local high school teams, so these events were followed closely.
I had a small group of students one year who followed the food editor who had visited the school for an event. They would bring in her cooking column or even clip out recipes they want to try, or, on a few occasions, had tried at home. But, come to think of it, no one brought in the final product of the cake, cookie or main course recipe they were so eager to share with us.
And then there were the gory events. There was always a cadre of kids who would bring in the goriest story of the week Car crashes, stabbings, shootings, and crime sprees were some of the events reported on with all seriousness on Fridays.
I often wonder if it would be possible to have "Current Events" Fridays in this day and age of instant, shareable and slanted news? At any given moment it is possible to tap into three, four or even more interpretations of a singular event. We currently live in an age where there may actually be too much information for mostly everything. And there are social media platforms where some folks seem to get all of their news and information. People live in information bubbles and social silos where they only hear the echos of those who see the world as they see it. We are told that there are things called "alternative facts" that can flip the meaning of what really is the real deal to reverse truth...AKA: lying.
I think the first thing we have to do is go back to the first lesson for sixth graders in a good social studies class: teaching how to tell the difference between "fact" and "opinion". We need to rid all reporters from using words like "I think...", "My assumption...", "I speculate...", "It might be that..."
We need to get back to Sgt. Friday's investigative mantra, "Just the facts, Ma'am. Just the facts."
