The Good News or the Bad News

• #UKEdChat session 591
• The news can be baffling and scary for our young people
• Teachers can guide learners through current affairs to make them easier to understand
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The news seems like an endless torrent of horrendous, anxiety-inducing and baffling absurdities. As adults, we have a fighting chance of making some sense of the barrage of bad news which seems to be coming our way faster and worse each day. But for the young people we teach, it must be deeply worrying.

Looking at the news websites on the day of writing there is war, the rising cost of living, spiralling inflation, scandal and natural disasters. How can we both teach our young people about what is going on in the world, but also not leave them a quivering wreck? There is a debate about how much teachers should filter, sanitise and/or censor what is happening in the news, and when to introduce what into the classroom. Is meeting a less rose-tinted view of the world in the safety of the classroom better than possibly encountering such things from elsewhere without the safety net of a teacher to explain and support?

Then there is the multitude of different outlets for news, with many different ways of viewing the same stories from different angles. How can teachers navigate that minefield and provide objective guidance to help learners assess what is fact and what is fiction or opinion?

In this #UKEdChat session, which took place on Thursday 24th February 2022 at 8pm(UK), we discussed how the news is used and explained in the classroom, how teachers can guide learners to identify reliable sources of news, and how to mitigate some of the anxiety and worry that many of the stories in the news may induce in our young people.

Questions

1. Do you use the news and current affairs in your lessons? If so, how?
2. What age-appropriate sources of news for your learners do you use or recommend?
3. What are your thoughts on the level of exposure vs filtering teachers should do with the news with your age of learners?
4. Have your learners expressed negative feelings about what they have seen in the news. If so, what was the topic?
5. How can teachers reduce any worry or anxiety from current events and the news in our young people?
6. How can teachers equip young people with the tools they need to assess the best sources of news?
7. Should teachers show a view point on news stories in the classroom? Why (not)?
8. How can your school improve its communication of school news?

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