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agsr

With so much fake news on social media and decreasing attention span in younger generation, we should formally teach kids in school how to spot fake news.

davidS

That is a great idea.  Bbc featured a story on this

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-42242630

WilliamSchulz

It would depend, because what if the teachers / parents had a different idea of what fake news was then what might actually be fake news. Don't get me wrong, I love your premise, but could you expand on that a bit more?

Akulakhan

Absolutely. It's necessary now more than ever. Checking sources and sifting fact from opinion should be something all kids are taught how to do.

Nope

My school teaches us how to find fake news.

agsr

@WilliamSchulz, agreed that exact methodology needs to be determined.  There is certainly risk of bias from teachers, but basic skills like looking for red flags and checking sources would be useful

CYDdharta

Absolutely NOT.  Who would teach such a course?  The Government?  That would clearly violate the 1st amendment.  Teachers?  An estimated 19% of high school graduates are functionally illiterate.  It would seem they have more important matters to deal with concerning their students, and they likely would do a poor job of it if they tried.

averyapro

I think that kids should be able to spot fake news, especially in our day and age because we don't want kids (especially youngins) running around and being super worried because they saw that a bomb was headed for America. Kids need to be taught about credibility and spotting these red flags. However, I think it should be taught to a certain degree and I don't think it should be taught by any regular teacher. We do this thing at our school called SOS which takes up about 90 minutes of the day and we learn about suicide prevention and spotting it when someone might commit suicide. Also, a counselor, who deals with this kind of stuff on a daily basis taught it to us which was appropriate. I think that the same could be done with this topic because it's not like you need a whole month to learn about fake news. I think that having a news specialist come in and teach about this would be appropriate because then we know that our kids will know what needs to be done to spot fake news. I also say that it should only be a one-day thing because you don't want it to go to a certain extent where kids are overwhelmed with information about fake news and then they think that all of the news is fake so having a brief lesson about this would be appropriate. 

joecavalry

No, they should be taught how to have good sources.

CYDdharta

I think we all be better off if they taught common sense in school.  That would cover how to spot fake news without getting into the politics of it.