The inability of many of today’s students to evaluate information online for truthfulness has become a crisis in American education. Even though most students now use the Internet as their primary tool to learn what’s happening in the world, the education system has been slow to acknowledge the problem and begin a serious search for solutions. I hope you’re ready to do your part, and that you’ll find what I’ve shared here useful in shaping a better educator response to a global trend...
There has been an influx of reading lists for white Americans to more deeply understand the long history and enduring egregious examples of systemic racism in our country in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. This is a rational and important reaction: we know that reading increases knowledge, understanding, and empathy. I am a white educator in a predominately white county and school. Too often, segregated white spaces are insulated from needing to do the urgent work of dismantling...
My name is Jane Bannester and I’m a teacher at Ritenour High School in St. Louis, Missouri. On Aug. 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis. It happened on a Saturday. Our school began its first day of a new school year that Monday. Ritenour High School was in the circle of protests that ran several weeks. It is only 13 miles from Ferguson, separated by an airport. At...
The First Amendment was written to protect individual freedoms. Yet today, one-third of Americans believe it “goes too far.” Limiting our freedoms was not the intention of the founding fathers, but how can we spread awareness about the importance of the First Amendment? The answer is YOU. Here is an opportunity to spread the message in a PSA about why these freedoms should not be limited. It is SchoolJournalism’s sincere hope that you will not only participate in this contest, but also share your entry with your school and community. Do note that judges look for PSAs that not only follow the specifications as listed below, but they also are looking for a PSA that demonstrates...
The inability of many of today’s students to evaluate information online for truthfulness has become a crisis in American education. Even though most students now use the Internet as their primary tool to learn what’s happening in the world, the education system has been slow to acknowledge the problem and begin a serious search for solutions. I hope you’re ready to do your part, and that you’ll find what I’ve shared here useful in shaping a better educator response to a global trend that Oxford researchers describe as “industrialized disinformation” and the Rand Corporation calls “the era of Truth Decay.” In 2016 researchers at Stanford University’s History Education...
Laura Miserez, a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, currently works at “The Missourian” in Washington, Missouri, as a reporter and the publication’s Features Editor. She is also working on her master’s degree in American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis. SJ: How did you first get interested in journalism? LM: “I didn’t get interested in journalism until college actually. I have always loved reading, and for a long time I wanted to write fiction books someday. I knew that a lot of writers had backgrounds in journalism, so when I started college at Mizzou I enrolled in the journalism school because I knew it had a great reputation, and I...
