5th grade curriculum in 2017: School librarians now teaching kids how to spot fake news in Seattle

[kpete]

Link to tweet

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/librarians-take-up-arms-against-fake-news/

[mwooldri]

1. In 1990s England, something similar was taught in history class.

I know, because I was the recipient of such education.

We didn't have it described as "fake news" - instead we called it "propaganda". Examples were chiefly from World War 2, because we were studying it at the same time.

As for the lesson itself? It was simply put about considering the source of information... was it a primary source, a secondary source... how reliable was the information... any other sources of information that corroborate the information being examined... and so on.

It's great that librarians are trying to make school students aware of the "fake news" problem, but this should be part of any curriculum covering history classes.

Admittedly for me this education came in the equivalent of 9th grade and not 5th... so maybe the librarians have a point.

[Hoyt]

2. Hope the kids go home and splain things to their gullible parents.