Small Things Count

One of the reasons I coached and taught high school speech and debate was my firm belief that everyone needs to have rational-thinking skills.  (Okay.  So I also loved interacting with kids who were smart and/or liked a challenge.)

I’m dismayed to see the Stanford study that shows that students, for the most part, are NOT ABLE to distinguish between news that is real and news that is fake.

So many false “facts” bombard us, most notably from the recent political campaigns but also via Facebook, Twitter, and other social media.  Then it’s spread by well-meaning people on their own social media sites, through their emails, or by word of mouth–BEFORE reason has been applied or the “facts” checked for their accuracy or slant, which gives those “facts” a life of their own because more and more unthinking people accept them and pass them on.

The place to start is with those students.  Teachers, parents, and friends should challenge them to THINK, to VERIFY, to APPLY REASON in everything they hear or read–to develop logical thinking skills.

Those skills have always been important; they’re needed even more today if our country and our human decency is to survive.