Why NJ has the best schools in the nation

[rightwinger]

Parent claims teacher wouldn't allow use of Fox News as source; school steps in

School bans the use of fake news in reports

 

[usmbguest5318]

"I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books."
"No. An he were, I would burn my study"
― William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing​

From the article:

The parent, who asked not to be identified, spoke to Michele Blood, a freelance writer for MomZette, stating a global studies teacher told students the network was biased and could not be used for classwork or homework. Instead, students were told to only use CNN, according to the article.

Back in my day, you know what the operative thus relevant part of the teacher's instruction would have been? CNN is allowed as a source and Fox is not. Nobody had time to be pitching a fit over why "this one" and not "that one." Were were in school. We had assignments to do and instructions to follow. Period. Whatever pedagogical reasons the teachers had for their instructions was not even a topic open for discussion, let alone debate.

I could hear the headmaster now. "What I suggest is that you reach out to St. Mark's and see if their methods better suit you. If it does and they are willing to admit him, I'll do all I can to make 'John's' transition as smooth as possible." Why would the conversation have had that tenor? Because no "legacy" kid's parents were going to raise Cain like that, and neither were "nouveaux" parents. That just left "flakes," and "we're the better off without them." Or as Momma would say, "Just as well let the 'nok'd' up' knuckleheads go."

(St. Mark's is our main rival school, and though they, like the rest of our little portmanteau of schools, didn't really do anything differently than our instructors, that our key rival was suggested was subtle, crystalline, and put the ball in the parent's court.)

"We learned about a decision in [an 11th grade honors] classroom to limit students to certain media sources in an assignment," [Superintendent] Moore said in a statement. "Without any delay, we partnered with parents to understand the needs of our students. We moved swiftly to address their concerns."

What? What a pansy. Throughout four years of high school and four years of college we were countless times limited in terms of what reference materials we could use on various assignments. Whatever the limits were, the teachers had their reasons, and those reasons always derived from their greater understanding of what were the lesson/assignment's teaching objectives and how most effectively to achieve them. For the most part:

• Television news was never among the allowed references, which was just as well as we didn't have televisions in our rooms.
• Print news -- magazine or paper -- was okay provided it wasn't an editorial article, and even so, such references were best used for only the most rudimentary of details or as ancillary support or discussion.
• Strongly preferred were papers in journals.
• Books of non-editorial non-fiction were also fine, but it was a hell of a lot easier to use a journal paper than a book

Yes, of course, there were case-by-case exceptions granted if one's topic necessitated it.

Moore said "shifts in technology and other recent factors have made it even more difficult for students to glean truth from media," adding the school, like others, has "pledged to equip our students with tools that will help them navigate, grow, and come into their own.

Far more useful to one of the key tasks of high school coursework is having students develop the knowledge and skills that allow them to adroitly glean what is and is not true, probable, plausible, possible, or impossible. If it's indeed hard, among other things, they should be getting enough exercises so that it ceases to be difficult. That end can be achieved facilely with or without Fox content.