The pandemic brought with it school closures and reliance on on-line instruction, which, although safer, is far less effective than in-class instruction. In parallel with pandemic came the explosion of the conspiracy theory industry, much prompted by the low IQAnon cult, anti-vaxxers and Trumpists denying the election results. According to research reported by CNBC, the past year has exposed a number of children to the conspiracy theories held and vocalized by their parents as they remained out of school and housebound:
"Since the last time full classrooms congregated, a whole industry of misinformation has exploded online, spreading conspiracy theories on everything from the alleged steal of the presidential election, which Joe Biden won, to the prevalence of microchips in Covid-19 vaccines.
It’s bad enough that kids are exposed to dangerous untruths across their favorite social media apps like Facebook, YouTube and TikTok. An equally large problem is that, while stuck at home during the pandemic, many students had their days of virtual schooling interrupted by screaming parents, who themselves had fallen deep into the internet’s darkest rabbit holes." (our emphasis)
A 7th grade science and technology teacher in Alabama, Sarah Wildes, was confronted by the problem when she was asked by her students to sort out the misinformation from the facts about the 2020 Presidential election, with the misinformation coming from radicalized parents:
"For kids who have yet to fully develop critical thinking skills, basic truths are being distorted by the combination of misinformation on social media and a growing population of duped and radicalized parents.
'They were at home consuming this information without really being able to bust out of their own bubble having been in quarantine,' Wildes said. 'They were starved for guidance on how to navigate all the things that they were seeing.'” (our emphasis)
As a tool to help the students navigate between falsehoods and facts, Wildes is using an online tool from the non-profit News Literacy Project called "Checkology:"
"Checkology teaches students about the various types of misinformation they may encounter, the role the press plays in democracy, understanding bias in the news and recognizing how people fall into conspiracies. Since its launch in May 2016, Checkology has registered more than 1.3 million students and nearly 36,300 teachers."
Every teachers' union and sane school board should have their social studies / science & technology curriculums use "Checkology" as a means of "de-toxing" the children of conspiracy loons wherever possible. It's not about political philosophies, it's about misinformation and lies versus facts, and that's what schooling is all about.
(photo: CBS News)
