Today I learned that Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as their international word of the year. Post-truth: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In other words, the truth is no longer relevant. I could’ve told you that. I blogged a few weeks ago about my attempt to push students to choose unbiased sources. The very next week a student from that class handed in a paper. At the bottom, right after his list of biased sources, he wrote, “There really isn’t such a thing as an unbiased source anymore. I can find truth on these websites, too.” Apparently, truth is subjective. I always knew that beauty was in the eye of the beholder, but now truth is, too? Just today I read that many Trump supporters planned to boycott Pepsi over fictional remarks made by the company’s CEO. Where did they get this misinformation? From a biased source, created just to trick people. Many of these sites are run by teenagers in Macedonia. You might think that part is made up, but really, it’s not. These savvy teens make fake websites with catchy political-sounding names, and then they make up crazy-yet-believable stories that get clicks from users on Facebook. That’s our world. Teenagers in Macedonia make up fake news stories that influence voters. And also my students. So what is my role as an educator in this world? I need to help my students re-engage with objective facts through relevant reading and lessons on bias. I also obviously need to teach them empathy. We also need to get started in preparations for the Smarter Balanced assessment next year. And by the way, the only student in my English 2 classroom yesterday who knew what the word “omniscient” means was Albert, the foreign exchange student from Spain. If you’re my Facebook friend you might know that my husband and I recently just finished the #Whole30Challenge. That means we went 30 days without any added sugars, dairy, grains, and legumes. Oh, and no alcohol. (Yes, we survived the election without alcohol.) However, our 30 days are up, so I might just have to raise a glass soon to “post-truth” and this crazy world we now live in. Or at least I'll raise a glass to John Keats and his "Grecian Urn." That's a Truth I can stand behind.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AboutTeach. Archives
September 2020
|