The following report is by Politico:
Amid a worrying rise in internet misinformation and political conspiracy theories, New Jersey students are poised to become some of the most informationally literate in the country.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed legislation, NJ S.B. 588 (22R)/NJ A.B. 4169 (22R), that will make New Jersey the first state to require that K-12 students learn about how information is produced and spread on the internet, critical thinking skills, the difference between facts and opinions and the ethics of creating and sharing information both online and in print.
Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation that is eroding the role of truth in our political and civic discourse. It is our responsibility to ensure our nation’s future leaders are equipped with the tools necessary to identify fact from fiction.
Murphy said in a statement
The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Legislature — somewhat surprisingly given the political polarization of “disinformation” spread online and the role online conspiracy theories have played in recent elections.
The Senate version’s lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Mike Testa (Cumberland), said the new law will help students “weigh the flood of news, opinion, and social media they are exposed to both online and off.”
This law isn’t about teaching kids that any specific idea is true or false. Rather, it’s about helping them learn how to research, evaluate, and understand the information they are presented for themselves.
Testa said in a statement.
Under the new law, the state Department of Education — in coordination with a committee of school library media specialists and teachers — will develop information literacy curriculum standards each school district will have to incorporate “in an appropriate place in the [district’s] curriculum.”
At minimum, the curriculum will have to include instruction on:
— The research process and how information is created and produced.
— Critical thinking and using information resources.
— Research methods, including the difference between primary and secondary sources.
— The difference between facts, points of view, and opinions.
— Accessing peer-reviewed print and digital library resources.
— The economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information.
— The ethical production of information.
The State Board of Education will then have to consider the DOE’s recommendations, hold public hearings and enter the process of folding those curriculum standards into the wider state learning standards making them a requirement for every traditional public school, charter school and renaissance school in the state.
Education advocacy groups, librarians and media specialists have backed the bill for years, but the effort found new prominence in the wake of remote learning due to the Covid-19 school closures and the increasingly powerful hold conspiracy theories like “stop the steal” and QAnon have had on the Republican Party.
Librarians in particular have pushed state lawmakers to act on the bill as they’ve seen their jobs sacrificed to budget cuts in recent years.
Beth Thomas, a former president of the New Jersey Association of School Librarians, said last year that as many as one fifth of New Jersey school districts did not have a certified school media specialist in the 2018-19 school year, despite the state administrative code mandating such a position.
The New Jersey Education Association teachers union has also supported the measure, calling it crucial to “prepare students” to engage “in our American democracy.”
At a time when misinformation and disinformation are eroding the foundations of that democracy, it is imperative that students have the tools they need to determine what information they can trust.
NJEA President Sean Spiller said in a statement
Olga Polites, leader of the New Jersey chapter of the advocacy group Media Literacy Now, said the skill of information literacy “has become urgently needed for all of us.”
With media and information literacy, students become more competent, confident media consumers and creators. They develop resilience. They can protect themselves from online harm, improve their physical and emotional well-being, and become more civically engaged citizens.
Polites said in an email.
Assemblymember Mila Jasey (D-Essex), one of the bill’s sponsors, said in an email that students’ access to information via smartphones and social media has exposed them “to a wealth of information that was never once imaginable,” making the ability to suss out the origin of such information and understand it in context “essential for children and young adults.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6
In many ways public school systems were already doing this for a LONG time. The content and information students are allowed to access are already super limited as is. After all, we’ve seen how stupid and illiterate people have become… Nevertheless, the brainwashing is bound to only get worse.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Public schools as well as private schools are a total travesty!
Colleges and universities are even worse!
Somebody with only a 2nd grade education or even no school at all not even nursery school has better brains than these over-educated nimrods.
My Comment under the U-Toob video-
ONLY TRUST CNN!….VACCINES ARE SAFE & EFFECTIVE!
Reply-
“Sure!…Sure! All of the worlds problems now are because of Trump, Putin, Anti-Vaxxers and Conspiracy theorists ….” OK, Time for Recess! We will talk about 911 when we come back!”
Anyone who disagrees with the gubbernmint or Media and the narrative (Official Narrative) …is a dangerous Extremist and a threat to our democracy!….. (What happened to Our Republic????
They’ll sublimely teach kids that anyone who disagrees with the government is a threat to the whole world, and must be dealt with and destroyed.