Should we add news to social studies lessons?
WHAT do news and social studies have i n common? Both of these things tackle the realities of life. To be specific about it, both these things tackle the unpleasant or more series realities of life.
Social Studies tackles things such as Economics, politics, issues on gender, issues on human rights, political issues such as graft and corruption and migration, contemporary issues such as disaster risk reduction and mitigation, labor issues, and different lessons from history such as the effects of colonization.
People say that mentioning or using content from legitimate news organizations adds realism to things because not every enrollee believes that things happen unless there is exact proof that it is really happening and if you do not give any proof, it would not catch their attention.
Others would fear that the news articles that would be shared would influence the opinion of the pupils and students negatively because they have doubts on the credibility of some news organizations because they think that when a reporter fails to do research, it reflects the organization as a whole or they have knowledge on certain things that go beyond what the organization knows or they have strong convictions over a particular stance.
I am sticking to the positive effects of incorporating content from legitimate news organizations that are related to the topic because it sparks interest for discussion.
We also get to present to the enrollees that it is important to be always in the know of what happens around us because it gives us a deeper understanding of things.
What difference does it make if there were mistakes on the printed materials we would use in teaching? The same thing would be applied: if the information were inaccurate, it would be disregarded and an effort to rectify things would be done.
Young people generally have less serious priorities when they are done with their academic obligations for the day and helping the family’s finances. They are more l i kely not to spend much time on what happens around them because they are more likely to focus on recreation.
By incorporating news in social studies, it would add value to being up to date with what happens.
It would help the students make more informed decisions because they are aware of what is going on with them. Being knowledgeable will make a person harder to fool. Being knowledgeable is like being prepared for battle and that is what we want for our students. ( Paid article)