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This is great, honestly.

If you go back to antiquity, education was about philosophy. It was about learning how to observe, and think critically, and see the world for what it is.

And then in modern times, education became about memorisation - learning facts and figures and how to do this and that. And that way of teaching and learning just doesn't fit any longer with what our digital age has become.

In my opinion, we are heavily overdue for a revamp of what education should be, and what skills are most important to society in this post-truth world. Critical thinking is an important foundation to real knowledge that we don't teach enough.

basic media literacy is really needed, hopefully it doesn't come with any political bias built in

Can someone teach the boomer generation too? They are vastly more susceptible to believing anything they read online

Maybe sanction the media outlets for pumping the hate and bullshit out, gbnews for example with all of the blatant racist bullshit they push.

The BBC also do it, but is generally state sanctioned and much more insidious, e.g. support for Israel, attacks on the left.

I learned critical thinking and news analysis when I was in school. No wonder England is doing so poorly if their kids aren't

Just show The Alt-Right Playbook in classes. In particular, “How to Radicalize a Normie”

Get them all some fine excerpts from ml comms

I have mixed feelings. The UK has an incredibly broad definition of extremism. Socialism and antifascism are considered extremist ideologies.

The justification is to stop people like the ones doing pogroms rn, but giving the state power will always be a double-edged sword, one where the edge that swings left is sharper.

"Kids, when you see someone talk about the climate catastrophe or rebellion, report them immediately!"

I know this is a bit of a shitty take, but there just isn't a fix for shitty information constantly streaming in. As long as we allow some insane people that think maximizing profit above anything else to own the means of communication, things are going to continue to get shittier.

Correction. English children will be taught this. Education is a devolved matter in the UK so this will not apply to the other parts of the UK

This is nothing new. I was taught about analysing bias etc in news sources during "citizenship" classes 20+ years ago. Before that, it was called PSHE if I remember correctly.

Isn't critical thinking taught everywhere?

This is supposed to be happening everywhere. In the US, librarians mostly lead this initiative.

I'm an oldish dude with fairly conservative liberal views and I think it's absolutely essential that our children get taught this. The risk that this is Orwell's 1984ish is minimal and the benefits far outweigh it.

BuT WHo DeCIdEs WHaT iS MiSInfOrMaTIoN #1984 ???

One example may include pupils analysing newspaper articles in English lessons in a way that would help differentiate fabricated stories from true reporting.

In computer lessons, they could be taught how to spot fake news websites by their design...

and maths lessons may include analysing statistics in context.

That these lessons haven't been at the core of those subjects since forever is horrific.

We have the same problem in NZ. Several generations of citizens generally lacking basic information processing skills. I suppose they make better consumers.