In an increasingly polarized climate where disinformation is rampant, people need the skills to engage responsibly with digital media. But how can we help young people to withstand this torrent of manipulative disinformation? Start with supporting their mental health and well-being. To teach media literacy, we must also do due diligence to understand the emerging media landscape and recognize the mental health challenges it presents. These Learning for Justice resources provide concrete guidance for supporting and engaging young people as they navigate the current media environment.
May 3 is the Freedom To Learn National Day of Action, a day of advocacy for inclusive education and young people’s freedom to read, learn and build a just future. Our collective responsibility is to counter disinformation, uplift honest history and engage our communities to serve all children.
From an early age, each of us must navigate numerous social institutions, many of which were designed to perpetuate centuries-old inequities. For us to move in those spaces with power and agency, civic knowledge, skills and dispositions are essential. But alarming trends reveal a sharp decline in civics competency among adults in the United States, and participation in places that bring people together to solve common problems has withered, too. Civics education needs a critical social justice lens so people can fulfill the potential of a multiracial and inclusive democracy.
School policies that include harsh punishments, automatic out-of-class time and police involvement for discipline contribute to pushing young people out of classrooms and into the criminal legal system. These punitive practices disproportionately affect Black and other children of color, students with disabilities, young people experiencing poverty and children from communities that have been historically marginalized. Urgent change is needed to end school pushout and dismantle this school-to-prison pipeline.