Teaching Political Scare and Smear Ads to Kids
Tuesday, 7 October 2008 Clay Burell 
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Since schools, so often limited to teaching to the lowest common denominator of parental intelligence, can’t teach politics any more relevantly than they can teach religion, economics, biology, or anything else, the following video offers both a good argument for the importance of bucking this dumbing-down-for-fear trend, and a good approach to helping students view campaign ads critically:
With the McCain campaign’s announcement that it will heighten attacks on Obama’s character, and the Obama campaign’s decision to meet mud with mud instead of being Swift-boated a la Kerry ’04, schools would be irresponsible if they didn’t try to equip students with the tools to understand how these things all work.
On a personal note, things may be quiet around here for a spell. I’m too interested in the elections and the economy to be able to write about much else right now (and by the way, these podcasts from This American Life, Part 1 here, Part 2 here, explain the economic crisis in a way that puts the mainstream media and both presidential candidates to shame, and are required listening for anybody wanting to understand the crisis – and they spread responsibility in a non-partisan way). I’m also busy with some projects that I hope will get a green light soon so I can share them, and with slowly getting back on stable footing domestically after my mother-in-law’s passing. So bear with me.
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No. 1 — October 7th, 2008 at 10:09 am
This is perfect. Just perfect. I think it’s easy for kids to get caught up in the big hype machine, but that’s exactly it: politics are often made so they can get to the most base, guttural fears and simplistic, shallow statements without getting to any real issues. That’s what our founding fathers, even indirectly, wanted our politics to look like, and this is the monster that they kinda created. Well done on highlighting this dialogue.
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No. 2 — October 7th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hi Clay
I’ve been looking around your blog. So many thought provoking and contemplative posts.
I would imagine that you found the confines of our public school system just a bit confining.
I would love to see every school include a course in their curriculum about understanding media-not just political media, but all forms of print, visual, etc.
So many people – not just children – take what they read and see it as truth and never look at who is creating or funding the information.
We have a so called educational expert writing for the Washington Post telling us about the best schools and materials. We rarely hear that the Post owns Kaplan Educational Services.
Is it coincidental that he often highlights schools which emphasize heavy test preparation?
Then again, what does it say to us when we elect a mayor of New York City who owns one of the largest media conglomerates in the country?
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No. 3 — October 9th, 2008 at 4:53 am
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