Now is the time to teach news literacy in every grade, writes NLP’s Charles Salter

To help strengthen our democracy, news literacy skills should be taught to students of all ages, writes News Literacy Project President and CEO Charles Salter in a piece for the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

“If we expect students to become well-informed, engaged, and equal participants in our democracy, we need to teach media literacy, and we need to start now,” Salter argues.

Salter’s piece was included in a roundup of the best articles and columns in School Administrator Magazine’s recent “best of” 2022-2023 edition. The magazine is a publication of The American Association of School Administrators.

Among other tips for integrating news literacy into classrooms, Salter suggests that educators spend time cultivating trust in quality journalism, using real-world examples, and avoiding the introduction of conspiracy theories to students.

“Media literacy is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy,” Salter writes. “America’s singular form of governance can’t survive if the public is uninformed, misinformed, or drowning in news and content of questionable credibility.”