Missouri Press Association
Serving Missouri Newspapers Since 1867
We live in a messy world. No matter what side of the aisle you sit on, we can all agree that right now it’s tough to know exactly what is happening in the news as we’ve known it for our adult lives.
Now imagine you're a kid. Kids these days aren't just listening to drive time radio, watching the local or national broadcast, and maybe opening up a paper or online publication. They don't have to determine what is true, what is fake, what matters, and what doesn't from a handful of media outlets. Today's kids are inundated with news from hundreds of organizations across multiple platforms every hour of the day.
TikTok, YouTube, X, Instagram, all shouting at you, telling you what you should think, what you should believe, what you should do – without even an inkling of whether these ideas are true, the political influence behind them, and now, in the age of AI, whether they are even coming from a human.
As parents, we should be concerned that we are sending our kids out into this digital world without the tools they need to at least start to safely navigate all of these platforms. As parents, we have an obligation to help them.
That is why, for the fourth year in a row, I have introduced in the Missouri House an iteration of HB116, which would pilot a program in Missouri’s school districts to build student competency in media literacy.
We must give our kids the knowledge and skills they need to critically assess, analyze, create, and participate in today’s information and media environment, so that they can both understand what is happening in the world around them, and develop civic virtues such as intellectual curiosity and reasoned deliberation.
This week, March 10-14 marks Civic Learning Week. Thousands of Americans from all walks of life will take part in events here in Missouri and across the country that show how civic education can strengthen and unite this country.
It’s critical that we use this moment to think about what a well-rounded civic education should look like and how we can provide that for young people here in our state. Civic education is rooted in the building of foundational knowledge about how our system of government works and the roles and responsibilities of every American.
We also must think about what we can do to create 21st century citizens through civic education that includes essential skills such as media literacy, civil discourse, and even financial literacy, that truly give young people the tools they need to navigate an ever-more-complicated American society.
And this should not be a partisan issue. All of us together need to do more. We’ve not spent enough class time teaching our young people how to maintain and become involved in our democracy. Research consistently demonstrates that social studies receives the least amount of instructional time in the elementary grades. And each year, the federal government spends roughly $50 per student on STEM education but only 50 cents per student on civic education.
Educating our young citizens about what it means to be a citizen is a patriotic act. And we know that despite our differences, Americans agree on civics, as some 56 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of Democrats BOTH said that civic education is a cure for our partisan divide.
Let’s start by passing a bill that would give them a skill that is more important than ever. Now is the time.
State Representative Jim Murphy, a Republican, represents parts of St. Louis County (District 94) in the Missouri House of Representatives, which includes the Oakville and Mehlville School Districts. He was elected to his first two-year term in November 2018.
