National News Literacy Week: Politics in schools

Whether it’s impeachment, the upcoming presidential election, or possible changes in the Virginia General Assembly, we live in a heightened political climate. With that backdrop, this is the first National News Literacy Week. It’s a project that will provide educators, students and the general public with easy-to-use tools to help them sort through fact and fiction in today’s every changing news world.

As part of News Literacy Week, News 3 partnered with Churchland High School senior Elijah Macklin on a story about the role of politics in schools. Elijah will vote for the first time this year, and he’s very interested in politics. He wanted to examine why it was so difficult and even not permitted at times to discuss politics and current events in classrooms. We learned, for example, that the impeachment hearings cannot be shown live in classrooms because it violates school district policy.