Essay Question:
Some people think that secondary school children should study international news as one of the school subjects. Other people think that it is a waste of valuable school time.
Answer:
Secondary school is a crucial stage through which young learners shape their opinions of the world. Therefore, developing the right school curriculum is a process that has to be well-panned. Recently, it has been argued that “International News” should be incorporated into the educational plan as one of the subjects to be taught to high school students. However, I strongly disagree with this opinion simply because of news content and the credibility of the international media.
Firstly, the majority of what is being broadcasted by the international media is of a negative nature. For example, a recent study by the UK government showed that 79% of the headlines are related to terrorism, crimes, sexual harassments, etc. Allowing these types of negatively-charged stories to be a part of the school curriculum can be extremely detrimental to students, especially at such an impressionable age. Therefore, the logic of offering “International News” as a course to be taught in secondary schools has to be challenged.
Secondly, it is extremely hard to find a credible and unbiased news agency, if any even exists. Take for example government-owned news agencies. These networks tend to avoid stories that would make their home countries look bad in certain aspects. This can potentially lead to form an incomplete image of how youth perceive the world. From this, it becomes evident why such a subject should not be taught in high schools.
To conclude, “International News”, if been taught, to schoolchildren, can have a damaging impact on the young generation due to news content and the difficulty in find a credible news source. These two reasons make it clear why young learner should not be taught this subject in secondary schools.