That time a student fact checked a news story on the spot and was right

I was showing my 8th grade class a viral article about a new law that was supposedly taking away some school funding. The article was from a site I had never heard of, but it had a dramatic headline and a lot of shares. One kid raised his hand and said, "Mr. Wood, that link they source just goes to a different article that says the opposite." I clicked it, and sure enough, he was right. The source was a completely unrelated piece from a local paper. We spent the next 20 minutes looking up the actual bill on the state legislature's website. It turned out the viral article had twisted a minor budget adjustment into a wild story about cutting all arts programs. The whole experience made me think about how easily we can get duped by bad sourcing. Has anyone else had a moment where a kid or someone young pointed out a fact check you missed?

3 comments

3 Comments

hannahcraig12d agoTop Commenter

Gonna push back a little here. Sometimes the kids just get lucky or have been told what to look for by a parent who already verified the thing. Not saying that's always the case, but I've seen kids repeat a take close to what their folks were ranting about at dinner.

charles_coleman12d ago

My own kid did something similar a few years back with a meme I almost shared about some celebrity. He just said "Dad, that's a deep fake, look at the shadow on their face." I zoomed in and he was totally right, the lighting was all off in one spot. Made me feel like a dinosaur (which I guess I am, in internet years).

the_sean12d ago

Three kids can spot a deep fake but still can't find their own socks in the morning.