The life-long impact of teachers and news literacy

By Miriam Romais?

?My family is from Brazil, but my mother and I have lived in the United States for more than four decades now. A few years ago, while on vacation in S?o Paulo, one of the largest cities in the world, my mother was dining in a restaurant with my stepdad. The waiter came over and asked, “Are you Ms. Paladini?”??

She was. Someone had called the restaurant asking to talk to her, the waiter explained, handing her a phone. She was understandably confused. We never lived in S?o Paulo and don't have many connections there. My mother just happened to be at the restaurant that day.?

Curious, she walked over to the phone. On the line was a woman who had also been dining at the same restaurant and caught a glimpse of my mother as she walked out. The voice on the phone was excited: “I thought it was you! You were my teacher 40 years ago and I needed to tell you about the incredible impact you had in my life.”??

When my mom recently recounted this story, our eyes watered. I flashed back to all the years of seeing her hard work – teaching, grading, taking professional development courses, juggling the time she had to spend with us – because she loved to teach.?

My mother is a personal example of the life-long impact that educators often have on their students. I see it every day at the nonprofit News Literacy Project. As director of NewsLitNation?, our online and in-person community of educators, I work with librarians, teachers, and other school leaders across the country who are making a difference by teaching their students how to be news-literate and identify credible sources of information. Just like my mother, these educators are passing on knowledge that will serve their students throughout their whole lives.?

I know teachers often wonder if what they do makes a difference. Many are just trying to get through the next day, the next week, the next test or state mandate. There’s little time to stop and dream that maybe 40 years from now, a former student will recognize them and say thanks.?

Educators see the need to teach media literacy, knowing students need skills to identify misinformation and seek credible news and information as responsible consumers, sharers and creators of content. But teaching it can also feel overwhelming, tackling what feels like an enormous, global problem of misinformation constantly amplified by social media, AI and deepfakes. Many educators are not sure where to start.??

My role is to bring educators together to support each other and find a sense of community while providing free training and resources. Mostly, though, I hope they’ll find renewed enthusiasm, confidence and hope in the life-changing impact news literacy can have.??

When students are news-literate, they know how to think critically about all the information they scroll through and search for online. They can separate fact from fiction, so they can make informed decisions about what to believe, share and act on. They also help us have productive conversations with people who think differently, or who may themselves be misled by misinformation. Being news-literate helps students participate fully in civic life, especially when they’re old enough to vote.? That level of inspired and skeptical curiosity can last a lifetime.??

Thanks to my art and photography background, there’s another story that sticks with me that shows the meaningful impact of teaching news literacy. Our NewsLitNation ambassador Cathy Collins, a middle school technology teacher in Massachusetts, turned to our “Power of Art ” Checkology? lesson on editorial cartooning after the Uvalde school shooting in Texas, and just as the Ukraine war was starting. Her students were understandably emotional and the?process of creating editorial cartoons gave them a way to express themselves. Through the lesson, the students learned how to distinguish between news that’s meant to inform, and opinions and editorial cartoons that are meant to persuade. They created their own editorials, learning how to research issues they care about, like climate change and how people with disabilities are portrayed in the media.??

I love thinking about this: When Collins’ students graduate from high school, head to college or to the polls to vote, how much richer will their lives be because they know how to find credible information to help formulate and express their opinions???

Maybe years from now, the students who are learning news literacy skills will also have an unexpected opportunity to tell Collins this, perhaps even through a chance encounter at a restaurant. No matter how many decades have gone by, it’s never too late to say thanks to a favorite teacher.??

Miriam Romais is director of NewsLitNation , a supportive community of news literacy champions at the nonprofit News Literacy Project .??