They didn’t ask for it. But they are getting it from me every morning now.
As my daughters prepare for another school day, they find a scribbled sheet in my handwriting on the kitchen island where the morning’s final organizational efforts occur around 7:30 am. (I’m already well into my work at the local coffee shop by then.)
But since I watch early news while knocking the stubble off my face, it seemed wise to leave something behind to make them brighter, if not more fully awake. So each morning I jot down three news items for them to take along in their heads to schools. Hopefully. I’d be happy with two out of three. Ok, One.
I title the page: “Sounding Smart at School.” My scribbling is short and to the point. And I try to offer some variety.
For example, yesterday’s first news item noted that John Legend and Lady Antebellum had been tapped by the San Francisco Giants to sing the National Anthem during the first games of World Series. This was my popular culture story of the day since I’m quite sure they already knew who’d been kicked off Dancing with the Stars. (I was unaware that Tony Bennett would be belting out “God Bless America” during the seventh-inning stretch or that would have made my list.)
Second, I informed them about a new study in which one-half of the teens surveyed admitted to bullying someone last year. This was my attempt to show them something in the news that is relevant to their own stage in life.
My third entry was the sad news that the cholera outbreak in Haiti had already killed more than 280 people due to contaminated water supplies. Such tragic news can inform the global awareness and social sensibilities of those who tend to live in an insulated world. I hope that concern was addressed in at least one class as well.
Will my daily news reports — with a limited circulation of two — make any difference? I don’t know. But even a little bit of expanded knowledge can go a long way — especially if it gets passed along.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.
