<p>My mom encouraged me to start reading the ny times digest (10 page condensed version of the times) in like middle school (it was free at our athletic club). I’m now a hs senior and read nytimes.com, wapo, economist, politico, new yorker and sometimes atlantic. I sometimes wonder if all of this…current event(?)…reading has helped me. Doesn’t seem like any of my friends share my interest.</p>
<p>Curious if you encourage your children to do the same. Why or why not? Thanks.</p>
<p>-I’m headed to a top ten school this fall, first gen</p>
<p>It may not pay off in terms of hs friends, but gives you a great baseline, going forward. You’ll be familiar with events, reactions and arguments, as they occurred. That adds dimension. One of mine surprised me- couldn’t get her to look at a newspaper in hs, but since early college, her home page has been CNN. She follows various links and, from my perspective, as a young adult, she is pretty savvy to what;s going on around her and what led to what. Best wishes.</p>
<p>I would clip and leave interesting articles for my boys even when they were in elementary school, but it wasn’t until my son took a personal finance class in HS and then became more active in Model UN that he began reading both the NYT and WSJ daily. We continue home delivery of both as the boys are more likely to read if the paper is at hand. NYT alerts to cell phone keep him very current on the news. Hasn’t read a book outside of school other than vacations, so you can’t have everything!</p>
<p>My kids participate in Model UN, and they and most of their MUN friends are very up on current events. They don’t read print newspapers, but do read CNN and many other news sites online (and also watch Jon Stewart faithfully!) They’re never at a loss for conversation topics, which serves them well in interviews (although you have to be careful - it’s good to be well-informed, but don’t alienate the interviewer!)</p>
<p>I’m a senior in high school and also first-generation (alas, no top-ten school). My parents (well, my grandmother) always encouraged me to read books, but I’ve never really read newspapers. I feel like it’s something I ought to do because I’m supremely uncultured and it’s pretty sad, but I don’t know how I’d just start reading the news out of nowhere. Understanding the articles seems to require that you’ve been following current events for a long time. I mean, I read individual articles on the Internet about topics I’m interested in, but I’m usually not interested in politics or the economy. </p>
<p>My high school student started reading news in middle school. She’s quite interested in current events and politics. Unfortunately, we don’t have things like Model UN or a debate team. I think until recently, there wasn’t much interest among the kids at school, but this year they are seniors in Gov and more of them seem to be taking an interest, although this is required to a certain extent. </p>
<p>I’d actually like to see this as a requirement for social studies starting in middle school. I think it’s a lot more important for young people to be informed about current events than to know which explorer sailed where.</p>
<p>^Sometimes an understanding of current events depends on knowing which explorer sailed where, or more generally, human patterns of migration and settlement. History affects the present. Of course most students know neither so it’s a moot point.</p>
<p>My D reads news websites every day (CNN, BBC, Der Spiegel) but does not read a “paper” paper.</p>
<p>My kids did not read the newspaper in high school. They both got some current events then from various websites, but my impression was that it was pretty hit or miss. Our younger son, an IR major, now reads from a lot of newspapers on line. He occasionally sends us links from things he’s read - sometimes the New York Times, but often from other newspapers around the world.</p>
<p>“Understanding the articles seems to require that you’ve been following current events for a long time.” <== This is true. You just have to keep at. But the true foundation of the understanding takes place in the classroom via textbooks and lectures.</p>
<p>@NJSue, I’m not saying they should abandon all history and spend all their time on current events. But some topics are beaten to death in school (I believe I studied those explorers at least 5 times) while not once was Vietnam ever mentioned by any teacher, despite the fact that we could see people firing at each other every night on the news. How are students going to see all those connections between history and the present if they never talk about the present and are shockingly ignorant of what is going on in this country and in the world?</p>
<p>Yes - my kids starting reading the headlines in the local papers early because they needed them for different classes in elementary school - by middle school they were news hounds - in high school everything was online and now they grab the headlines from several different major news/periodicals and we all (mom, dad & boys) email articles to each other we think the others would find relevant/interesting. The boys have sort of lost contact with their local news though…they need to know what’s going on at home too. But yes, reading through a few major news publications (get more than 1 bias) gives them a better view of the world and can understand what most adults are discussing and can many times participate in the conversations with confidence. It does not take that long unless you get lost in the cyber (not a current term anymore?) world and know when to stop and crack the books again. </p>
<p>We haven’t even taken one for years, we get our news off the internet. We can go in depth to the stories that interest us and ignore those that only interested the editors.</p>
<p>@edison96: My son began reading the newspaper – sports pages – when he was in elementary school. He didn’t pay a lot of attention to other news in those years. But he was interested in science, sports, and politics. And he really picked up a lot of tidbits on everything (“trivia,” some would say). </p>
<p>In high school he was on the debate team. Debaters consume vast amounts of information, including from newspapers but much more widely. In addition, he wrote for his high school newspaper and was editor of the opinion page. He won statewide awards in both debate and journalism. In college, he wrote for two college papers. Is it any wonder that he’s now a professional writer and journalist?</p>
<p>My S has enjoyed reading history and current events since middle school, though he doesn’t read any newspapers. He reads, like his parents, mostly news websites from Europe and Asia, though some alternative news US sites too. We aren’t big fans of US corporate mainstream media.</p>
<p>I’ve read the newspaper nearly every day since 5th grade (and I at least check CNN.com or something to keep up on current events each day). I’m now a junior. Starting in 3rd grade, my mom encouraged me to read the little kid’s section they’d publish each Monday, I think just because she knew I liked to read. One day I finished that and wanted to read more so I started reading the comics section, and soon enough I was reading the whole thing.</p>
<p>I’ve had a lot of my English and history teachers the class raise their hands if they read the newspaper every day, and usually only a couple hands go up. It’s a shame more kids don’t care about current events. Reading the newspaper definitely played a large role in me wanting to pursue journalism, and it’s helped in my classes and for my quiz bowl, because I know a lot of off the wall stuff.</p>
<p>Re: history…history is important, I think, because if we never knew the past, we wouldn’t have a good understanding of why we have what we have today. History also helps predict the future. Not saying we need to learn every little tidbit (though I do admit I love history class), but it is important.</p>
<p>Our daughter reads the daily papers sporadically, but our son has read the newspaper and checked BBC, NPR, CNN etc… since he was about 8 years old. They both read our community weekly cover to cover as it has all the local news and gossip. :)</p>
<p>From the time my girls were in elementary school when I would help them with current events homework they were familiar with the NYTIMES and especially enjoyed looking at the special sections in the Sunday NYT but didn’ t become much of everyday readers until they were in high school/college. Both of their colleges had the print copies available along with other newspapers such as The Boston Globe and WSJ but now they pretty read NYTIMES online. One subscribes to New York Magazine which was always available in our house also, the other to The New Yorker. </p>
<p>My oldest looked forward to the newspaper for the comics initially. My son started grabbing the sports page to check scores before he could even read. We used to check the weather in the paper for different parts of the country on a regular basis. All through high school he would read the sports at the breakfast table. Both of them still keep up with “news” through social media , mostly Twitter ( which IMO does a good job of keeping you informed or at least draws your attention to a topic to search more in depth for) . My youngest D is more geared to just check everything online. I admit that though we receive the local paper at home, I am out of the habit of reading it - whereas 10 years ago I would never go to sleep without reading the daily paper.</p>