Media Literacy

2 Pages 427 Words

Despite numerous attempts to introduce a formal media education policy into all U.S. Public schools, is has not been officially accepted as a part of the general curriculum. Only handfuls of school across the country offer the option to choose courses in media literacy, and choosing the course in the first place is the students discretion. However, media education policies have been extremely effective in countries such as Norway, and our neighbors to the North, Canada. One fundamental difference as to why media literacy policies and education programs have been in effect in those countries and not the United States is because the United states has a decentralized education system; Norway and Canada both have centralized systems. Change of curricula comes about much easier in the centralized systems, while it is much more difficult in decentralized school systems. The policy in Canada requires that 30% of all high school students language arts credits be taken in the subject of Media Literacy and Education.
However, New Mexico was one of the first states to implement a mandatory media literacy requirement. The New Mexico Media Literacy Project, or NMMLP, was created in 1993 as an outreach of Alberquerque Academy, one of the best private schools (grades 6-12) in the United States. The program that they have developed is used by thousands of schools across several states, with their main goal being “… to make New Mexico the most media literate state in the United States, and to spread the NMMLP model of grassroots, action-oriented media literacy education to other states.” The NMMLP provides in-service training for public and private school teachers, counselors, principals and administrators. They also hold four-day workshops three to four times a year.
The American Association of Pediatrics has also released its suggested policy on children and media literacy. Published in PEDIATRICS Vol. 108 No. 5, November 2001, pp. 1222-12...