Giving Compass' Take:

• Philanthropists, organizations and schools are all pushing to engage their students with more civics lessons, social studies courses, and teach them the importance of investigating reliable news sources in order to fight back against fake news.

• Can schools implement more extra curricular activities that engage students in civic education?

• Read about why it is important to keep teaching social studies in schools.

The modern heirs to Plato and Aristotle — K-12 teachers — are increasingly being asked to guide students not only toward the right answers but away from the wrong ones: the farrago of political spin, clickbait, and outright lies known as fake news.

The eruption of false stories has led parents and politicians alike to search for ways to ensure that tomorrow’s voters can peer through the chaos of digital media and see reality with clear eyes.

The new goal is to push students toward fuller comprehension of media, government, and democracy. Whole new curricula have been devised to help students select reliable news sources and avoid online crackpots. Social media companies have promised to halt the spread of fake news on their platforms. And philanthropies are seeding initiatives to rebuild trust in traditional news sources with rigorous standards of accuracy.

One newly prominent player is Generation Citizen, a nonprofit formed in 2009 to promote civic learning and engagement among American students. In an email to The 74, CEO Scott Warren said the organization “has received much more interest from schools, funders, and concerned citizens generally since the 2016 election” and that he believes “the very foundations of our democracy” need shoring up through America’s schools.

It may not be surprising that students are ill-equipped to distinguish between fact and fiction when it comes to public affairs. Social studies and civics — the courses that generally include units on media literacy, and that are expressly meant to prepare children for the rigors of citizenship — simply aren’t anywhere near the top of the priority list for most schools

Read the full article about teaching students about civic engagement by Kevin Mahnken at The 74