Reading, writing, arithmetic and a Bull Roar Meter. Should these be our new basic skills for an educated child? I hope so.

We readily recognize that reading, writing and arithmetic endure as necessary basic skills in the education of every child. As children progress through grade levels of curricula, they engage in increasingly complex and rigorous learning activities that grow these basic skills. By the time a child graduates from high school, a learned capacity to read, write and solve mathematical problems makes the child ready for career or college. Great! But, what about the child’s capacity to engage with their daily deluge of media, news and fanciful spinning of stories that face adults every day? On the one hand, we can hand a student a Bull Roar Meter, perhaps an app for their smartphone, coupled to their high school diploma and believe that each graduate will use it. Or, we can educate children to create an internalized, intellectual Bull Roar Meter that will serve them after graduation. I like the latter.

I am heartened that the Wisconsin academic standards include several statements that approach the concept of an internalized, intellectual Bull Roar Meter for every high school graduate. These are the Model Social Studies Standard C – Political Science and Citizenship and the College and Career Readiness Anchor standards for Reading.

Through their social studies curriculum, children learn to –

C.12.8 Locate, organize, analyze, and use information from various sources to understand an issue of public concern, take a position, and communicate the position

https://dpi.wi.gov/social-studies/standards/political-science

And, in their English/Language Arts curriculum, children will learn to –

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.*

8. Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence.

9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/standards/pdf/ela-stds-app-a-revision.pdf

I ponder how the children currently in our schools would prosper in their future careers and adult lives if they are successfully educated to

• Understand that facts are facts – they are known and can be proved to be true or they are known to have happened or to exist.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fact

• Recognize that some statements are lies and to call out lies for what they are. “A lie is a statement made by one who does not believe it with the intention that someone else shall be led to believe it”

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lying-definition/

• Opinions are important. Opinions are not facts and they are not lies and need to be understood for what they are. “A view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter” and “a belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge.”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opinion

As I observe life in our nation today and consider that most of the significant decisions are made by educated adults, high school graduates at a minimum, I am convinced that the majority were not inculcated in their education with a working Bull Roar Meter. Otherwise, they would not purposefully obfuscate their speech with opinions and lies and defend them as facts. Further, I am convinced that working Bull Roar Meters are not turned on in a majority of our population. Otherwise, they would not be so gullible in accepting and repeating opinions and lies as facts.

It is probable that a person reading this blog may flick on their intellectual Bull Roar Meter and with a cough mutter BS.

Or, a reader may check his or her mental screens for discerning facts, lies and opinions and begin to consider how each of these impacts their thinking and decision making.