Blog 9_ Facts

Misinformation is false or inaccurate information- getting the facts wrong. Disinformation is false information which is deliberately intended to mislead - intentionally misstating the facts.

The spread of misinfomation and disinformation, particularly via social media, has affected societies' ability to improve public health, address climate change, maintain stable democracies and more. The advent of online AI (Artificial Intelligence) could magnify the problem. How do we equip our children, in the 21st century, to resist these deformations of reality?

Maybe we need to take a step back in order to take a leap forward? In the medieval scheme of education, the syllabus was divided into two parts: the Trivium and the Quadrivium. Focussing on the Trivium, it in turn consisted of three parts namely: Grammar, Dialectic and Rhetoric. Grammar meant learning a language. Under Dialectic, pupils learnt how to use language, how to construct an argument and importantly, how to detect fallacies in argument. Rhetoric taught pupils to express themselves in language, how to say what they had to say eloquently and persuasively. Use of eloquence to make the worse appear the better reason would be restrained by the previous teaching in Dialectic.

Dialectic and Rhetoric: these are the tools of learning that pupils at an impressionable age need, in order to resist the malign influencers of our social media driven age. Let's add them to the Transition year curriculum in our secondary schools!