Key points:
It’s critical that students know how to use digital content, but as students have more access to information, it’s also critical that they know how to evaluate that information with a discerning eye.
In the Baldwin Union Free School District, educators and leaders are working diligently to avoid “brain rot” as they strive to teach students how to ask questions, evaluate information sources, and become actively involved in their communities.
“‘Brain rot’ is defined as ‘the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration,’” according to the Oxford University Press, which declared brain rot as its word of the year in 2024.
Led by Dr. Shari Camhi, the district’s superintendent and a past president of AASA, Baldwin UFSD educators work to identify actionable solutions to reverse brain rot and combat the trend of students consuming high-volume, low-quality digital content.
The district’s biggest focus is on media literacy education and civic engagement. News and media literacy studies are embedded into grades 6-12 ELA and social studies curricula.
Via lessons and research projects, along with a college-level course, “College Civics and News Literacy,” students in Baldwin UFSD are learning to discern fact from fiction, identify misinformation, and develop critical thinking skills that will serve them throughout their lives.
Asking questions and thinking critically
A large part of media literacy is learning to ask questions. In an age of social media, where anyone can cite information from any source and be declared an expert, students must have critical thinking skills to evaluate what it behind the message or information a person shares.
“There’s so much misinformation out there–we are deliberately making sure our kids have the skills necessary to know whether or not what they’re reading, wherever they’re reading it, is true or not,” Camhi noted.
The district’s college-level course, offered through a partnership with Stonybrook University, teaches senior students about truth and verification, fairness, balance, and bias.
In social studies classes, students examine current examples of news stories and information to determine if what they’re reading is journalism, opinion journalism, entertainment, sponsored content, propaganda, etc.
“We hope that our students have the skills, but almost more important is that they have the questions,” Camhi said. “When they read something, they should have questions about where the information is from, the author, other writing about the same topic, when was it written, and by whom. That’s one of the things we’re really deliberate about with our students–teaching them how to ask questions and how to ask the right questions. Everyone should be doing this.”
Digital resources and content are not going away, and the best way to balance the potential for brain rot with the need to engage in digital environments is to create a healthy curiosity and a healthy skepticism in students.
Sharing content online plays a large role in spreading misinformation. “One of the questions we ask is, ‘Should you share this?’” Camhi said. Instead of sharing before verifying what’s behind the content, students in Baldwin UFSD are learning to ask questions before they press send.
“When kids are on social media, [I hope] their brains are lighting up with questions they’re asking,” Camhi said. “The term ‘brain rot,’ if I imagine what that looks like, looks like kids sitting down, slumped over, accepting everything that comes their way. When I envision our students, they’re sitting up straight, they’re curious, they’re asking questions. If I took a scan of their brains, they’re lighting up because they’re not sitting passively accepting what they’re being told.”
When it comes to the district’s civics education, Baldwin UFSD leaders believe it goes hand-in-hand with critical thinking skills.
If you ask people to define “civics,” you’ll likely receive a variety of responses, all relating to the concepts of government function and what it means to operate as a good citizen within that government structure.
“When I think about this topic, it’s about being an informed and curious good citizen,” Camhi said. “What does it mean to be a curious and informed good citizen? The work we’re doing in our grades 6-12 courses and our college-level course is exactly that. When we graduate our students, regardless of their next step, we need to ensure we graduate young people who are smart–and not just book smart–that they’re curious and can ask questions, can tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not real, that they’re ready for the next step of life.
“We don’t teach kids what to think, but we certainly teach them how to think–that’s an essential skill that takes you through old age. You can’t forget how to think critically, because that’s essential,” Camhi said.
Students all have different strengths, and not everyone will excel in all academic areas–but media literacy skills are skills all students must have.
“If our kids graduate and can’t tell the difference between true and fake information, none of us will be fine–we have to be smart about this,” Camhi added.
