The goal of media education is to make students lifelong learners and critical questioners when the teacher is not around. Media education can begin at an early age. Minneapolis writer Lyn Lacy teaches Grades 1-3 at Cooper Elementary in Minneapolis. She creates media education exercises for her students that stress visuals and are akin to reading readiness. Students in lower elementary grades can begin to learn about media languages, how television is put together, and how to distinguish the different kinds of television.
Older students can understand more of the social and political elements around television.
This idea that print is superior to television is just plain snobbery. Yes, print is important. The spoken word is important, but so is television. Reading and writing are not the only ways to communicate. His media education classes reach 100 Dearborn High School students every semester.