The New York Times ' Learning Network, for example, offers lesson plans, time lines, and maps that teachers can reproduce for their students. But some worry that news organizations are offering a one-sided viewpoint. Anna Pavichevich, a spokeswoman for the Serbian National Defense Council of America, based in Chicago, was affected personally by the situation last week. She said her son, a 3rd grader, asked to stay home from school because he didn't want to be part of a classroom discussion about reported atrocities being committed by Serbs against Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. The information source her son's teacher was using, she said, was Time for Kids , published by Time magazine.
Teachers are so overwhelmed with their workload.
It's very convenient to use a packet of information that's all put together for you, especially when the source seems trustworthy. I caution teachers to realize who is sitting in front of them. But even slanted sources are not necessarily all bad, some educators say. A number of teachers are using the Kosovo conflict to talk to their students about propaganda and to encourage them to evaluate what they read in the newspaper and see on television news shows. Part of learning is being able to critique.