A leading private school in the UK will use Greek philosophers to teach pupils how to spot “fake news” on social media, as it prepares to launch a new course in the new year.

Brighton College will begin offering the course next term as a way to encourage children to think critically about the information they receive online.

Aristotle’s teachings about truth will be featured on the course, overseen by Leak Hamblett, the school’s deputy headmistress.

Ms Hamblett, a philosophy teacher, hopes the children will learn how to recognize “what is real and what is true”.

She said: “I want to teach them to go looking at resources, looking at where your source comes from, are they respectable?”

“If you’re going to read something check it out on a few different platforms, don’t necessarily think it’s true because it’s come through social media.”

“They need to know they can’t trust everything that pops up on their phone and learn how to form opinions. The course we are introducing will ask has fake news always been around under another name and will use Aristotle’s standard model of truth to help pupils unravel fact from fiction,” Hamblett said.

Source: Daily Telegraph



