What is newsworthy?

We went through two evenings of curriculum night this week.  One for High School and the other for Middle School.  Both insightful.  Going through the evening confirms our belief in Progressive Education.   Whole student, participation in your learning process, how to solve problems not just memorize the solution. 

The sixth graders break into groups of four on a weekly basis and discuss current events.  One of them brings in a topic every week and there is a discussion.  I love that because it sets up a life long habit of reading about what is happening in the world on a daily basis.  Stimulate discussion and thought. 

The question is, what is newsworthy?  Is it newsworthy when Lindsay Lohan is back in rehab?  Is it newsworthy when Kate Moss is eating outside at Da Silvano next to the school?  These days, based on the media, this type of information appears to be much more newsworthy than the war in Iraq. 

We are living in an interesting time.  Privacy is gone.  Newsworthy is the latest in the celebs lives.  Mario Batali, who is playing with his kids and their friends after school are video taped in the afternoon and downloaded up on the web within hours.  Is there no privacy or respect for their personal lives?  Maybe they call out for it, maybe not.  Celebs obviously have not been able to deal with the constant pressure of being in the limelight, look at Britney Spears.  The "15 minutes of fame" the coined phrase of Andy Warhol, makes me wonder why anyone would even want their 15 minutes. 

Perhaps there will be a backlash to all this.  But from a bird's eye view, what is newsworthy is perhaps because the real news out there, like the war in Iraq, the state of our economy, the sagging dollar, the sad state of our environment are issues that people would rather not hear about.  Life is too stressful as it is.  Kicking back and reading about celebs or watching people on "real life" shows is much more entertaining than taking in reality. 

I just hope that through constant conversations about real newsworthy topics in current events, the kids at our kids school, our learning about the real world.  After all, they are our future.