Back in the Year of the Horse, I was teaching English out at Henan University in China. My students were English majors so they had spent a substantial amount of time reading and writing, but many of them were shy about speaking. So I had them practice conversations and I assigned them short speeches about a variety of topics.

Each day, I had one student find out something interesting and share it with the class. They were like Ted Talks before that was a thing. I would sit all the way in the back to encourage them to use full voice. Students picked all sorts of things to talk about; their favorite band or whatever social campaign was being promoted at the time such as stopping smoking or ending the dependency on single use chopsticks. The talk on the problem of littering had me cracking up because the term for it translated into English as “white trash.” “End the problem of white trash today!”

Only once did I ever stop a student. It was during the talk about the three-legged people of Argentina. After a couple very amusing, but definitely untrue “facts” about altered trousers and beds with holes in them, I shut it down. “I am sorry, but it isn’t real,” I said, “there isn’t a country of people with an extra limb.” Both the speaker and the audience was just as surprised to find that it wasn’t true, as they were hearing about the South Americans’ struggles to buy shoes. I never was able to find the source of the story, perhaps it was just a joke that was lost in translation.

Now that I am home in America, I am still seeing a shocking amount of fake stories being promoted on my social media feeds. If you read something shocking or strange or inciting, please just Goggle it and cross-reference the major information. Find out: 1. Does this exist anywhere outside of the single source I am looking at? 2. Who is reporting this information and what is their intention? 3. What event, study or interview is referenced as a source? 4. Is this information current, or some issue that has already been addressed?

As a democracy, it is imperative that the constituents make good decisions with quality information. While there is plenty of room for disagreement and preferences, we absolutely cannot continue to be whipsawed by falsehoods.

Additionally, many of us are launching into the school year either teaching or assistant-teaching our own children. We need to tighten up the information passing through our minds and home. Children are tiny recording devices that spout off whatever their parents say, even if unintentional. Preferences, biases and prejudices are often repeated and amplified. A frustrated comment said in the kitchen becomes a rock being thrown on a playground. It’s something to keep in mind.

(The “write a note” function is no longer available on my phone–probably due to fake news–so I am publishing on WordPress.)