Several years ago, on a Monday morning in chapel, I asked the entire student body how many of them read the newspaper in the morning before the start of school. Less than five kids raised their hand; there are usually 500 kids present Monday morning. I then asked how many had read the newspaper on the weekend. The result was the same.

I would be interested to know the response if I asked the parents of those 500 kids.

I understand that most kids – and adults – receive their news today through alternate mediums such as television, radio and social media, rather than a newspaper. (Certainly, having read about the challenges facing print media, this is proving to be the case.)

But, more importantly, I find myself wondering how many kids and adults talk about the news.

As a student in elementary school and high school I can hardly say, “I read the paper.” At least, not the whole paper. But I always read the sports pages! I was born in Montreal and growing up in both Montreal and Ottawa, my parents subscribed to the Montreal Gazette in both cities. I was always the first to collect the paper from the mailbox in the morning and I read about the Montreal Canadiens (in winter) and Montreal Expos (in the summer). Religiously.

My father read the paper every day. He still does at age 91. Two newspapers a day in fact! And, on weekends, he would also read the Manchester Guardian. So three newspapers cover to cover. Except the sport pages.

That said, we rarely talked about what we both read.

As an economics teacher for over a decade in Ottawa, I used to select five articles from the previous week’s newspaper and place them in a binder in the library. Each of my students would need to read the articles for a Monday morning current events quiz to start the week.

But, again, I rarely talked in depth about the issues in my class. It was economics after all… But I wish I had.

Today, I do think about what, how and where your kids (and our students) are receiving the events of the world, and when they are prioritizing time to discuss these events. For kids, the best place to do this is at home with family. And, in classrooms with caring teachers and friends. We all need to make the time to talk about the issues in the best way we can, when kids are old enough, and in the manner that we know best, given kids’ age and stage.

I encourage all of us as parents and educators to make this a priority.

To be clear, I am not writing this just to you. I am writing this blog to myself so that I, too, prioritize talking global issues with my kids – and not just what’s in the sports pages.