Newspapers In Education

Begun as early as the 1930’s, Newspapers In Education (NIE) is a nationally recognized program that delivers local and national news to area schools. The purpose of having newspapers in the classroom is to improve students’ history, math, economics, science, reading, spelling, writing, and geography skills-to name a few at all grade levels.

For almost a decade, the Edwardsville Intelligencer has been a proud provider of our newspapers to multiple schools around the area. Using newspapers in classrooms is not a new idea. Over 200 years ago, the Portland (Maine) Eastern Herald published an editorial on June 8, 1795 that read:

Much has been said and written on the utility of newspapers; but one principal advantage which might be derived from these publications has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools, and the children in families. Try it for one session-Do you wish your child to improve in reading solely, give him a newspaper-it furnished a variety, some parts of which much infallibly touch his fancy. Do you wish to instruct him in geography, nothing will so indelibly fix the relative situation of different places, as the stories and events published in the paper. In time, do you wish to have him acquainted with the manners of the country or city, to the mode of doing business, public and private; do you wish him to have a smattering of every kind of science useful and amusing, give him a newspaper-newspapers are plenty and cheap-the cheapest book that can be bought, and the more you buy the better for you children, because every part furnished some new and valuable information.

Not only do the students of the NIE program benefit educationally, but teachers who engage the program in their classroom receive a real world supplement to traditional classroom resources. It’s a “living” textbook, for it is updated every day!