Journalists: Are You Smarter Than a 1st Grader?

Yesterday, Boing Boing, Quartz & co. posted roundups of newspapers illustrating Hillary Clinton’s nomination — with pictures of her husband. Curious about the nature of embedded gender and culture and how it plays out in children, I asked my seven year old to skim through the photos with me. Living in Australia, my child hasn’t spent the last year catching glimpses of the candidates in the media. He knows what Malcolm Turnbull, Julia Gillard, and Annastacia Palaszczuk look like, but so far, the Clintons and Trump mean nothing to him.

We started with the headlines:

• Clinton claims nomination (Chicago Tribune)
• Party taps Clinton for historic ticket (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)
• Historic nomination for Hillary Clinton (Washington Post)
• Clinton nomination blazes trail (The Washington Times)

As we looked through each one, I asked if the story was about a man or a woman. Answer? “I can’t tell.” (Outside of Sir Edmund Hillary, this is the first time my son has ever heard of a Hillary.)

Next, we looked at the photos. “Oh, I think it’s about a man. It must be about a man.”

Finally, I asked him to look for clues about the story’s subject in the areas surrounding the headline and photos. This is part of a general text assessment, familiar to anyone who’s ever taught literacy and comprehension to kids.

He went back over everything. Then he zeroed in on the Chicago Tribune’s lede: “Becomes first woman atop major party’s presidential ticket.” He paused.

We’d assessed four stories. We’d established impressions based on a first look at the materials. We’d then read a little deeper.

I asked again: is this story about a man or a woman?

“A woman.”

Who should the pictures be of?

“A woman. Who is that?”

That’s Bill Clinton. He’s Hillary Clinton’s husband. He was the President of the United States, but now Hillary is running to become President of the United States. So who do you think the story is about?

“Hillary. What does she look like?”

This, of course, isn’t research. There is no rigor to it. It is born only of my curiosity about gender and culture, and how my child is learning to dialogue with the world around him. And there are biases to be considered— we are a two-person household, and he has many strong female role models. But if my seven year old is capable of assessing text, and asking why the headlines and photos don’t match up, why is it so hard for the rest of us?