Most children’s publications talk down to kids, assuming that they are not ready to learn about adult matters. On the other hand, grown-up mass media routinely undermine the efforts of teachers and parents at inculcating positive values.
What’s Up tries to appeal to children without being childish. We introduce them to important issues without either turning them off or compromising their moral development.
For what levels is What’s Up written?
What’s Up is written mainly for the 9-14 age range. Upper primary and lower secondary students make up the bulk of its readers. However, What’s Up avoids pitching itself too obviously at any one age group. Some schools find What’s Up suitable for their upper secondary students in academically weaker classes.
Is What’s Up too meaty for kids?
What’s Up editors believe that even primary pupils do not want stories that are childish or that talk down to them. Therefore, some stories in each issue grapple with serious, grown-up issues. (For this reason, What’s Up is used as a social studies resource, and not just for English.) However, when dealing with complicated issues, What’s Up stories are written as simply as possible.
These meaty topics in What’s Up are balanced with lighter subjects that are more popular with children and teens, such as pop stars, sports and animals. When dealing with these more appealing topics, What’s Up uses more challenging vocabulary and styles, exposing readers to more creative uses of language. Stories on these popular topics are also deliberately longer. Unlike other children’s publications, What’s Up believes that it is a mistake to pander to the TV/computer generation by limiting children to short, bite-sized stories, which do little to promote the patience and discipline required for the reading habit to take root.
Dealing with the adult world
We are extremely mindful of the fact that grown-up mass media often undermine the efforts of teachers and parents at inculcating positive values. What’s Up does not believe in completely insulating children from the grown-up world, but insists on the right of children to find out about adult things in ways that are psychologically healthy. Therefore, no What’s Up stories, pictures or advertisements are developmentally inappropriate for minors.
Our values-driven journalism also translates into a positive mission to promote students’ social and emotional learning. What’s Up regards the news as an endless source of interesting stories that can be used to communicate positive values, subtly and creatively.
