Duncan Guy is passionate about the importance of knowledge and believes we can use news to teach and encourage everyone, young and old, to read and have an interest in current affairs – promoting general knowledge. In 2006 he started a newspaper aimed at young readers administered by the South African Press Association (Sapa).
”Three years ago when I was moving foreign copy during the Sapa graveyard shift I thought I should tell my child about these stories. It occurred to me that there must be educational value in news and that if I rewrote it appropriately, it could be useful for my son,” he said.
His son’s school, St James ÂÂPreparatory School in Belgravia, Johannesburg, started to use the stories. Other schools followed and it developed with teacher feedback. The paper is now available around the country.
Guy puts out a newspaper aimed at primary school learners and other readers. The newspaper comes out twice a week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is distributed to schools, municipal libraries and media centres. The paper carries news stories rewritten in a way that is easy to read. The aim is to encourage reading, promote general knowledge and increase interest in current affairs among youngsters.
”I want to promote stories about the world,” said Guy. ”The newsÂÂpaper is written first in English as The Times I Am Living In and is partly translated into Afrikaans as Die Tyd Waarin Ek Leef and into isiZulu as Ezikhathi Engiphila kuzo.”
To teach and reach a large number of readers, Guy encourages schools and individual subscribers to make copies and distribute it to ÂÂpeople who might not have access to email.
”People hand it to their employees. At a factory in Pinetown in ÂÂKwaZulu-Natal the factory workers get it and take it home for their children and read it for themselves too.”
Stories are written first as if they were bedtime stories, followed by two quiz questions. The ”adult” wire copy then follows. Readers can look into the wire copy in search of the answers to the questions without necessarily understanding the wire copy. However, for those who want to understand the wire copy, difficult words are highlighted and explained in their context in a glossary.
Once Guy has done this he sends the draft to the schools where the children use their understanding of the news to illustrate the news through drawings that are used with the story. Each issue is illustrated by a different school.
News is sensitively selected. Important world news events are covered subtly at times based on the issue. Some interesting wire stories about the war in Iraq or violence in Kenya may be too horrific, so a story about Kenya may be covered indirectly – for example in a sports story about the Ugandan canoeing team not going next door for an Olympic qualifying event because of the turmoil.
”Children do not have the emotional capacity to handle some of the horrific news,” said Guy, adding that he tries to keep a filter on these issues. ”I remember back when I was a child and that helps me with finding an angle for the story that children can understand,” he said.
Each issue carries a story on world news, African news, environmental news, business news, sports news and a ”Today in History” page. Subscription is free of charge and there are more than 1 500 subscribers across the three titles. About half of these are schools; the other half are parents. At the average school, 250 pairs of young eyes are exposed to it.
Schools keen to receive the paper can email [email protected].