Students in Kingston, and all areas alike, spend all their days learning new information and acquiring knowledge and skills, but how many take the time to pay an interest to current events?

If you were to go through the borough and ask students if they read a newspaper, or else watched the news, the chances are most people would answer, ‘yes’. However, if you were to start a conversation about an event currently in the news, most would struggle to join in.

With free papers in circulation and widely accessible, such as the Metro, there is no doubt that students do gloss over the headlines every morning, but how much more attention do they pay other than that? Do they read the articles to see what is talked about? Again, the majority do not; unless of course they are reading the sport pages.

Should you ask students what the score was in last night’s football match, most would be able to give a detailed account, even if they hadn’t even watched the game. Should you ask them their opinions on last week’s budget however; you would receive a very different response. But then the argument could be made, ‘but it does not concern us’, a typical response along of course with ‘I don’t care’, but then the question must be asked, should we be concerned about these events taking place all around us, even if they do not directly affect me?

The answer to this question again could have a variety of responses. ‘We have bigger things to worry about, like exams’ is another common answer. But then doesn’t that show some weaknesses in Britain’s schooling system? It seems as if students spend all their time being tested, taught, and tested again, an endless preparation for exams which leaves little time for much else. But what is the problem with ignorance, what real negative effects are there? The answers to this question are debatable. Not keeping up to date with the news won’t harm you. But then again, having that extra information can’t harm you either.

You could argue that keeping up with the times broadens you as a person by keeping you informed about events on a local and global scale. It also benefits students by developing maturity, and assisting in the transition from being a child, to becoming an adult; part of this being the fact that you will be able to stage a reasoned debate with an adult, in which both child and adult are equal in knowledge.

With free papers handed out on the street, more detailed ones for a relatively low price, the internet, and regular news broadcasts, there is nothing stopping students from learning that little bit extra. So tomorrow on the journey to school, why not pay more attention to the front pages of the paper? When you are at the computer, why not check the latest headlines? When you get home, why not put the news on? There is nothing stopping you, but you. And that can be easily changed.