Reaching 35,000 public school classrooms daily

Five years ago, I might not have believed it: WORLD producing a daily video news program watched in more than 30,000 public school classrooms. Yet here we are. We haven’t spent much time in this column on one of WORLD’s major initiatives of recent years, The World From A to Z—but it’s time to tell you more about it.

We launched The World From A to Z in August 2023 to help public school students in middle and high schools think critically, discuss differences respectfully, and approach the news with compassion.

In God’s providence, the timing could not have been better. Except for our WORLD Watch for Christian families in homeschool and private school settings, few media programs today even attempt to promote those values among students. Fewer still reach them in the public school classroom. In the past decade, only a handful of organizations have tried to bring video news into public schools, and of those, only CNN10 remains. Until now.

We have talked here before about some of the disturbing, pervasive bias in programs aimed at our neighbors in public schools. Even CNN, which prides itself on being “mainstream,” regularly leaves moral or contextual truth on the cutting-room floor. The World From A to Z is meant to do the opposite: to report clearly and help students discuss what they hear with respect and reason. And let’s be honest—it’s a skill we adults ought to practice more ourselves.

So far this school year, The World From A to Z is shown daily in roughly 35,000 public school classrooms, with many days topping 40,000. On Sept. 11, for instance, the program reached more than 60,000 classrooms. That’s still fewer than CNN10, but it represents significant adoption within America’s roughly 100,000 public schools.

Is there a secret to the program’s success in this, its third year?

Carl Azuz on the set of The World From A to Z Alissa Minnick

No secrets, but several factors:

• First, our host. Carl Azuz had hosted CNN10 for 15 years before joining us and launching The World From A to Z. He’s a master at delivering news to public school students. His energy, experience, and humor combine to draw in audiences of all ages—but especially students.

• Second, a commitment to serious reporting. Carl’s Christian commitment is to the truth, and his professional commitment is to reporting that as objective as possible. The program earns high marks for its deep, balanced coverage—even on difficult topics.

• Third, top-notch, high-energy production. The small team behind The World From A to Z turns out a dynamic program every weekday—paced for today’s classrooms, where attention spans are short and schedules tight.

• Fourth, clever storytelling and reporting. The team keeps the content lively and sneaks in plenty of learning. Both students and teachers notice—and appreciate it.

• Finally, the puns! It’s hard to tell whether viewers are laughing or groaning—probably both—but Carl fires off wordplay faster than a copy editor on espresso. He’s turned the dad joke into an Olympic event and somehow sticks the landing every time.

We generate only a small amount of advertising revenue from The World From A to Z, mostly through email placements, and we’re careful about what appears in the program itself. Otherwise, this initiative exists because of donor support. Your gifts made it possible to launch the program and keep it going—and they’re reaching hundreds of thousands of teenagers every school day.

We’d like to reach even more. Additional funding would allow us to expand reporting by sending more journalists into the field, to produce special features and live events, and to create supplemental materials for students and teachers alike. If you’d like to invest specifically in this work, visit wng.org/givetoatoz.