A new national study, the largest of its kind, says America’s high schools are leaving the First Amendment behind.
Among its findings:
Nearly three-fourths of high school students either do not know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for granted.
Seventy-five percent erroneously think flag burning is illegal.
Half believe the government can censor the Internet.
More than a third think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.
They also have a Field Report, A Call To Action, and A Site Set Up to “help young Americans understand and practice their basic freedoms.”
Well, they’ve learned what we’ve taught them
Based on my own high school experience back in the 1980s and keep up with news since then, I think the problem isn’t ignorance. The problem is that students have learned their government-sponsored lessons too well.
Modern high school students learn:
– They, their belongings, and their persons can be searched at any time, for any reason, or no reasons at all.
– They can be forced to give urine and or blood samples without suspicion of wrongdoing.
– In some schools, drug sniffing dogs are the norm.
– School papers usually require faculty and administrative (i.e. gov’t) approval to publish articles.
– Students can be disciplined and/or expelled for writing a single “anti-social” story.
Where on earth were they supposed to get the idea that there was freedom of speech or freedom from unreasonable search and seizure?
Over the past few years we have made schools virtual police states (ironically w/o helping class discipline) in the name of security and have bred a generation of young people willing to accept prior restraints on speech. Why are we surprised? People accept what they’re used to.
The real surprise is that two-thirds of students are not YET willing to give away their freedoms.
Neat Little Graphic
The Associated Press put out that neat little graphic for those of us who don’t want to waste all that time with details, or as they say, if you don’t want to RTFA.