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What Newspapers and Columnists Had to Say

The recent Knight Foundation study on student First Amendment rights has sparked both media attention and editorial comment. Below are excerpts from editorials and columns that discuss the study and its implications. Appearing in the two days following the study's release on Jan. 31/ Feb. 1, they represent a cross section of voices from the entire country:

The Oklahoma Daily, University of Oklahoma
Editorial

In the time of the hallowed founding fathers (about whose true intentions we all can't seem to agree), the press was incendiary. The fathers had protections in mind for men like Thomas Paine ? men whose words were treasonous to a government they declared, in the Declaration of Independence, their right ?to alter or abolish.

Restricting the press means letting government do more and go longer without admitting it.

The press is only a nuisance to a government with something to hide. You pay for your government; you deserve an independent understanding of it. If you put the press under government control, where will you get independent information?

Des Moines Register, Des Moines, Iowa
Editorial

Some accuse schools of failing to teach kids about [the free-press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment]. But whereas facts about the Constitution can be taught, a passionate belief in the principles enumerated in the Bill of Rights comes through experience with the consequences of authoritarian governments.

The best route to appreciation of liberty is to understand how you might be personally affected by losing it. Young people might answer ?yes? to an abstract question about the First Amendment. Yet a majority of the kids polled said musicians should be free to express unpopular opinions. That's a form of free expression they know ? and care ? about.

The Tufts Daily, Medford , Mass.
Editorial

[The students surveyed] hopefully have been taught that the First Amendment rights are the basis of American democracy, yet they do not see value in the freedom of speech. This shows the declining respect for the Bill off Rights in the American public. Americans no longer even expect to have the rights which the founding fathers intended to be upheld in all situations.

The Advocate, Newark , Ohio
Editorial

We won't get self-righteous and talk about how only half of the students thought newspapers should be allowed to publish stories without first running them by the government ? as alarming as that is. The biggest issue here is that children are not being taught the benefit of dissent, debate and disagreement.

The government of our great nation is based on respect for everyone's views, whether people agree with them or not. And the fact that nearly 1 in 5 teenagers thinks saying something unpopular is a bad idea probably owes to poor instruction and not a desire to create a dictatorship (or weed out the uncool).

Teachers and parents have the obligation to teach kids to [correlate free speech with democratic reforms, past and present]. America is the strongest when everyone's voice is heard ? unpopular or not.

eTruth, Elkhart , IN.
Editorial

The student study was conducted by journalism organizations, but its implications are more far-reaching than whether there should be more media programs in high schools. It speaks to whether our schools are doing enough in teaching the fundamentals of our political and legal system.

It seems to us that the First Amendment would be very easy to bring home to kids. The Ten Commandments is a good local example of a complex First Amendment issue that could easily be debated in the classroom. Protests over the war in Iraq are a freedom of speech and assembly issue in much the same way they were during the Vietnam era. The controversy over Janet Jackson at last year's Super Bowl, the exchange of information on the Internet and explicit lyrics in songs are also things kids can relate to today.

This study must be a wake-up call to parents and educators that the Constitution needs to become an important part of our kids' educations again.

The Trentonian, Trenton , N.J.
Alex Richmond

About nine in 10 principals said it is important for all students to learn some journalism skills, but most administrators say a lack of money limits their media outlet offerings. That is a bummer, and also a lame excuse. Lack of cash flow should never stop someone from thinking.

The Daily, University of Washington-Seattle
Editorial

Maybe schools should stop focusing on inane testing ? Washington Assessment of Student Learning, we're looking in your direction ? and put a larger emphasis on one of the basic tenets of American politics. Every student should know exactly what the First Amendment protects ? freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly, for those that need a refresher course.

It is sad that our generation wants to restrict free speech more than our parents. It is also sad that they don't even understand its importance.

Athens Banner-Herald, Athens , Georgia
Editorial

If just a bare majority ? 51 percent ? of the generation set to inherit the Constitution believe newspapers should be able to publish freely, and ? more troubling still ? 36 percent believe newspapers should get ?governmental approval? of stories before they are published, while 13 percent have no opinion, how long might it be before the balance is tripped? How little time might pass before people are willing to accept news media operating under government control?

And how worried should we be that, right now, today, one out of every five teachers sees no problem with that?

The Ball State Daily News, Ball State University
Editorial

According to 75 percent of [surveyed] students, flag burning is illegal. Half of the total students polled said they believe the government can restrict indecent content on the Internet.

Neither of which, by the way, is true.

U.S. educators need to do a better job of informing students about their rights as citizens and moreover why they should respect such important laws and amendments. Otherwise, the freedom on which this country is founded is in jeopardy.

That is, if we're still allowed to say that.

Tallahassee Democrat, Tallahassee , Florida
Bill Cotterell

At first impression, it's alarming that half of [surveyed students] think the government can censor the Internet, or that 75 percent think flag burning is illegal. But let's remember, these are kids. How many of us were fledging Thomas Jeffersons at that age?

The study ought to cause consternation in newsrooms around the country because it shows that belt-tightening school boards are cutting back on media programs like school newspapers and student broadcasting labs. Significantly, the researchers found that students who work on school media projects are much more likely to take an absolutist view of free speech and expression.

Young people, like any other demographic bloc, care about things that they see affecting their lives. If you told them that the First Amendment protects their right to wear clothing four sizes too large and hear music that makes their fathers send away for boarding school brochures, you'd probably get 100 percent support for it.

Frankly, it's really not that bad that high school students take this freedom for granted. That shows a need for more civic education, but if 16-year-olds went around worrying about freedom of religion and a free press, something would be really wrong.

I haven't seen any studies to back this up, but the media share blame for the fact that a sizeable minority of young people think the government should pre-clear what gets published. Kids today are aware of The New York Times and CNN, but for them, ?the media? includes Jerry Springer, reality TV and infomercials.

The amendment wasn't put there to benefit the press, but to limit the government. It's doubtful that many teenagers think of it that way, if they have cause to think of it at all.

But give them a few years, a little college, and let them see how current events will shape their lives.

The Daily Illini, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
David Solana

Among the many priorities governments have, the non-publicized but supremely important self-preservation priority is the root of much corruption. The founding fathers themselves did not imagine a nation of people in line to lick Uncle Sam's boots. Thomas Jefferson himself wrote about the need for patriots to use violent force to preserve their liberties from being squandered by their own government: ?The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants.?

The problem with our system is not just the government, but the general complacency of the population and their ability to dictate the government's actions. This cycle is a very tough one to break because we are trained so well to love our government that it becomes impossible for a politician to make a run at high office on a campaign of massive reform.

Democracy has become a dangerous tool in this country, and its effects will probably become increasingly more stifling. The only saving grace we're looking at is a possible economic collapse at which point our lives are no longer so cushy that it isn't worth our while to fight the government to take back our rights. Thus, we see that rights, which can seem overbearing, are really put into the Constitution with our personal liberties and protections at heart.

The Yale Daily News, Yale University
Alicia Washington

When we think back on our high school days, were we really concerned with whether or not we understood what rights were afforded to us by the Constitution, or were we more worried about ?Friday Night Lights? and getting into college? It is certain that the latter two did probably consume our lives (especially the first of the latter two if we are from Texas ).

As the Knight Foundation noted, with Bush so fervently focused on securing democracy and freedom around the world, it should be required that students understand our own freedoms. Only then will they understand why our leadership seeks to spread democracy around the world ? whether or not one agrees with the tools being used to do it. How will these students be able to protect our freedoms if they don't comprehend them?

The Journal, Webster University
Lindsey Pilcher

This newfound love for government control is especially suspicious since federal spending on kids has been rising faster than spending for seniors or working-age adults. It could be coincidence that just as the government starts tossing some money to the kiddies, the kiddies start to like the government. A conspiracy theorist could go wild.

The Indiana Statesman, Indiana State University
Beth White

We were all high school students once, right? Just how long ago that was may vary case-by-case, but everyone has some recollection of what it was like. Raging hormones, insecurities and awkwardness may be a few thoughts that come to mind. However, it's also a time of extreme personal growth. This is when we begin to find and shape ourselves. I have to ask ? how is it possible to have any identity as a young American if you have no concept of the basic freedoms our country was founded on?

The Exponent, Purdue University
Heather Poston

The lack of awareness about the value of the First Amendment can stem from many different places. Students are perhaps not being sufficiently taught about the history and rights that the First Amendment grants. Also, many media programs are being cut in high schools throughout the nation, preventing students from participating in such freedoms firsthand.

It's necessary to utilize the freedoms that generations worked so hard to attain. Although we haven't faced some of the tribulations that our parents' and grandparents' generations have seen, we should continue to be grateful for the rights we have and never take them for granted.

The Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago , Illinois
Thomas Lipscomb

Mark Goodman is the executive director of the Student Press Law Center . His organization receives calls for advice and assistance from student publications under pressure from principals and administrators. In 1985, the Student Press Law Center received only 371 inquiries from student publishers and their faculty advisers nationwide. In 2003 these inquiries had spiraled up by almost a factor of 10 to 2,796.

According to Goodman one of the problems is that ?today's administrators are more corporate CEOs managing huge budgets than educators.? What is particularly troubling is that school administrators in the last five years are not only interfering with student publications more and more frequently, they are increasingly asking for prior approval of their content.

What to do? This week, Margaret Spellings was sworn into office ?to protect and defend the Constitution? as the new secretary of education. The Department of Education's budget of more than $53 billion actually serves as a huge transfer bank of tens of billions of dollars going to all levels of education, including state loans. A Department of Education review with a possible delay of funding of educational institutions neglecting their responsibilities under the First Amendment could concentrate the minds of educational administrators wonderfully.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Ind.
Andrea Neal

The survey indicates that First Amendment rights would be better known – and more appreciated – if they were classroom staples.

Why they are not staples is a matter of concern.  Educators point to two main areas of curriculum where First Amendment values are likely to be taught: journalism programs and civics classes.

Unfortunately, school administrators report fewer journalism opportunities today than in years past.

Like high school journalism programs, civics education is gasping for breath.  According to statistics gathered by the Center for Civic Education, only half of the states have laws explicitly addressing civics, broadly defined as “the study of civic affairs and the duties and rights of citizenship.”

The question for policymakers – boards of education and state lawmakers around the country – is why journalism and civics education have been allowed to flounder.  Have the emphasis on standardized testing and increased math and science requirements pre-empted the chance to elevate the role of journalism and civics?

When students say it’s a good idea for the government to control newspaper content, our education system has failed them.

The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C.
Molly Selvin

Americans have become constitutional dunces.  Or neo-totalitarians.  It’s hard to say which.  Ignorance and oppression tend to go hand in hand.

It’s not just kids who are ignorant.  Most adults probably haven’t read the Constitution since school, and even then the teacher no doubt ripped through the separation of powers while threading the next filmstrip into the projector.  Little wonder the text seems like a relic from a fusty age when he-men wore satin knee breeches.  Little wonder that cable TV’s talking heads have muscled into this vacuum, asserting special knowledge as to the Constitution’s meaning.

The genius of James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and the 37 other signers is that they knew they didn’t have all the answers.  They framed the United States’ foundational document with sturdy posts and beams “to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and promote the general welfare.”  But they left it to us to hammer up the drywall and choose the wallpaper.

Montgomery Advertiser, Montgomery, Ala.
Editorial

The First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press is enormously important to journalists, of course, but it is also enormously important for other citizens.  Government control of media outlets is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes.  A government that can control information and the dissemination of information is frighteningly powerful.  The loss of an independent press, the Fourth Estate of American society, would be a dramatic undermining of what the Framers intended.

A better job of teaching students about the First Amendment, both as a concept and in terms of its impact on American life, surely would send that figure sharply upward.  This lack of understanding points to a serious shortcoming in curricula across the country.

The Holland Sentinel, Holland, Mich.
Editorial

The apathy is alarming.  Those who don’t understand the First Amendment are certainly less inclined to exercise it, and they’ll be less skeptical and more easily conned by government officials who want to twist and limit it.

Ignorance is not kids’ fault.  Unawareness starts at home.  Parents’ misunderstanding of the First Amendment isn’t much better.  Even the best of times, three out of 10 adults believe that the First Amendment goes too far.

In school, First Amendment-rich electives are getting left behind in the race to raise test scores in math and English.  Schools need to convene more discussions of controversial issues and to promote civic involvement outside of class.

Muskegon Chronicle, Muskegon, Mich.
Editorial

This is a national scandal.  It imperils our future.

Just mouthing the sentiments of freedom without understanding the legal force behind that concept is a formula for disaster.  Not only is the loss of every other right enumerated within the Constitution at stake, but also freedom itself as Americans have come to know it.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Editorial

Are these students really so poorly taught that they don’t understand the importance of the Bill of Rights to a free society?  Or have they grown up in such a politically shrill environment that they would prefer to silence their opponents rather than argue with them?

The only bit of good news from the study is that students begin to embrace First Amendment freedoms when they are fully explained and put into practice.

Our nation’s schools need to make sure this happens more frequently.

The Fairfield Mirror, Fairfield University
Steven Andrews

It’s easy to be apathetic when you’re young.  Why worry about the future of Social Security when you’re not even employed?  Why bother to worry about the estate tax when you’re not even out of high school?  Or, as [this study] shoed is a growing trend amongst teenagers, why bother to learn about the First Amendment or the Constitution at all?

I think the reason that people feel so apathetic is because they rarely have their First Amendment rights challenged.  Teenagers see their rights of speech and religion so basic and intrinsic that they don’t even realize that people had to fight and die to put them in place.  Not only do people not recognize its protections, they undervalue them.

Apathy is a dangerous condition.  If you don’t support a free press which can disseminate knowledge and spread the truth about issues you would otherwise know nothing about, you lose out on one of the very best parts of living in this country.

The Beacon Villager, Maynard, Mass.
Bill Walsh

[The study] suggests the future of free speech is seriously threatened.  The foes are not an outside enemy or even a repressive government here at home, but ignorance and apathy.

The study lays the blame for this ignorance at the doorstep of the American high school, charging that schools don’t teach civics anymore, and don’t give students enough opportunities to put the First Amendment into practice.

There are two ways to learn any subject.  One way is to study it from a book.  The other – and many say better – way to learn how to do anything is to learn by doing.  Students who experience a free press and use the First Amendment in everyday life know more about it and value it more.

Not knowing about our most important rights is dangerous.  Not caring about them is, too.

Not using them is away to make certain they disappear.

York Daily Record, York, Pa.
Editorial

Here we are, sending kids not much older than high school students off to war – supposedly to give Iraqis the same freedoms we enjoy here.  And an unsettling number of our own kids seem to think the most fundamental freedoms – speech, religion, press, free assembly – are anachronistic trifles.

Maybe that suggests we do indeed have so much freedom in America that kids can afford to be cavalier about their rights.  It’s hard to get too self-righteous until you’ve actually been muzzled.  As Joni Mitchell sang back in the heyday of young people exercising free speech, “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.”

Those who conducted the survey say they think schools need to do a better job of teaching the First Amendment – and the survey revealed that teachers personally have a strong commitment to free speech (except, ironically, when it comes to student newspapers).

Teachers need to make kids understand what life might be like without their First Amendment rights.

They need to devise class or school activities that show what it would be like if the government or the school censored their thoughts, their Internet access, their music, their magazines and what they could say on their cell phones or through text messaging.

Conduct a daylong or a weeklong crackdown of those rights, just as an exercise, and many students might change their tune and say the First Amendment doesn’t go too far after all.

Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine
Editorial

Some high school educators suggest that the problem is not as great as the study concluded.  The students who were surveyed were freshmen and sophomores; civics-type courses are generally taught to juniors and seniors.

One former teacher noted that while the general questions showed lack of support for First Amendment principles, more specific questions brought different results.

For example, 60 percent of students thought high school newspapers should be allowed to print stories without approval of the principal and 70 percent said musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics some find offensive.

Educators find these statistics reassuring.

I find them frightening.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Ind.
Dennis Ryerson

The cynic in me asks:  Why should schools teach about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship when that might just encourage uppity students to challenge authority or object to the majority view?

Keep the students compliant, and they will grow up to be compliant adults.  Continue to erode appreciation for the First Amendment, and just maybe that nettlesome provision someday will go away.

Life then could be free of conflict and easier to manage.  Like it was, say, in Afghanistan under the Taliban, or in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Ruthless leaders controlled those countries for as long as they did because they limited freedoms.  As one famous American put it a couple of years ago, “The terrorists hate our freedoms; our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and to disagree with each other.”

That’s what George W. Bush observed shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Ind.
Editorial

Last fall, the Student Press Law Center reported that complaints about censorship of student media rose 35 percent in 2003 from 2002.  At the same time, tight budgets and heightened emphasis on “basic” subjects for standardized testing have reduced journalism offerings and closed down some school papers.

Tense times test our commitment to an open society.  But ultimately, there is no threat to security greater than the loss – or the surrender – of the ability to speak out.  The challenge must be taken up much more widely than journalism class if America hopes to have n informed electorate and limited government in generations to come.

The Ball State Daily News, Ball State University
Gerry Appel

Let’s not overreact and proclaim these students are doomed to lives of ignorance and communism.  None of us were constitutional lawyers in high school.  High school students have plenty of other things to worry about – such as getting good grades for college, developing friendships and relationships during a hormonal stage, and school activities.

Principals and administrators must also understand the importance of free student speech.  This survey is a start to making the problems well-known, and organizations such as the Journalism Institute for Digital Education, Activities, and Scholarship (J-Ideas) are working to develop four-credit courses aimed at principals.  Professional media are also getting involved; for example, newsrooms are continuing to send journalists into student publications offices as part of an American Society of Newspaper Editors program.  The Richmond Palladium-Item is also lending a hand by providing answers to common First Amendment questions in every Monday newspaper.

Some people may look at this entire situation and think aloud that this is a big to-do about nothing.  And you know what?

That’s their First Amendment right.

The Nashua Telegraph, Nashua, N.H.
Editorial

Most of the experts commenting on the results admit that hostility toward the press resulting from recent ethical lapses has contributed to the problem, but pointed out that many of the students surveyed were not even aware of the controversies.

The problem emerges more from a lack of understanding about the historical context of the First Amendment and the role of a free press in our society.

Unfortunately, with all the pressure for students to do well on tests, the ability of schools to build lesson plans around specific themes that can be integrated across disciplines is falling victim to “teaching to the test.”  Study guides come out that are based on standardized tests and curriculums are built around their content.

These survey results show there is a desperate need for more instruction on the foundations of our freedoms.  The alternative is allowing a growing sentiment toward government censorship to undermine those freedoms for generations to come.

The Missoulian, Missoula, Mont.
Editorial

It’s never good for people to take their freedoms for granted. The study of students’ attitudes about First Amendment issues usefully reminds us that there’s nothing in human DNA compelling people to embrace the principles of liberty and democracy.  Indeed, freedom is something easiest to appreciate in its absence.

What’s more, few teenagers have much experience at being taken seriously or having their opinions respected.  At their age, free speech tends to be more theoretical than real.  How many times are kids supposed to hear the words “shut up” before they lose interest in what others have to say?

Each generation decides for itself what freedom means.  Today’s youths may wind up as adults less interested in First Amendment freedoms than those who’ve come before them.  But don’t consider that a foregone conclusion.  As today’s teens cross over to adulthood, they’re going to experience – not merely listen to lectures or read about – a broader range of freedom.  And, in this era of great growth in the size and power of a government increasingly inclined toward intrusiveness, they’re also going to experience some serious threats to their freedom.  The fact that kids don’t fully appreciate freedoms they haven’t yet fully experienced doesn’t mean they never will.

DeSoto Times, Hernando, Miss.
Editorial

If this was the heart of Stalinist Russia and it was Pravda, not The New York Times or The Washington Post under such censorship, it would make more sense.  Oppression is better left to the Commies.

The younger generation nowadays is often given a bad rap as stay-at-home slackers who still live with their parents and drift from job to job without any real ambition in life.

They are infinitely more intelligent than the gantgsta rapsters would have us believe and more thoughtful and caring than the shallow portrayals of myopic, narcissistic youth on television and in films.

If anything, today’s generation is just a tad bit naïve.  In the real world there are horrendous news accounts of atrocities being committed all over the world night and day.  With images of bombings and beheadings bombarding their senses daily, it’s no wonder today’s generation go into sensory overload.  They, like many adults, want to shut a blind eye to the world around them and simply turn it off.

There is also the trust factor.  With everyone from parish priests to policemen to parents abusing young people in record numbers, young people today  simply don’t trust individuals in authority, whether they sit behind an anchor desk or in front of a laptop in Bangladesh.

Illinois Leader, Ill.
Lee Enokian

Public reactions to studies like this typically place the blame on schoolchildren.  Teachers, parents and school administrators are the actual culprits.  Instead of teaching basic fundamentals of American life and government, they stress politically-correct, feel-good material.

If you want something done right, you often must do it yourself.

I had my 11-year-old son read the Declaration of Independence and Preamble to the Constitution while I wrote this column.  He said they were really cool.  But then, he can also name most of the presidents in order.  George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan are three of his favorites.  He could do a lot worse.

To paraphrase a famous axiom, even the mightiest oak must grow from the smallest acorn.  Teach your children so that they may carry the seeds of freedom with them always.  The powerful certainly won’t.

Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y.
Editorial

We are the first to admit that newspapers have a big stake in protecting the First Amendment as written by [James] Madison, but truly, dear readers, so do we all.  When a generation of future leaders displays such a level of ignorance on the basic rights guaranteed to all Americans, it is important for older generations to raise the level of appreciation.

Young Americans need to know how the First Amendment protects them each day of their lives, from protecting Internet access to allowing protests of government actions, and, yes, to guaranteeing a free and unfettered right to the press to report on and criticize the government. 

These guarantees of freedom are not just high-minded words in dusty old books.  They are the core of a free and open society and something that students should be schooled in, in practical terms, each day of their school lives.  It is what prevents the government from telling us how to worship and allows us to petition the government to right wrongs.  It is what we mean when we say, as we all have at one agitated moment or another, “It’s a free country.”

That means sometimes putting up with words or actions with which we disagree because to do otherwise would threaten our own rights.

Thomas Paine, the famous pamphleteer of Colonial days, wrote, “ I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine.  He who denies to another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.”

Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz, Calif.
Editorial

One problem for school-age children is that journalism programs and student newspapers are on the decrease. Just like music and arts programs, student newspapers are expensive to produce.  With fewer students involved in telling others’ stories, some key principles fall by the wayside.

We hope more teachers will take up the cause of free speech.  There are lessons in free speech around us every day – in books, on the Internet and even in rock music.  Freedom of speech can sometimes be uncomfortable, particularly when the views expressed run counter to popular thought.

In our free society, there are those who think we have too much freedom.  Some argue that the mere expression of an idea is dangerous.  Some argue that words or pictures that are in bad taste threaten the fabric of our society.

We’d tell those with those concerns to look at the opposite side of the coin.  Losing those freedoms stars with the banning of distasteful or offensive expression, and then moves into the banning of unpopular speech.

The Pantagraph, Bloomington-Normal, Ill.
Editorial

Perhaps students today don’t cherish their First Amendment rights as much because they don’t face as many challenges to their free expression as those in the days of long hair and protests.

Conversely, maybe they are more accepting of government intrusions because they have grown up with metal detectors, locker searches and surveillance cameras.

Austin American-Statesman, Austin, Tex.
Rich Oppel

There is a part of the study that I don’t buy, and that is the fact that educators are failing to give students an appreciation of constitutional guarantees.

Teachers always get the blame, but the fact is that a student spends 15 percent of his year with teachers and most of the remaining 85 percent with parents.

“Act as devil’s advocates,” advises [Jack] Harkrider, a former reporter and teacher. “Talk about what’s going on. Be willing to discuss opinions.  This is a generation of people who don’t pay attention to the news.  It floors me to see the popularity of reality shows, which are the furthest thing from reality.”

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Tex.
Linda Campbell

Just to be different, let’s try to put a positive spin on [the study].

Maybe that indicates what a spot-on job schools are doing in teaching respect for authority.

[Students] understand that the First Amendment protects their right to hear Green Day and 50 Cent as well as Ashlee Simpson and Hilary Duff (subject, of course, to parental approval).

Do they realize that the First Amendment is about holding a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting in the gym as well as being able to watch “South Park”?

It’s about researching STDs online and reading Judy Blume and attending concerts without government interference.

The First Amendment covers dress codes, city curfews and graduation speakers.  It’s about how violent video games can be and which words exchanged in a hallway constitute bullying.

Still, getting past the what-does-it-mean-to-me? hurdle isn’t the only challenge for schools.

When some teachers are chastised for showing controversial documentaries in class and others avoid exploring topics such as evolution for fear of parental complaints, a teacher who announces that dissent is patriotic might unleash a backlash for “liberal indoctrination.”

Yet isn’t that part of what we value?

The Battalion, Texas A&M University
Tim Aylsworth

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, there has been a trend of readiness to sacrifice liberty for security.  Some may find this to be a reasonable sacrifice in a time of war.  How important would the freedom of speech or the Bill of Rights be if the nation were overrun by its enemies?  The right to life is essential for other freedoms to exist, and compromises must occur during dangerous times.  This could be the source of the students’ attitudes.

Times Herald-Record, Middletown, New York
Beth Quinn

We’re seeing evidence of unthinking indifference to the First Amendment at every turn.

Of course, this kind of indifference shouldn’t come as a surprise when George Bush himself is setting the example.  He’s rather hostile to the whole notion of free speech unless he’s the one doing the speaking.

Consider his severe restrictions on the press in Iraq – even forbidding photos of flag-draped caskets.

His government has created “free speech zones” to keep war protesters away when he appears on camera.  Can’t have the little people bear witness to the fact that not everyone is on his page in the Little Golden Book of The President Goes to War.

The Bush administration’s control of network news has also served to muffle free speech.  This control was made possible by the new, outrageously high fines levied against networks and entertainers who say something considered indecent in Bush’s world.

This has led to such absurdities as “Frontline” censoring swear words during interviews with soldiers in Iraq.  As they say, war is heck.

The First Amendment is heady stuff:  Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.

An incredible freedom that soldiers have died for.  But we’re getting to the point where we don’t need Congress to make a law that would shut us up.  We’re doing it to ourselves.  And we sure can’t depend on kids who think the First Amendment “goes too far.”

Sun-Sentinel, South Florida
Ana Ribeiro

I remember reading another survey last summer – this one indicating journalists are one of the least trusted groups of professionals.  Trusted or not, where would our country be without the press and vigilant reporting?  Where will we end up if students, along with those who prepare them for the “real world,” come to disregard more and more the important democratic functions of the press?

An institutionalized lack of passion and idealism in high school learning may be to blame for students’ disinterest and confusion about the First Amendment.

We must call for a higher investment in and support of high school media programs.  Journalism classes in high school could actually arouse student interest, with the integration of theory and hands-on activities.  At the very least, these would serve to teach students how to actually apply the First Amendment and get them acquainted with the workings of the press.

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