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First Amendment no big deal, students say

Study shows American teenagers indifferent to freedoms

 

 

Associated Press

 

 

WASHINGTON - The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.

 

It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.

 

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

 

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

 

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

 

The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.

 

When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

 

Indifference, misunderstanding

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

 

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It’s not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can’t.

 

“Schools don’t do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don’t know the rights it protects,” Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. “This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment.”

 

The partners in the project, including organizations of newspaper editors and radio and television news directors, share a clear advocacy for First Amendment issues.

 

Federal and state officials, meanwhile, have bemoaned a lack of knowledge of U.S. civics and history among young people. Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., has even pushed through a mandate that schools must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the date it was signed in 1787.

 

The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, is billed as the largest of its kind. More than 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004.

 

Lack of education

The study suggests that students embrace First Amendment freedoms if they are taught about them and given a chance to practice them, but schools don’t make the matter a priority.

 

Students who take part in school media activities, such as a student newspapers or TV production, are much more likely to support expression of unpopular views, for example.

 

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 offerings.

 

More than one in five schools offer no student media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years.

 

“The last 15 years have not been a golden era for student media,” said Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas project at Ball State University in Indiana. “Programs are under siege or dying from neglect. Many students do not get the opportunity to practice our basic freedoms.”

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"..Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.."

 

huh..it sounds like the youth are being prepared for something.

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I wonder how long until schools are mostly privatized?

 

I think standardized testing is going to play its part in putting the squeeze on public schools by taking away funding, and making it easier for private schools to make their move. Maybe the same corporations that own some prisons can own the schools too.

All they would have to do is start a campaign boasting they'll offer higher teacher salaries and the public would jump on the bus.

 

A country full of privately owned schools is a frightening thing. And with all the powerful people in this country that love to turn EVERYTHING into a dollar sign, it seems possible. Not to mention the amount of control that comes with a privately owned school.

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Originally posted by Æ°@Feb 7 2005, 08:12 PM

I wonder how long until schools are mostly privatized?

 

I think standardized testing is going to play its part in putting the squeeze on public schools by taking away funding, and making it easier for private schools to make their move. Maybe the same corporations that own some prisons can own the schools too.

All they would have to do is start a campaign boasting they'll offer higher teacher salaries and the public would jump on the bus.

 

A country full of privately owned schools is a frightening thing. And with all the powerful people in this country that love to turn EVERYTHING into a dollar sign, it seems possible. Not to mention the amount of control that comes with a privately owned school.

 

Some good points here, but it's not the prisons who will own the schools... it's the churches. People like Grahm, Moon, Robbins. These guys are stupid rich and have a crazy amount of power. They want to get rid of the constitution and replace it w/ the bible. ( side note: Rev Moon is the largest private contributer to both H and W Bush's campaigns.) The only thing these people want a government for is to run the army. They want to get rid of any public aid so that people have no were else to turn, other than to the churches. They are trying to re-create the lord- serf relationship.

 

And then you have multi nationals who's main goal is cheap labor, but that's another rant all together.

 

 

It's all very "1984"

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  • 2 weeks later...

Im not about to read all that but I can say that 90% of all the teens are retarded in my opinion and that shit is gonna stay the same-just the people in that percentage will get more retarded because of their ignorance and the ingnorance of the people who raise them. This, in a certain way, is good to the remaining 10 (most of who are also retarded, but not ignorant) percent who reap personal gain off them such as the government and large corperations. This is how America is "The greatest country in the world".

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(sigh.) Look, the schools are basically a propaganda machine. If you rely upon the "public schools" to teach you everything you need to know, you will find yourself WOEFULLY UNPREPARED for real life.

 

You are responsible for your own life, and that includes your own education. Don't snivel about how the schools aren't getting enough money. They are getting three or four times as much money now as they were in the 1960's, when I graduated from high school. Money is not the problem.

 

The problem is UNMOTIVATED, ENTITLED KIDS.

 

There is a public library in every city and town of any size in the U.S. My wife grew up and went to school in a town of 800 people. She graduated in 1964. There were 24 kids in her senior class, the biggest graduating class they have ever had at Waitsburg High School. Their public library was about the size of the average convenience store, yet a very high percentage of WHS graduates went on to college, mostly because they were HIGHLY MOTIVATED to get the fuck out of Waitsburg, and a college education was one of the few ways out.

 

If you don't work hard at becoming educated, if you don't study hard in school, if you don't take responsibility for your own life and your own education you will probly wind up flipping burgers and hating life.

 

Don't blame the schools. The teachers are killing themselves trying to teach in the middle of all that fucking chaos. Kids educated in thatch-roofed schools in Cambodia score higher on tests than American kids, because the Cambodian kids do not suffer from being part of a "youth culture" that despises their elders and every decent thing about society. They are part and parcel of the same society as their parents. Same rules. Same goals. Same sense of family solidarity. That's what we need here, and thanks to all the traitorous, self-serving, seditious assholes at MTV, BET, "Hollywood," etc., etc. American kids are being convinced that they don't need to be educated people, patriotic people, sober people, honest people, law-abiding people, faithful-to-their-spouse kind of people. They can be lying, stealing, dope-dealing, cheating, hate-their-country thugs and somehow or another that's supposed to be ADMIRABLE.

 

BULL SHIT.

 

I hate to say it, but MY generation sowed the seeds, and YOUR generation is going to reap the whirlwind. WE WERE DEAD WRONG IN THE SIXTIES. OUR PARENTS WERE RIGHT. We should have listened to them.

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I heard about a town in California that has become so poor, they had to close the public library. I know that if I was a kid living in that town, that would have been devastating for me.

 

I would say that alot of good came from the sixties, as well as alot of bad. While the fatherless family began with the industrial revolution by taking fathers away from the family farm and away to work in factories, I'm pretty sure the free love movement helped disintegrate the family bond. Now it is more socially acceptable to divorce, so people do it over the smallest things. We were born with certain chemicals in our bodies to make us prone to maintain a monogamous relationship with our partner to help with child rearing as well as protect us from disease.

On top of this popular culture doesn't help by glamorizing sex, and drugs and whatnot as you've said. Popular culture may in fact be the biggest contributor to this problem. I believe that studies have shown that children are more influenced by television than thier own parents.

It's hard to change all of this now though. With industry pandering to peoples baser emotions, it has become self perpetuating. People become more beastlike, and industry garners greater rewards. Now any sort of lobbies such as labor rights, or morality are so weak, they make little difference. What matters is money. And truth, justice, and righteousness don't make money. Thus, the true colors of mammon are shown, though noone knows the difference.

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What´s the matter with you people! Why are you waisting your time discussing such a depressing subject when you could be out buying firearms, protesting outside abortion clinics and setting fire to clubs exclusive to homosexuals (in that exact order). Have you people no idea what life is all about!

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That's right kabar, keep longing for that fantasy idyll of the early 1950s, when everything was perfect.

 

I would take apart your ridiculous claims and burn your straw men, but you'd just change the subject to how everything would be better if the teachers were armed with automatics. I'm not even going to bother.

 

It's not unreasonable to expect the public schools to do a decent job of intellectually preparing students for college/jobs/whatever.

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