Students Want More Censorship

[Unassisted]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ment&printer=1

First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say

By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer

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.

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 (news, bio, voting record), 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.

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."

[Johnny Footstool]

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.

I'd much rather see my tax dollars go towards public education than almost any other government project, including the military. Education is the key to building infrastructure.

[Red Heeler]

Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool

I'd much rather see my tax dollars go towards public education than almost any other government project, including the military. Education is the key to building infrastructure.

I could not agree more. If the Dems were smart, they would have made the last election about education and health care (Howard Dean's biggest strengths, btw). Instead, they chose to attack Bush on the war which was his easiest position to defend.

For America to compete in a global economy, they either have to make things cheaper or smarter than everybody else. There isn't much standard of living in cheaper.

[zombie-a-go-go]

Man, that's worrisome. Control the kids, control the future.

Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool

I'd much rather see my tax dollars go towards public education than almost any other government project, including the military. Education is the key to building infrastructure.

I am so totally in agreement with this statement that I can't help but wonder if I logged in as you and wrote it myself.

[REDREAD]

Looks like the government is doing a good job brainwashing the youth of today to think that their rights can be taken away

[Unassisted]

IMHO, the most amazing thing, if you go look at the chart at the link for this story, is this: 51% of students think government should have a role in approving news stories for publication, but 57% of them think that their school newspaper should not be restricted by school administration! Incredible.

[ochre]

To me this has more to do with the natural moral development patterns than any kind of earth shattering trend. If you look at Kohlberg's moral development study, the stage people in this age range likely find themselves in is Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order.
(an excerpt from http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm)

...
Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order. Stage 3 reasoning works best in two-person relationships with family members or close friends, where one can make a real effort to get to know the other's feelings and needs and try to help. At stage 4, in contrast, the respondent becomes more broadly concerned with society as a whole. Now the emphasis is on obeying laws, respecting authority, and performing one's duties so that the social order is maintained. In response to the Heinz story, many subjects say they understand that Heinz's motives were good, but they cannot condone the theft. What would happen if we all started breaking the laws whenever we felt we had a good reason? The result would be chaos; society couldn't function. As one subject explained,

I don't want to sound like Spiro Agnew, law and order and wave the flag, but if everybody did as he wanted to do, set up his own beliefs as to right and wrong, then I think you would have chaos. The only thing I think we have in civilization nowadays is some sort of legal structure which people are sort of bound to follow. [Society needs] a centralizing framework. (Gibbs et al., 1983, pp. 140-41)

Because stage 4, subjects make moral decisions from the perspective of society as a whole, they think from a full-fledged member-of-society perspective (Colby and Kohlberg, 1983, p. 27).

You will recall that stage 1 children also generally oppose stealing because it breaks the law. Superficially, stage 1 and stage 4 subjects are giving the same response, so we see here why Kohlberg insists that we must probe into the reasoning behind the overt response. Stage 1 children say, "It's wrong to steal" and "It's against the law," but they cannot elaborate any further, except to say that stealing can get a person jailed. Stage 4 respondents, in contrast, have a conception of the function of laws for society as a whole--a conception which far exceeds the grasp of the younger child.
...

So with this as a background study, it doesn't surprise me that a survey of people that are largely in this stage of moral development would side with what they viewed as the "obeying authority" option.

[Johnny Footstool]

To me this has more to do with the natural moral development patterns than any kind of earth shattering trend.

A very good point.