First Amendment Attitudes Today

[ex_banana-eater]

Students by and large believe the government goes to far in granting first amendment freedoms. However, this may be due to ignorance of what the laws grant rights to.

There was a survey of 100,000 high school students recently:

More Than 1 in 3 Students Want Gov't Control of Press, Knight Survey Finds

- 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.

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I think these attitudes could easily be changed by a little education, since I'm sure most of these people are not militant dictator supporters.

[Bryan]

I think these attitudes could easily be changed by a little education, since I'm sure most of these people are not militant dictator supporters.

I think that these attitudes were formed as a result of public "education".

[JMeganSnow]

You mean public "lack of education."

The flag-burning one I could understand; with things the way they are there's no way you could reason that one out for yourself without simply knowing one way or the other, and I don't place much value on being able to regurgitate facts on command. (Unless you're a computer. Then you're getting replaced.)

The other ones, though, show a profound lack of understanding of why freedom is even important, much less WHAT freedoms are important. That's a serious matter in any country that wants to stay even as free as we are now.

But, well, young people are often stupid. (I certainly was.) They may vary in their degrees of stupidity, but they tend to grow out of it.

Either that or go on "The Jerry Springer Show", in which case you can identify them.

[scottkursk]

I think that these attitudes were formed as a result of public "education".

The chickens have come home to roost. After years of trying to quash what people say and think on campuses, political correctness worked its way into our culture. My fiance, who is a liberal, bemoaned the lack of knowledge of the constitution and free speech. It was at that point I pointed out to her that she was the one that supported "anti-racist" speech codes at her college.

I pointed out that if she had her way, the students would have been told that certain words and actions would be considered illegal. It was the "minds full of mush" (her words) that they are would have little leap to thinking that "I hate [enter group]" to "I hate the president" should be illegal.

On a positive note, she actually got the point. She's reconsidered her view and has come around.

[WI_Rifleman]

This does not surprise me at all. A great many deal of Americans have no idea what the first amendment means. Although most of the people I speak to misinterpret it differently than those polled did. I know a great many people that believe private entities can violate the first ammendment. For example, my friend's dad, who is a teacher in a state school, thought that Hollywood Video was censoring Michael Moore when they refused to carry his propaganda peice, "Bowling for Columbine". Then I see people standing up for the rioters on that disrupted the RNC. A great many people need a re-educating in the area of civil rights.

[MisterSwig]

I think that these attitudes were formed as a result of public "education".

No. The survey included both public and private high schools:

The sample was designed to be representative of all high schools, public and private,  in the United States. The sample was based on a database licensed from Educational Directories of Schaumberg, Ill. This database, published in print format as “Patterson’s American Education,” is a comprehensive single-source database of both public and private high schools in the United States. The sample was stratified to proportionately represent public and private schools of different sizes. In the first stage of the sample design, schools were randomly selected. In the second phase, the survey was designed to interview all faculty and students at these schools. The samples of students, faculty and principals are representative of their respective populations nationally.

http://www.knightfdn.org/default.asp?story...ethodology.html

[Bryan]

No. The survey included both public and private high schools:

I meant my statement as a reflection of the overall mediocrity of the K-12 education of this country in general, not specifically private schools vs. public schools. I looked through the website and I didn't see anything that broke down public school and private school responses.

Only 11.5% of school aged children attend private schools though. If the survey had an accurate sampling of a the school population, the percentage responses from the private schools would not have effected the results of the survey that much.

What I find most disturbing about this survey is Key Finding 1, "High school students tend to express little appreciation for the First Amendment. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) either say they don't know how they feel about the First Amendment, or they take it for granted."

How do you not know how you feel about the first amendment?

[MisterSwig]

Students by and large believe the government goes to far in granting first amendment freedoms.

This is not what the survey actually shows. Only 12% of surveyed students "strongly agreed" with this view. 23% "mildly agreed." That's only slightly above a third of the students. 44% disagreed. And the rest didn't know.

In fact, the majority of students disagreed with that view or didn't know. Quite the opposite of what you are saying.

To read the survey findings go here:

http://firstamendment.jideas.org/results/s...dentsurvey1.php

I have a lot of problems with this poll. But let's at least represent the findings accurately.

[MisterSwig]

What I find most disturbing about this survey is Key Finding 1, "High school students tend to express little appreciation for the First Amendment. Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) either say they don't know how they feel about the First Amendment, or they take it for granted."

How do you not know how you feel about the first amendment?

37% answered "don't know" to this question. The majority of students did know how they "felt," meaning they either took the first amendment for granted or thought about it personally.

Keeping in mind that these kids are 9-12 graders caught in the clutches of biased, professional pollsters (who are trying to promote media programs in schools), I'm not surprised that roughly a third didn't know whether they "personally thought about" or "took for granted" the first amendment.