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Yeah, because kids don't have a right to privacy or anything.

On second thoughts, maybe its a good idea that we chip all these kids. Then maybe they'll *really* rebel and we won't have to read articles like this anymore: http://firstamendment.jideas.org/professionals/new s_release.php

Just a thought.
-C.

Here's the KF's Press Release, here's a "12 Key Findings of the survey" booklet, here's a link to the full report, and here's the KF's collection of media reports about their study.

There's lots of other interesting stuff to be found on the Knight Foundation's site too.

what kind of propoganda do they show the kids in highschool these days that makes (some/most of) them spineless apathetic boobs?

I think you can find the answer to that by switching on your TV.

is this really the future of america?

I hope not. Here are some ideas for doing something about it.

For those who are interested, here are links to the full results for the study and the Executive Summary and Key Findings

For those who are interested, here are links to the full results for the study and the Executive Summary and Key Findings

I'm a high school junior myself, and was prompted to investigate the actual research behind these findings because I was pretty sure they were bullshit. For the most part, they are.

An unsurprisingly brief examination of the methodology and response percentages of the survey itself (readily available in PDF format online at http://firstamendment.jideas.org/downloads/future_ final.pdf) reveal a truth jarringly absent from both the CNN article and the survey's own final conclusion: students are actually considerably more defensive of First Amendment rights than their own teachers, principals, and American adults in general (statistics on responses of American adults were taken from an independently run annual survey conducted by the organization Freedom Forum.) While teachers, principals and adults rather seriously outstrip students in their supposed approval of the right of a free press and the right to express unpopular opinions, they prove themselves dramatically less capable than their students and children in understanding what those rights mean.

For reference, turn to page six of the complete survey. Observe that 99% of all high school principals agree that "people should be allowed to express unpopular opinions," compared to only 83% of high school students. Yet only 43% of these exact same high school principals believe that "musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics others may find offensive," compared to 70% of all high school students. The urge to use bold font or italics here is almost overwhelming. Despite their near unanimous patriotic exhortations of First Amendment rights, the interviewed principals apparently feel this right does not extend to those damned rappers. 58% of teachers and 59% of adults agree with this same statement; both percentages are dramatically lower than that of student respondents.

A good, solid eighty percent of high school principals believe that newspapers should be allowed to publish articles without government review; except in cases where that government is themselves. In that case, just 25% of high school principals agree that student newspapers should operate without the "approval of school authorities." The same pattern is found among adult and teacher respondents -- overwhelming majorities approve a free press, except when that free press consists of students whose opinions might run contrary to their own. The vested interest of schools in maintaining a degree of control over student publications has already been established by other posters, but the hypocrisy is nevertheless remarkable.

The most telling part of the survey is that only 51% of students agree that newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories, it is that 58% of those same students believe that high school newspapers should be permitted to discuss controversial issues without the approval of the school's administration. This statistic is central to the discussion at hand. Students may not be so well trained as their parents and school faculty to recognize statements they are supposed to agree with, but they are strongly defensive of First Amendment rights when they are confronted with the practical application of them -- much moreso than grown adults. There is still a need for greater discussion and understanding of the Bill of Rights in public schools, and perhaps a need to widely revive American Civics courses -- my own public school does not offer any. 58% is still an uncomfortably small majority in favor of the free press. The hysteria of the CNN article and much of this discussion, however, is unwarranted. The need for more widespread education and appreciation of the American civil liberties is not limited to teenagers. In fact, they apparently already have a better grasp on their meaning than most adults.

Ok, I'm probably not the first one to do this, but I wouldn't be happy with myself if I didn't do this. For those who would actually like to read the results of the survey, check out this site, http://firstamendment.jideas.org/results/results.p hp. I feel it is very important that those who report the results of a survey should understand the Methodology of the survey first. We live in a world of headlines and AP articles that do not divulge the full story. The reason why these students answer these questions so erratically can be mixed. However, the most flaming questions brought up in this article are found at the end of a 53 question survey. After looking through the verbage, I can see how a student would get tired of reading all the questions and answering. Check out question 40, (the first real question about the 1st Amendment). It actually comes back as only 12% strongly agree that the First Amendment goes to far. However if you look at question 42 of the student survey, you'll find only 2% of the surveyed strongly agreed that people should not be allowed to express unpopular opinions. I guess my point is, a lot of the world will take that little one page article they see on msnbc.com, cnn.com, and such and run with it. Instead, don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution and don't believe everything that gets posted on the web or slapped in a newspaper article. It's a big world, go explore it!

As always the case with new's summaries of findings, I was curious as to what the methodology and wording of the questions were . . .

Specific questions, and a break down of the answers are here

[QUOTE]Studies show that most studies are conducted in ways that can guarantee the desired results. I can think of lots of ways to ask questions that would provide enough confusion to get the answers they reported. There are also other ways to ask the questions to get the opposite answers or even more ways to ask the questions to get unbiased answers.

If this study were repeated independently I'll believe it. Otherwise, I'll presume it's as fair and balanced as cable news.[/QUOTE]

Why not look up the study and see for yourself, instead of speculating? It took me all of a few seconds to find the following...

http://firstamendment.jideas.org/results/students/ studentsurvey1.php

LetterRip

http://firstamendment.jideas.org/index.html

I think there are some disappointing results about what students know, but the article was alarmist.

Well, here is the study

Future of First Amendment Report (456K) PDF

Country of origin was not taken into account with their research. That variable might be worth examining if student misconceptions were relatively low. Yet, considering the popularity of misconceptions far outweighs the possible number of students born abroad, it's not really worth examining.
Moreover, there are already sociological studies with that data... you can probably find some full-text research on Ebsco.

From: http://firstamendment.jideas.org/survey/highschool student/highschoolstudent44-53.shtml

45. Newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of a story.
24% Strongly agree
27 Mildly agree
22 Mildly disagree
14 Strongly disagree
13 Don't know

I'd say the problem may be overblown by a bad question. I know how I was in high school, which isn't significantly different from how I am now. I'd have to say I disagree that media should be able to publish "freely" because there are many areas I believe the media can do significant damage by publishing "freely", whether they have the RIGHT or not.

For example, publishing CIA Agent's names, publishing misleading information during the course of a trial, publishing obscene materials, publishing troop movements, and so on. There are always lines that shouldn't be crossed.

the Fark thread about the same article...

Some Graphic Representation of a Survey