Slashdot Mirror
U.S. Kids Don't Understand First Amendment
l4m3z0r writes "This rather alarming article discusses a study of high-school students in which they were asked about censorship, protected speech, and other aspects of the first amendment. The results are extremely worrisome: "Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories." and this "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.".."
I think less than half of the adults understand the 1st amendment.
Freedom of speech, sure, speak your mind. But remember, I can't turn my ears off, but YOU can shut up.
When you have something stupid to say, keep it to your self. That is freedom of speech. You are free to shut up.
(might be my flamebait post for the week)
Based on November's vote, 51% of Americans don't believe in the First Ammendment anymore anyway- and think the second is far more important. Why should we be surprised that our kids follow suit
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
As a former teacher, let me just say that these studies probably are not very accurate. About 3/4 of the students just copied what they seen others had written. Also, the students who coppied generally choose the least intelligent person to copy from (I don't know why, but they do). In summary, I don't doubt that our students are this stuipid, I once tried to change them, but I do doubt that any statistic taken from school age children can be accurate. Most of them are too lazy to even breath and grow hair. As you can see, I left teaching after being disgusted with it. It is a reflection of the American culture.
Canada I can buy. But freedom in Europe? Try wearing a Muslim headscarf to school in France. Go to Germany and try accessing content the Bundestag declares "indecent". Stop being so shrill and "wake up" to the fact that whatever it is you hold dear isn't so goddamn holy after all.
...by the book-burning, Bible-bashing, fascist-police-state Radical Right, who have taken over their school boards, and infiltrated their little brains through Fox News.
What I find so disturbing is how this generation is so easily cowed.
I'm glad someone sees the real threat instead of falling for the "terrorism is just a nuisance" and "they just want to be free like everybody else" crap.
Terrorism is just a tactic, but the *ideology* behind it, is a serious threat to all free people. You may think it's exaggerated, but they have stated straight up that they want to *convert or kill* all non-mohammedans. They want to take over and convert to Sharia law western countries including the US. This has come from supposedly mainstream Islamic groups like CAIR.
It's worse in some European countries, like in the Netherlands, with what happened to Theo Van Gogh, and in Sweden (IIRC), where in some cities, police have admitted that they no longer have control due to hordes of Islamic immigrants causing chaos. And the aformentioned apathy about the problem is what has allowed these things to happen.
Now, I'm certainly not advocating a police state or anything of the sort; I'm pretty libertarian. But some common sense things need to be done, like controlling the borders (which is a way in which I differ from hardline libertarianism) and keeping an eye on groups that could be connected with terrorism.
The threat is real; open your eyes.
Also, if schools spend all their time on propaganda, they won't have time to teach spelling.
Ok, I'll bite.
The first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Conservatives aren't into "abstinence only", we know that providing abstinence only sex education is not going to stop problems, but it may enhance them. The funny thing is abstinence is the only method to 100% guarantee that you don't get STDs, or get pregnant, etc from sex. The problem is that too many schools have scoffed at abstinence, saying that won't work, all kids are having sex. Funny thing, now that it is being taught in school teen-sex is on the decline, which means less teen pregnancy, which means fewer people who will go onto welfare for that. Studies have shown that a couple who have a child in their teens will generally be poor for all of their lives. Abstinence teaches self control, which those other methods do not.
Darwinism is a theory. Science is meant to be objective is it not? Should we look at all relevant theories on a subject or should we just scoff at those that don't fit our agenda? Intelligent design is another theory. The critics bash it because it takes into account that there might be a God and that things have happened due to design and not just accident.
This gets more at the heart of secularism, which IMO is an extremely repressive religion in and of itself. Secularism teaches that there should be no religion taught anywhere. There should be no reference to God in the public life. Honestly, it takes more faith to believe that there is no God, than to believe that there is a God. You have to believe, when you get down to it, that something comes from nothing - a contradiction to the known laws of physics. So you have the secularists who are trying to instill their religion (Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics, a philosophy of life, and a worldview.) This gets back to Amendment 1 of the Bill of Rights.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
So they are endorsing one religion and repressing another. This is a very serious breach of the first amendment. And all this comes before the "freedom of speech" section. You are right. People don't know the First Amendment.
We conservatives have a very strong love for the constitution and the bill of rights. And we see how you are so hypocritical about defending the first amendment. And we see how you liberals want to take away our freedoms.
Another "Daily Kos" reader goes forth to spread the gospel. Don't you people ever get tired of just parroting what your paid political consultant tells you?