Do you think that newspapers should be required to run their stories by the government before they’re allowed to print them? Do you believe that inappropriate online materials can be censored by government agencies? Have you ever caught yourself thinking that the First Amendment goes too far?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. In a recent survey of more than 100,000 high school students conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, half of those polled believed that newspapers should not be permitted to publish articles without government consent, and an equal number were of the mistaken opinion that the government already has the legal right to censor the Internet. Educators are failing to impress upon the nation’s youth what is possibly the most important foundation of America’s civil society.
Once young people were at the forefront of progressivism. Now, the free-spirited youths who rebelled against social conventions and defied conservative parents are gone, replaced in one out of three cases by a kid who believes that the First Amendment of the Constitution offers too much protection.
How did this transformation happen? According to the aforementioned survey, students who are not exposed to media sources on their high school campuses are much more likely to want to restrict free speech. Of the nearly 25 percent of U.S. high schools that currently offer no opportunities for student journalism, 40 percent abolished their newspapers in the last five years.
This is scary stuff. As a nation, we have already shown ourselves willing to renounce individual freedoms for the sake of security. But giving up free speech is a much bigger deal than waiting a few extra minutes in a security line.
The First Amendment is something we proudly hold up as one of the most beautiful ideals of our founding fathers, and now our own high school students would be only too happy to throw it away.
It is imperative that we encourage each other, our younger siblings and all educators to foster an appreciation of this value by pursuing free speech in thought, writing and student journalism, while some of us still remember how.
