http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/pages/resources/2005/06/when_school_grounds_become_fre/
This article ties into the last blog that I wrote. It is interesting to see that school newspapers are not the only ‘hot spots’ in schools. I was also shocked to see how many of the high school students surveyed were unaware of free-speech rights.
“…three-fourths of the students think flag-burning is illegal; half believe that the government can censor the Internet; only 51% believe that newspapers should be free to publish without government approval.”
I find these statistics very disturbing. While I understand the need to restrict student expression at times to maintain the school as an environment conducive to learning, I am worried by what these numbers represent. Are the vast majority of our kids going to be ignorant of their rights and so, easily led by whoever happens to be in power? If they feel that the government has the right to censor the Internet and other media, will that make them more apathetic about expressing themselves? Will they want to vote if they feel that they are only being fed what the government wants them to know? Is this why so many of them are so distrustful of authority figures?
I think as librarians, we need to continually show kids that there are people fighting for their rights. Starting with a promotion for banned books week is great, but we also need to make sure we are informing kids of other freedom of expression cases around the country. Maybe keeping a section on the library website or a bulletin board in the library with examples of cases currently being fought by other students would help bring it to their attention.
Now that I have seen this article, I know that increasing awareness of free-speech rights is something that I am going to have to give a lot of thought to when I have my own library.
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Those stats are shocking. I think some of your worries about students being distrustful of authority figures, etc. is mainly just teenagers being teenagers. They do that. It's part of the whole growing up thing, finding their limits. XD Despite that, they still definitely need to be educated on their rights. 51% believe that newspapers should be able to publish without government approval? Do the other 49% think the government controls the newspapers? Not knowing their rights - and heck, just plain correct information - could lead to some of your worries like being easily led by those in power.
ReplyDeleteKids do care about expressing themselves, so I really like your idea about the library website or bulletin board with examples of cases that other students are involved in.
I think that students are woefully kept ignorant of their rights in general. How many of you were taught in school what your legal rights are, or even what acts are illegal in your state? I have a friend who's a cop, and she's constantly confronted with people who don't understand that when an officer tells you to do something, you either have to do it or you can be arrested. Don't know about the rest of you, but I also wasn't taught what to look for when buying a house/car, debt management, assistance programs for people with a low income, domestic violence resources, or just about any other life skill-related information. I think these kids' ignorance is to be expected, and that it should be the duty of schools to teach them to be informed, participating members of society, not necessarily libraries. We can only reach kids who come to us, and those kids are already one step ahead of the game - what about all the people who never visit the library (probably from never being informed about what's available there) . . .
ReplyDeleteMy impression of kids is actually that they're too trusting of authority, but I suspect I'm talking about national leaders and you're talking about teachers and cops.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you why kids don't trust cops. It's because they feel cops always assume they're guilty and treat them worse because they're not adults.
Those numbers are scary, though. The newspaper one is crazy.
When I was a college freshman, my Political Science class had to take a test about American history and civics. I remember questions like, who is the father of the U.S. Constitution and how many Supreme Court justices can you name? The test was being given at colleges all over the nation as part of a study. I don't remember exactly what the results from our class were, but I do remember that they were VERY poor. I think lack of knowledge about American history and the Constitution and lack of knowledge about your rights as a citizen go hand in hand. I think students need the former as a foundation for understanding their rights. Before we scoff too much, though, try taking this American Civic Liberties quiz.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.americancivicliteracy.org/resources/quiz.aspx
I wonder how our class would do. I think a version of this test may have been what I took way back when.