I am a bit tied up right now, but here is a guest post form my father:
CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS?
This is a story I found on the web. The survey was conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut. It asked questions of more that 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers, and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools in early 2004.
Some of the findings could be viewed as quite disturbing. For example:
It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.
The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.
Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.
This at a time when we have military personnel serving in Iraq and other volatile areas around the country. The oath the people have taken say that they promise to defend the constitution against all enemies.
Students seem to be less open minded about civil rights than most people have thought. They don’t even think it is right have free speech, and they do not understand what the First Amendment is even all about. For example:
The students are even more restrictive in their views than their elders, the study says.
When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.
The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn’t know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.
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.
“Schools don’t do enough to teach the First Amendment. Students often don’t know the rights it protects,” Linda Puntney, executive director of the Journalism Education Association, said in the report. “This all comes at a time when there is decreasing passion for much of anything. And, you have to be passionate about the First Amendment.”
Yet, there is a concerted effort by some people on the right to have Intelligent Design part of the curriculum because they don’t agree or believe in the Darwin Theory. There is so much attention being paid by these extremists, that the fundamental core of our society isn’t even being taught in our schools. That is pathetic.
Bush claims his program of “no child left behind” is the right way to go. From what I read in this article, every child is being left behind when it comes to what this country is all about. Every child is being left behind when it comes to how our country’s democratic system works.
Let’s stop all the nonsense and start taking our children’s future seriously. This article leaves me to wonder just exactly how much else these students don’t understand. Remember, these are our future business and government leaders. It makes me ask the serious question “Millard Filmore where are you?”
leanleft
Kevin
tgirsch
Kevin T. Keith
Judd
Manufacturing a weak integrity argument to justify free speech violations…
It started in a federal Court in Pittsburgh and has moved quickly to Colorado Universtity and Iraq. It’s a stretch, but political hacks have besieged first amendment free speech protections.
They attempt to combine a provacative essay comparing victims of 911 with Nazi criminals and an emotionally charged General’s comments on war, questioning whether such is permissible when the comments may cause damaged to an institution’s integrity.
Why?
Because in a Pittsburgh federal court a well connected corporate crony has suggested the novice argument, and the legal question is waddling without any legal precedent in need of an activist court.
Thus the current unexplained campaign against “free speech” appears to be little more than a Madison Avenue scheme to control any discussion of the President’s desire to privatize higher education.
That is, a number of for-profit colleges have faced inquiries, lawsuits and other actions calling into question the way they inflate enrollment to mislead/increase the value of their parent company’s stock.
In the last year, the Career Education Corporation of Hoffman Estates, Ill., has faced lawsuits, from shareholders and students, contending that, among other things, its colleges have inflated enrollment numbers. In addition, F.B.I. agents raided 10 campuses run by ITT Educational Services of Carmel, Ind., looking for similar problems.
But in a Pittsburgh federal court there is a bigger can of worms.
Kaplan, Inc., is wholly own by the Washington Post Company. For-profit postsecondary education has turned the company around and individuals far more powerful than Martha Steward have made millions. However, there is a nominal “Watergate” styled federal court proceeding (scandal) involving campus “free speech,” that could expose the administration’s violation of public trust
In short, I provided the S.E.C., Department of Education, and federal courts information that appears to prove Kaplan inflated the Concord School of Law enrollment, telling investors that the “flagship” of its higher education division has as many as 600 to 1000 or more students.
I also provided evidence to prove apparent violations of sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder.
However, in an attempt to protect important icons of the Washington and New York financial/political circle, hacks have been hired to stir a free speech controversy.
But even Stan Chess (En Passant http://lawtv.typepad.com/en_passant/2004/a_question_of_l.html) innocently questioned the obvious – a clear violation of the federal securities laws.
“Kaplan’s Concord School of Law says it’s one of the largest law schools in the country, yet for each administration only about 25 of its graduates sit for the bar exam. What happens to the hundreds of other students in each class?”
What are you willing to do?