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Theres much in the Knight Foundations recent report Student Views on the First Amendment that raises serious concern. Girls and students of color, for example, are more likely to agree that the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.

But the report also gives reason for optimism. The survey data indicate two positive trends regarding civics education. First, the percentage of high school students reporting that they have taken courses that provide instruction on the First Amendment has increased over time and seems to be holding steady, with roughly two-thirds of respondents reporting that they have taken such courses.

Another reason for optimism: instruction seems to make a difference. As the report notes, such coursework has a significant impact on student support for First Amendment rights and protections.

This outcome is not at all obvious. Another Knight Foundation survey, for example, finds that teachers may not be completely on board, with only 45% favoring First Amendment protections for school newspapers reporting on controversial stories. Further, high school is a time when students start exploring topics, like math and language, in significant depth. And for the first time they have the opportunity to take coursesfrom child psychology to fashion designthat engage their budding career interests. With this as the competition, its not obvious that government and civics coursesthe proverbial spinach of the high school curriculumwould rise to the challenge and make a dent in students sensibilities.

Given this less-than-obvious result, its worth thinking what might be behind it. No doubt, curricular content plays a role. Consider, for example, that a 2017 Brookings study found a majority of students surveyed did not know that hate speech is constitutionally protected. Clearly, teaching students what the First Amendment does and does not protect is an essential step to close gaps in basic knowledge.

While pundits wring their hands over such results, the experienced and artful teacher knows how to turn a knowledge gap like this into genuine surprise that sparks discussion. Discussion leads to aha! moments. All this suggests that curriculum is only part of the story. To make a difference, we cant expect that teaching First Amendment content (alone) will do the heavy lifting. In all likelihood, the teachers who are making the biggest difference are those who introduce and help students practice First Amendment Thinking.

Maria Krisanova/Unsplash

By First Amendment Thinking, I mean the habit of seeing how the rules of the game play out when the details of the situation conform and do not conform to ones own concerns. Its likely, for example, that female students and students of color are less supportive of the First Amendment because they are thinking of a time when they have felt the pains of exclusion, discrimination, harassment, or fear because someone else was exercising his or her First Amendment right to be a jerk. Teaching First Amendment content (alone) conveys the lesson that, except in rare circumstances, one has to tolerate such speech. This can be a fairly bitter pill for anyone who feels as though they are already disadvantaged and marginalized within the dominant society. To always be the person expected to check their emotions and maintain a posture of tolerance in the face of bigotry gets old.

And in the face of such bigotry, the case for censorship can seem compelling. Its the artful teacher who encourages students to develop the discipline of First Amendment Thinking by, for example, inviting students to imagine whether someone, somewhere, might take offense at a text that the student considers profound. It doesnt matter what the text isa poem by Maya Angelou, a theory advanced by Albert Einstein, a Margaret Atwood novel, the Bible, the Quran, a Harry Potter film. It doesnt take long before students realize that the speech they consider most sacred will be offensive to someone. By flipping the script in this way, the artful teacher helps students understand why offense cannot serve as justification for censorship without catching them in the censors trap as well.

Further, First Amendment Thinking encourages students to adopt Nobel laureate James Buchanans famous dictum, which is to understand government oversight without romance. As applied to state censorship, Buchannans insight reminds us that it is dangerous to assume that people who have the power to censor others will always exercise that power in the best interest of the public. First, the public interest is a tangle of competing interests, so even a well-intentioned political actor will not be able to live up to the challenge. Second, because people who hold the power to censor have interests of their own, it is unlikely that they will have a strong incentive to protect the interests of those who do not hold such power. This includes marginalized minority groups who have historically borne the brunt of political and cultural oppression.

In short, First Amendment Thinking helps students understand why we have a Constitution in the first place. Constitutional constraints like the First Amendment are not put in place to advance the interests of a particular group. On the contrary, the Founders put these constraints in place to protect the rights of every individual from unconstrained power. What the Knight Foundation report shows is that theres nothing obvious or easy about thinking like an informed citizen. It takes patience and artful teaching.

Link:
Artful Teachers Teach First Amendment Thinking - Forbes

If youve been reading Binghamton Review headlines, youll know that crazed leftists have been preventing conservative students from expressing their right to free speech by forming a leftist mob. However, if you look a little closer at the real story, youll recognize the headlines and statements for what they are: an attempt to spin events in conservatives favor.

On Nov. 18, protesters shut down an event hosted by Binghamton University College Republicans and Young Americas Foundation, who invited Arthur Laffer to speak on campus. If youre familiar with Laffer, the most recent target of the crazed leftists, you may know that he was a key adviser to former President Ronald Reagan and an architect of the explosion in inequality that transpired under that administration. Does that sound like someone whos at risk of having their free speech taken away by college students? Am I expected to believe that my freedoms, security and comfort are under threat from college protesters, and powerful and wealthy men like Laffer are my allies in this fight for free speech? I feel insulted by the suggestion that this could be true.

Freedom of speech, an inviolable principle of political democracy, has been turned into a political bludgeon by the political right. There is not a single student or student organization on campus that has the power to threaten the freedom of speech of someone like Laffer. Freedom of speech exists so that people like Laffer can be held accountable, not so that they can endlessly run the university lecture circuit. I was under the impression that student protest was considered a component of freedom of speech, and not evidence of crazed leftism.

When students yell, lack civility or use politically polarizing language, are they not exercising their right to freedom of speech? We may disagree politically and on what manner of action is appropriate to voice our views, but this disagreement is not one around the freedom of speech. Progressive student organizations on campus have their political views and goals, and clearly so do Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and College Republicans. Are we supposed to pretend these arguments will never result in protests, angry yelling or confrontation?

While the average BU student enjoys a relatively privileged lifestyle, it is important to remember that political decisions affect peoples lives. People like Laffer helped construct policies that hurt workers, while their superiors like Reagan went on racist rants behind closed doors. When Reagan dealt a death blow to the power of organized labor in America, the right did not protest the repression of their freedom of speech or right to strike. Rather, they celebrated the accomplishment of their political goal. When you choose to agitate for your political views, when you choose to bring archconservatives to campus, you have entered the sphere of public debate. I think that TPUSA and College Republicans should be allowed to say what they say. But I think if politics is to be understood as the serious matter it is, then rhetorical tricks using free speech as a bludgeon against crazed leftists should be off the table. Calling organized students mobs also strikes me as a deeply anti-democratic sentiment. If students of color, LGBTQ students and their allies see a reason to yell and protest, people should listen. Disagreement is a natural fact of political life and is protected by freedom of speech which is exactly what protesting students were exercising.

John-Paul Keblinski is a junior double-majoring in sociology and geography.

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BU protesters were exercising their First Amendment rights - Binghamton University Pipe Dream

A conservative Indiana University professor drew scathing condemnation from school officials after sharing an article that states women are too emotional for academia. Now faced with mounting calls for his resignation, the universitys leadership says hes protected by the first amendment despite peddling racist, sexist and homophobic views on social media.

The university was forced to respond to concerns about Eric Rasmusen,a tenured professor of business and economics at Indianas Kelley School of Business, after he tweeted an article earlier this month titled: Are Women Destroying Academia? Probably. The 1,500-word essay was published 2 November in The Unz Review, a website that claims to spotlight interesting, important and controversial perspectives rarely published in conventional media outlets.

In his post, Mr Rasmusen pulled a line from the article that said: Geniuses are overwhelmingly male because they combine outlier high IQ with moderately low agreeableness and moderately low conscientiousness.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The tweet drew hundreds of replies by Wednesday night, including a viral Monday afternoon response from Hoosier alumna Maggie Hopkins.

This article suggests there should be far fewer women at universities. I am deeply offended by this tweet, and my ability to feel that offence does not diminish my intellect, Ms Hopkins, who said she had with Mr Rasmusen on the Indiana University Bloomington Faculty Council, wrote.

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University professor with sexist and racist views cannot be fired due to first amendment - The Independent

Columbia Daily Tribune

MondayNov18,2019at3:03PMNov18,2019at4:12PM

Nobel Prize winner and retired University of Missouri professor George Smith will discuss boycotts and the First Amendment in a talk at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Daniel Boone Regional Library Friends Room.

The event sponsored by the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association is free and open to the public.

Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Congress and in the Missouri General Assembly to outlaw the use of boycotts against Israel. A boycott, divest and sanction movement against Israel for its treatment of Palestinians has gained traction among some groups and people.

The Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association doesn't take a position on the BDS movement, but resists any effort to limit the First Amendment rights of Americans to take part in the activities, according to a news release.

George Smith shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2018.

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Nobel laureate Smith to speak on boycotts and First Amendment - Boonville Daily News

An article in the Nov. 13 Chronicle reports that four students at Bozeman High School objected to the status of the local Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) club as an authorized club at BHS.

The students assert that national FCA policies discriminate against gay and lesbian students and that the status of the local FCA club at BHS should be revoked. Those policies support the position that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. The article notes that there is no claim that any of the local members have engaged in any discriminatory practices.

The article reports that the School Board has agreed with the students and has given the local FCA club the choice of disaffiliating with national FCA or losing its club status at BHS. Also, as the article notes, the consequences of losing that status are significant.

Supporters or promoters of gay rights have a protected right to express their views. Those who do not agree with that position are entitled to similar protection. The Supreme Court has said, Discussions regarding matters of political interest are at the core of constitutionally protected rights and that such discussions should be robust. Discussion of gay rights is such a matter.

There are at least three First Amendment rights at issue: free speech, religious freedom and the right to assemble. These rights do not provide support for a position I may take but not for an opposing position.

The action by the School Board discriminates against the FCA students, is not reasonable and should be reversed.

Originally posted here:
First Amendment rights are not a one-way street - The Bozeman Daily Chronicle