ATS: Half of U.S. High Schoolers: Government Censorship is Okay

The problem is, as FredT, pointed out, the emphasis that has been placed on and only on standardized school testings. Ask any teacher currently teaching today, and they will tell you that their ability to teach is virtually null-in-void and governed and dictated by preparing students for the standardized testings. It pretty much transforms and handcuffs the teacher to the point of being nothing but a glorified babysitter. There is no real teaching going on and when and if these students decide to go to college, they end up having major difficulties in simply writing coherent papers, etc. Then many people wonder why the college freshman dropout rate is 55%+/-?


seekerof

[edit on 31-1-2005 by Seekerof]

A problem with the educational system is its ability to teach critical thinking. Context and Metaphor are valuable concepts to understand, especially in todays world of fantasy. Popular books( Harry Potter) and movies(Lord of the Rings/Matrix), T.V.(exaggerated criminal dramas CSI and Law and Order)and even religion(Parables) all are mediums of communication but are too often taken literally. The "morals" and other valuable insights get lost in the "awe" induced by the story.
Technology also contributes to the loss of "mental interaction" with ones environment. Convenience is the order of the day and even a basic understanding of the sciences that produced are various technologies are shuffled to the background.

You make some good points, MemoryShock, specifically this one:

as posted by MemoryShock
A problem with the educational system is its ability to teach critical thinking.

As a prospective teacher myself, here's the crux of the problem: is it inherently the fault of the teacher or the educational system over-emphasizing standardized testing that students are not being taught the ability to critical think, among other areas? I know you mentioned the educational system, but some to many think that the educational system and a teacher are one in the same.

IMHO, I believe it is both, but more in defense of teachers, I would think it would be hard to teach critical thinking, among other cognitive skills, when again, emphasis and daily classroom curriculums revolve around getting the students prepped and ready for the standardized tests.



seekerof

[edit on 31-1-2005 by Seekerof]

Glass half-empty?

Look at this from the other side-

More (percentage) kids believe in the First Amendment now then grown-ups did after the Revolutionary War

Almost half the kids do NOT believe in censorship

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Thank God for the other 50% who have their heads in the right place.

I've talked to a few kids at ATS who are wise beyond their years.

With such solid figures, perhaps a study should be done to see about the demographic areas these schools fall into. If such studies have already been done, does anyone know where I can get a copy of them?

firstamendment

The pdf file shows the demographics (but not by state) and questions asked, including interviews with faculty and principals. If it's not the right one I'll fix it - I'm still looking over the site.

The foundation that sponsored the survey was - the knight foundation

B.

I have heard of them before, I'm beginning to think this 50% is more BS the government is tryingto use to create more diversification, the better to divide us with. However that is obviously my over active mind pondering a conspiracy for this.

The study does interest me, now if specific locations can be identified.

About a third of the nation's high school students say the First Amendment of the Constitution goes too far in granting Americans freedom of expression

I absolutely refuse to beleive this, there simply has to be some sort of bias introduced in the survey questions. Is the survery available?

. The current study is based on an analysis of summary interviews with 544 school administrators, detailed interviews with 327 principals or other senior administrators, 7,889 faculty members, and 112,003 students.

The survey consisted of a multi-stage cluster design conducted in two stages across three units of analysis: schools, students and faculty. Four surveys were administered.

Christ, please tell me that there was some weirdness in the way that they worded the questions and that there was good room for bias.

here is the groups webpage
www.knightfdn.org...

the complete pdf of the report
firstamendment.jideas.org...

This is disgusting.

www.usatoday.com...

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

But USA Today is reporting 51% of the students polled were FOR a free press...

something smells fishy

[edit on 31-1-2005 by negativenihil]

Here's a more indepth article on this study.
Quite astounding. Time for more U.S. civic, Constitution/Government, and History classes!

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.

--snip--

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.

First Amendment no big deal, students say



seekerof

Originally posted by Nygdan
Christ, please tell me that there was some weirdness in the way that they worded the questions and that there was good room for bias.

I have been reading this for a couple of hours now. The questions look unbiased and in no way misleading. I was surprised at some of the answers gave by administrators. 43% of faculty and 46% of principals acknowledge that they take their first amendment freedoms for granted - no wonder the students do as well then.


B.

[edit on 1/31/05 by Bleys]

To make any kind of sence of this you would have to know the science of the study and the exact questions asked . Also you never know if they had gotten a speech or been given somthing to read before the survey this can and will change results.

Originally posted by Seekerof
As a prospective teacher myself, here's the crux of the problem: is it inherently the fault of the teacher or the educational system over-emphasizing standardized testing that students are not being taught the ability to critical think, among other areas? I know you mentioned the educational system, but some to many think that the educational system and a teacher are one in the same.

seekerof

[edit on 31-1-2005 by Seekerof]

Critical Thinking, in my opinion, is the ability to see past the original reaction to a given situation(hypothetical or literal) and arrive at a conclusion that is inclusive of objectivity to the factors involved. You see a lot of that here on ATS where members are not only encouraged to see other perspectives and reasonings, but are almost forced to in order to have their opinions heard and taken seriously. I was stone-walled by Byrd with regards to a thread I started and as such have been able to back up everything I state(mostly). BTW, Thanks Byrd

Critical Thinking in that sense would be greatly improved by the exposure of many viewpoints to the student and the questioning of their familial religious and political concepts. The Evolution/Intelligent Design Debate in textbooks is absurd because a well-rounded school/curriculum encourages this diversity to begin with. But we do not have that. Teachers, IMO, are partially responsible. It's the prescribed curriculum that is too blame. This issue needs to be taken to the school board and their very educational goals need to be re-evaluated.

I once neglected school because at the time I believed that all they were teaching me was "stuff any idiot could look up in a book. This is partially true. Maybe some time needs to be directed towards the "motivation behind the defining of a fact" or "why is it like this." Students need to be motivated to question everything, not accept what they are told. Much debate can occur describing how to accomplish this, and it should occur. Otherwise, we'll end up with a society that doesn't practice free speech.

[edit on 31-1-2005 by MemoryShock]

.
DgTempe,
you do realize how hypocritical your first post is?
Limit these people's voice who want to limit the voice of the press?
you might want to think about that one.

These students are probably suffering under the delusion that the Nation's history is avenue of the triumph of virtue.

The nation's history is riddled with rot and corruption, it has a good portion of that right now. Scandal is only when that corruption becomes exposed to the public.

Freedom of the press is essential for rooting out the inevitable rot that appears. What is sad is when people become so apathetic they don't pay attention or care, or worse yet think the people involved in the rot should be able to stop the information from getting out.

Very sad. Very stupid.
Does Faith give you permission to be stupid? Maybe that is the case.

Faith that America is always right makes it ok for the government to limit the press's examination of it?

"power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolute"

Beliefs in absolute institutions is an inviting recipe for corruption.

If a person wants to be a dumb meat animal that is their choice. I am hoping that their choices will not drag me along with it.

Maybe these kids have been mindnumbed by corporate America's media injected pre-packaged value system. Please Wake UP! Use your minds. Have your own opinions. Argue the opposing viewpoint if just for the intellectual exercise.

What ever happened to pride in having an intellect?
Being a little arbitrary? Many things in the Universe are far more arbitrary than we can even conceive. The land of intellect is a rich resource. Use it, please.
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Also the 'no child left behind act' tries to pull up the lowest acheivers at the expense of the highest.

Sort of a race to mediocrity instead of striving towards excellence.
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In looking at some of the questions, they indeed seems bias free. More to the point the study was not carried out by some crackpot group but the University of Connecticut and had a huge sample as well.

The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut, is billed as the largest of its kind. More than 100,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators at 544 public and private high schools took part in early 2004.

Study

IMO - Fred and seekerof are dead on with their analysis that the focus on preparing for tests prevents real teaching. ...and the tests do nothing constructive - just label, target kids negatively

Am voting for you for way above on this one Fred - IF I can find a button somewhere! ...not one here on this thread for some reason.



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Originally posted by ADVISOR


The study does interest me, now if specific locations can be identified.

Red States?????

I really don't believe there's as much emphasis on standardized testing as some of you think. I was in high-school but five years ago and really the only subject that any teaching geared towards passing "the test" was math. And I graduated high school in New York state - Regents exams are some of the hardest public scool exams in the nation. I know someone will show me articles or what not that says other wise, but really, passing standardized tests aren't the singular goal of the school year. Until mid-spring there's very little mention of them.

The problem isn't how kids are taught, it's what kids are taught. What do you expect kids learn in government schools? That it's good to speak out, good to rabble-rouse, good to question authority? Only if you were the founding fathers.

What do you expect kids are going to know about religious freedom when a sticker that only says to keep an open mind about evolution was taken off by court order because a creationist put it there. What do you think kids are going to think when they can't celebrate Christmas with their friends any more at school? The mere hint of religion in public schools cannot be tolerated. And there's a difference between celebrating a holiday or keeping an open mind and seperating the church from the state. I have no problem with "under god" being taken out of the pledge.

This is a result of the politically correct sanitization of the country. It says 83% of kids think that people should be able to express unpopular opinions. That's not too bad. But then when questions start getting asked about the Constitution, they're dumb to it. As all humans they understand fundamental rights, just not legal ones. School mandated curriculum has obviously already failed, I don't know what more civics and history classes will do when they don't teach the right things. Go get a high school Social Studies book - you'll see what I mean.

Sanitizing the world reminds me of Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut. (It's a five minute read)

The first step to righting this ship, and most will think it's absurd, is to abolish the Department of Education.

Originally posted by dgtempe

Originally posted by ADVISOR


The study does interest me, now if specific locations can be identified.

Red States?????

Don't you live in a red state?

[edit on (2/1/0505 by PistolPete]