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Sunday, September 18, 2005
Constitution Day
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hen three quarters of America's high-school students don't know or care about the First Amendment, we have a problem. Students don't know that free expression is the glue that holds this democracy together. That's not just any old problem. It's a big problem. So how do we fix it?
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each them.
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his year, a new law established a special day for public schools to teach about the U.S. Constitution. The new requirement, dropped into last year's federal-appropriations bill by U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), calls for all public schools to teach about the Constitution on September 17, the day the Constitution was signed in 1787. Since Sept. 17 is a Saturday this year, many teachers took up the task Friday.
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t's a start, but only a start. The problem is too big to be solved in a single day. Let's look at the million-dollar survey released this year by the University of Connecticut. Hundreds of thousands of tomorrow's citizens think that the government can censor newspapers and the Internet. One in five high schools has no student media at all.
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ere's my suggestion: Teachers, focus your Constitution Day lessons (and others) on the first freedom. Go to www.TeachFirstAmendment.org. This Web site, underwritten by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, promotes free resources for teachers who want to use the day to teach about the First Amendment. There are lesson plans and teaching guides as well as ideas for ways to start and protect student media.
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he research shows that high schools are leaving the First Amendment behind. It suggests that the more students are exposed to the First Amendment and the news stream in the classroom - and the more involved they are in student journalism - the greater their understanding of and appreciation of the First Amendment.
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eachers and principals play a key role. There is a statistical relationship between their own attitudes and what is likely to go into the heads of students. But principals who believe that they can shut down dissent by banning student media are fooling themselves: The numbers show that students interested in journalism find a way to learn about and practice it even if no school media are allowed.
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eachers and principals now have partners in their efforts to bring civic learning into classrooms all year long in the form of tools and teaching guides that are available online.
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or more information go to TeachFirstAmendment.org or visit the Web site of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Posted by fm on September 18, 2005 at 12:14 AM