55% high school students think first amendment goes too far...

[cynatnite]

in granting rights. Got it from here:

Four out of five high school students felt they knew enough to give opinions on this 215-year-old list of rights. And among them, 55% thought the First Amendment goes too far in granting rights.

That's a turnaround from two years ago, when 57% expressed support for the First Amendment and its enumerated rights.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060927/cm_usatoday/whyadiminishedregardforthefirstamendment

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.

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6888837

I know this is dated from 2005, but I was surprised to read this.

[ComerPerro]

1. You can make high school students say whatever you want

if you are sophisticated enough in your questioning

[skipos]

2. Mike Judge has a movie about this called Idiocracy

We are getting dumber, no doubt about it.

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. And the big loser?

Will be us. Of course I hope Mike Judge can enjoy his money while he can still do it. Because the day when the Fit hits the shan, he will be like that comedian in the movie V for Vendetta. And the sheep won't care, because Hey, the First Admendment Goes to far, and the sheep will bleat Yeah!

[AX10]

3. The graduating class of 2001 was the last truely sane one.

Since 9/11, it's been a huge pile of shit.

These kids are obviously being brainwashed or they are just too ignorant.

Also, how many of these kids actually gradutate?

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Something like 55% of high school students don't even graduate.

[ForFuxakes]

11. WHAT?

:wtf: Where did you come up with that?

[JVS]

19. Statistics can easily be pulled from one's ass!

[zanne]

5. I'm calling BS on this one.

When two or three other polling companies do polls on the same subject with the same demographic, I'll be more confident of the results.

[bobbolink]

7. That certainly bodes well for the future.

:sarcasm:

I hear more and more elderly people saying "I'm glad I won't be around to see what this country is coming to." Sad, but I agree with 'em. Glad I don't have that much longer to watch this unfold.

[Deep13]

8. I am too stupid to know the facts.

I have a right to be ignorant and deluded!

[ForFuxakes]

9. This is a problem

of the educational system losing it's way. I'm all for diversity in education, but I think that pedulum has swung way too far. Social Syudies and Civics/Current events are not taught in the proper way (fundies maybe...I don't know).

I remember in my eight grade history class (1984) being required to memorize the preamble to the constitution. I could never understand the lack of focus on these things after that!

[Prophet 451]

10. This just in... 55% of people are idiots. n/t

[OneBlueSky]

12. schools no longer emphasize social studies or civics because . . .

"they're not on the test" . . . and this is the result . . .

[earth mom]

13. A lot of liberal parents assume that schools are teaching

their kids the way they were taught and teaching them the values that they themselves hold. WRONG! We're all being punked! :grr:

Usually it is the reTHUGS who are the ones to bitch about what schools are teaching, but the reality these days is that liberals need to worry and be very, very afraid! No Child Left Behind has dumbed down our schools to the point that they are teaching solely to the test and not teaching our kids all they need to know or critical thinking skills! And it's a fact that textbooks are being altered of the truth! Just look how Evolution is being fought over and now it looks like they are trying to alter the meaning of the Constitution too! Make no mistake, the reTHUGS are the ones behind this shit. It is their goal to mold our kids the way THEY want them to be! As in Brainwashing 101! :mad:

p.s. When my kids teacher told me that No Child Left Behind wasn't "all that bad", we were out of there in a nanosecond! Fuck that and him! :grr:

[kestrel91316]

14. The RW plan has succeeded beyond their wildest expectations.

[dkofos]

15. If you think this country is in bad shape now,

just wait till this ignorant crop of sheep are loosed on the country.

What a world, what a world

[lies and propaganda]

16. i dare 4 0f 5 of those kids to spell Amendment

[JVS]

17. This news is not surprising to me. It's not much different at colleges.

Today I noticed in a discussion, that students felt obligated to find a moral justification for presenting an old Opera that might offend people now. The need for such a justification implies that only certain kinds of art should be tolerated.

[RB TexLa]

18. Wouldn't matter if it were 100% most of them are too young to vote

and the vast majority of them will not be voting for the next 10 to 12 years. 18 to 30 year olds on the whole do not vote, until more of them do nothing they say will mean anything.

[treestar]

20. Partly that could be immaturity

that concept that your ideas can prevail better simply by quashing expression of opposing or stimulating ideas. Eventually you come to realize that if you can't convince anyone and have to resort to simply suppressing the opposition that 1) it never works and 2) you're admitting the opposition is right, since you have no better tactic.