<\/a>
\nThis is old news, but it’s new to me (which just shows how out of it I am!). Back in January the Knight Foundation published a study<\/a> of over 100,000 US high school students which found that these kids (who will be in my classes over the next several years) didn’t understand the basic U.S. constitutional guarantees of freedom and (perhaps worse) really didn’t care a whole lot. Over 1 in 3 felt “the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees”, which doesn’t bode well for the rest of us. As Knight Foundation President and CEO Hodding Carter III said<\/p>\n

\nThese results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous. Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation\u2019s future.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Subsequent analysis of the data<\/a> also suggests that comfortable suburban kids were “less appreciative of the First Amendment” than their rural and urban counterparts. While depressing, this isn’t totally surprising. Sadly, it’s not obvious that Our Fearless Leader would find any of this to be cause for concern.<\/p>\n

Today we (largely) enjoy the freedom of the Internet and I can ramble on about things that strike my fancy without, for example, worrying (overly) about the implications of criticizing the government. We’d best hope, though, that these kids come to better appreciate some of these freedoms before they run the show. This Knight Foundation is obviously thinking along similar lines, as they’ve set up FirstAmendmentFuture.org<\/a> specifically to address these kinds of concerns.<\/p>\n

As a simple step, I might suggest an idea my wonderful mother brought up last year (when we were still reeling from the disappointment of the ’04 election): Read the Bill of Rights<\/a> out loud as part of your Thanksgiving celebration. It’s a fine and wonderful thing to celebrate and give thanks for (a whole lot better than a striped piece of cloth), and reminding ourselves what those amendments actually say<\/em> and mean<\/em> in our lives can’t be a Bad Thing. Conveniently, they’re mostly quite short, so getting through them no problem. If memory serves, we got so into it last year that we went through the entire set of Constitutional amendments, not just the first 10. And this with WeatherGirl<\/a> not even being a U.S. citizen or growing up with Thanksgiving as a holiday! :-)<\/p>\n

(This all assumes you’re in the U.S. and do this whole Thanksgiving thing, of course. If you’re not or don’t, then I still recommend reading the Bill of Rights<\/a>, though, as it’s a fine little document. I’m all for exporting [and importing!] ideas, I just prefer not to do it at gunpoint.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is old news, but it’s new to me (which just shows how out of it I am!). Back in January the Knight Foundation published a study of over 100,000 US high school students which found that these kids (who will be in my classes over the next several years) didn’t understand the basic U.S. … Continue reading “Share the Bill of Rights over your Thanksgiving dinner”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-politics","category-writing"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p90sy-4a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":394,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2006\/11\/07\/were-thinking-of-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":0},"title":"We’re thinking of you","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"7 Nov 06","format":false,"excerpt":"We're thinking of you, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. For Dad, wishing we could be there to help in person. My sister got a bunch of materials from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, including nifty wrist bands for all. I decided we needed to take a group shot.","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":532,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/04\/08\/mutant-variety-show-accounting\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":1},"title":"Mutant Variety Show accounting","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"8 Apr 07","format":false,"excerpt":"For the bored among you, I've posted the accounting or the Mutant Variety Show as a Google Doc. 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It was in good company, sitting next to a nice letter from a group that had been involved in a Blandin foundation grant noting that a strong educational system was important for almost all aspects of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/education\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":520,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/03\/20\/cant-come-to-the-show-donate-on-line\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":3},"title":"Can’t come to the show? Donate on-line!","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"20 Mar 07","format":false,"excerpt":"Sax in profile, cornet beyond, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent. Can't come to the big show but still want to contribute to the good causes? The Lance Armstrong Foundation makes it easy to donate on-line! They have provided us with a nice little web page on their site, complete\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1618,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2012\/11\/05\/how-do-we-wish-to-be-remembered-again-vote-no-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":4},"title":"How do we wish to be remembered (again): Vote No tomorrow","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"5 Nov 12","format":false,"excerpt":"How do we wish to be remembered? Looking back, it can be hard to imagine why people in the past just didn't get it. Why they thought women shouldn't be allowed to vote, and why blacks and whites couldn't use the same restroom, or the same school. The people that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","block_context":{"text":"Family","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8468\/8126649743_da6d5271c9_b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":521,"url":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2007\/03\/21\/i-almost-want-to-go-move-a-huge-rock\/","url_meta":{"origin":258,"position":5},"title":"I almost want to go move a huge rock","author":"Nic McPhee","date":"21 Mar 07","format":false,"excerpt":"This is an excellent example of what you can do with a little ingenuity and patience. 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