As a high school student and editor-in-chief of my school newspaper, I
am passionate about First Amendment education. I feel there is hope
for my generation to continue to expand in their knowledge of the
First Amendment, but I see firsthand everyday the enormous amount of
work it will take. According to the study, students are less
supportive of rights that don't directly affect them. But students
shouldn't determine their support solely on personal interests,
because a threat to one person's First Amendment rights is a threat to
every person's First Amendment rights.

Sarah Allen

"I'm not surprised fewer than half of the students polled had heard of Constitution Day. Nor am I surprised that so few remember what their schools did last year to celebrate it. I always ask at every workshop teach if anyone can tell me when Constitution Day is, and I also ask someone to tell me what it is. I have taught at some workshops where no one knows the answer to either question.

The simple fact that because there is no way to force schools to celebrate the day means that a lot aren't. I urge advisers to get their administrations to get their schools to have a school-wide celebration so their journalism programs will be eligible to apply for JEA's and NAA's Foundation Cornerstone Award--an award that goes to the two schools each year who do the most to support the First Amendment. The small number of schools applying for that award the past two years is appalling. The winners get $2,500, but apparently the money isn't incentive enough. The First Amendment and Constitution Day should be important for all journalism advisers and journalism students. All schools need to celebrate Constitution Day in order to show they understand and promote the First Amendment."

H. L. Hall
THSPA Executive Director

"The future of the First Amendment continues to be an uncertain one.
We're fighting hard to carry on the great American traditions of free
speech and free press with the next generation. This study should
remind all of us that we still have a long way to go. The solution
will not be a simple one: it will require students, teachers, school
administrators, parents and leaders to come together and take a stand.
This isn't just about changing schools; it's about changing attitudes.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work.

Brian Schram
Washington State University student

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There’s always more we all can and must do to ensure new generations value our freedoms. Still, I’m not losing sleep over these particular results. The fact that students may not have heard of Constitution Day may instead speak to the inherent limitations of top-down decrees, and schools can have the programming without necessarily billing it as “Constitution Day.” Far more meaningful -- and encouraging -- are the high percentages who report having had courses that deal with the First Amendment and the role of a free press. Knowledge about the First Amendment is not the same as attitudes on particular questions like those asked here -- questions about which we adults are divided as well. And the context students associate with these questions matters: “government approval” sounds different if students are thinking about national security, “press rights going too far” sounds different if students are thinking of sensationalist coverage, etc. Finally, we all tend to take things for granted that in our own experience are not at all threatened. Societal trends are for ever great freedom of expression -- especially in the format students increasingly participate in most: the Internet. Thanks for sharing this valuable information.

Thomas Hutton
Senior Staff Attorney
National School Boards Association

There is an adage that reminds us that 'you don't know what you've got
'til it's gone.' I hope our nation we never has to find that out about
the rights contained in the Constitution. The results of this latest
Knight Foundation study show that we must be ever-vigilant not only in
guarding against erosion of the rights guaranteed in the First
Amendment, but also in educating our student citizens about the
importance of the Constitution as a whole. Over the years, it has
been shaped and transformed in ways that allowed for the full
participation of all our diverse citizens. As such, the Constitution
articulates the freedoms granted to individual citizens and ideals a
diverse nation should aspire to.

Calvin Hall
Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow
Department of Communication
Appalachian State University