In looking over the results of a recent survey on what America’s high school students think about their freedoms, I’m reminded of the influence of teachers. Along with parents, they are the ones who will instill in every generation the respect and appreciation for the “Five Freedoms” guaranteed in the First Amendment: freedom to worship as you believe and without a religion endorsed by the government, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to ask government to meet the people’s needs. 

Student responses to our 2006 survey aren’t easy to fit into neat categories. Their attitudes are as hard to characterize as teenagers themselves. Forty-five percent of American high school students think the First Amendment “goes too far in the rights it guarantees,” yet a substantial majority also believe offensive song lyrics shouldn’t be censored. They overwhelmingly believe that burning the American flag as a political statement should not be allowed but also that newspapers should not be censored by government nor especially high school newspapers by school authorities.

But the best news out of our recent survey is that, compared to our initial survey of two years ago, high school students today are more likely to take classes that teach and discuss First Amendment freedoms. And that more of them are in classes where teachers require students to read a newspaper or watch television news. 

The initial “Future of the First Amendment” survey of more than 100,000 students, some 8,000 teachers and 500 administrators found that government censorship of news and the Internet had high approval ratings. Teachers, for their part, were high on censoring music lyrics, though they largely disapproved of government censorship of news. In that survey, three-fourths of the students either didn’t know or didn’t care about their guaranteed freedoms.

That grabbed a lot of headlines and comments ranging from newspaper editorials to Dear Abby and from Rush Limbaugh to Boston Legal on television.

When we checked in again with students and teachers this year, we were heartened to find improvement in students’ education and knowledge. That’s good news because the ability to discuss many points of view is at the heart of the First Amendment. The framers of the Constitution had it right: there is no better way to be informed citizens than to have a healthy debate that includes many points of view so that people can act in their own, enlightened self-interest. That was true in 1776 and it’s true today in our world of so many sources of information.

Our new survey shows there’s evidence that both students and teachers are starting to re-examine their fundamental freedoms. I hope so, since we live in times when our phone calls and Internet records may not be as protected as we thought, and when our access to basic information is being pulled back from public view.  

If we want America’s next generation to not take our Five Freedoms for granted, teachers are the answer. And there’s help available.  Any number of web sites – including  www.teachfirstamendment.org, www.constitutioncenter.org, firstamendment.jideas.org – provide teachers, administrators, students, parents and government officials with tips, lesson plans and ideas for discussing and  understanding the Constitution.  

Freedom is like a muscle in your body.  If you don’t use it, it gets weak; but if you exercise, it gets stronger.  Freedom House, a human rights organization in Washington, estimates only 17 percent of the world’s people enjoy real freedom of speech and of the press. We are lucky to be among that small number.  Let’s stay that way by making sure that we – and our kids - understand and use those freedoms.