(1999). Free Speech and Graduation Prayer. American School Board Journal, v186 n3 p12-23,47 Mar. The Ninth Circuit Court's decision upholding the Madison School District's policy allowing students to speak (and pray) at graduation ceremonies is correct. So long as students are selected by religiously neutral criteria (class rank) and can speak on any topic, the Free Speech Clause should protect that student's expression. (MLH)…
(2008). Genuine Religious Tolerance: Is It a Thing of the Past in Public Schools?. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, v39 n3 p327-350 Jul. The so-called Culture Wars have made the issue of religious tolerance in schools more confusing than ever. Where once free speech trumped nearly every concern in these wars in the public schools, there is now great concern about whether messages put out are politically correct. The preoccupation teachers now have with avoiding speech or themes likely to get them into trouble has led to a new form of censorship. The authors explain that free speech in the educational forum requires respect for every earnest attempt to get at a legitimate truth claim. In matters religious, this epistemic openness is no longer respected. The argument below does not encourage teachers to engage in debate among students in matters religious, or even to encourage it. Nor are the arguments below aimed at introducing religious discourse as a means of developing skills of critical thinking as the feminist, moral philosopher Nel Noddings has previously recommended. The argument simply concludes with the modest… [Direct]
(2010). Copying Right and Copying Wrong with Web 2.0 Tools in the Teacher Education and Communications Classrooms. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal), v10 n3 p257-274. Understanding the tenets of copyright in general, and in particular, in online communication and publishing with Web 2.0 tools, has become an important part of literacy in today's Information Age, as well as a cornerstone of free speech and responsible citizenship for the future. Young content creators must be educated about copyright law, their own rights as content creators, and their responsibilities as producers and publishers of content derived from the intellectual property of others. Educators should prepare them for responsible and ethical participation in new forms of creative expression in the Information Age. The recent integration of video and audio content and the implementation of Web 2.0 tools in the contemporary English language classroom has made this learning environment a particularly appropriate proving ground for the examination of current student practices with respect to intellectual property. This paper describes an approach employed with English education and… [PDF]
(2016). Seeing the Talker's Face Improves Free Recall of Speech for Young Adults with Normal Hearing but Not Older Adults with Hearing Loss. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, v59 n3 p590-599 Jun. Purpose: Seeing the talker's face improves speech understanding in noise, possibly releasing resources for cognitive processing. We investigated whether it improves free recall of spoken two-digit numbers. Method: Twenty younger adults with normal hearing and 24 older adults with hearing loss listened to and subsequently recalled lists of 13 two-digit numbers, with alternating male and female talkers. Lists were presented in quiet as well as in stationary and speech-like noise at a signal-to-noise ratio giving approximately 90% intelligibility. Amplification compensated for loss of audibility. Results: Seeing the talker's face improved free recall performance for the younger but not the older group. Poorer performance in background noise was contingent on individual differences in working memory capacity. The effect of seeing the talker's face did not differ in quiet and noise. Conclusions: We have argued that the absence of an effect of seeing the talker's face for older adults with… [Direct]
(2007). Spotlight on Speech Codes 2007: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation's Campuses. Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (NJ1) Last year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducted its first-ever comprehensive study of restrictions on speech at America's colleges and universities, "Spotlight on Speech Codes 2006: The State of Free Speech on our Nation's Campuses." In light of the essentiality of free expression to a truly liberal education, its findings were deeply disappointing. Between September 2005 and September 2006, FIRE surveyed over 330 schools and found that over 68 percent of those schools explicitly prohibited speech that, outside the borders of campus, is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This year, FIRE is proud to present its second annual report on the state of speech codes on America's college campuses. This year's report contains data on additional public universities; it also added enrollment data to the information it collected on colleges and universities to give a clearer idea of the sheer number of students affected by… [PDF]
(1977). Advertising and Free Speech. The articles collected in this book originated at a conference at which legal and economic scholars discussed the issue of First Amendment protection for commercial speech. The first article, in arguing for freedom for commercial speech, finds inconsistent and untenable the arguments of those who advocate freedom from regulation for political activity and yet desire regulation of commercial activity; it then cites court cases that have dealt with the question of constitutional protection for commercial speech and predicts a trend toward diminished regulation of advertising. The four succeeding articles comment on the first article; although they agree in part with some of its conclusions, they seriously challenge much of what was presented. The final section of the book is a transcript of a discussion by conference participants. (GW)…
(1972). Free Speech: How Free?. English Journal, 61, 7, 1015-19, Oct 72. Discusses attitude a well-informed, liberal minded teacher should take toward the use of slang by students in oral and written communication in the classroom. (Author)…
(2003). Free Speech for Principals?. Principal, v83 n2 p10,12-13 Nov-Dec. Describes two cases involving principals' First Amendment rights to freedom of expression, followed by questions and answers related thereto. (PKP)…
(1994). Free Speech or Harassment?. Chronicle of Higher Education, v41 n5 pA22 Sep 28. A federal judge has ordered the University of New Hampshire to end a professor's suspension, after ruling that his classroom comments did not amount to sexual harassment. The university had claimed the teacher violated institutional sexual-harassment policy by creating a classroom environment hostile to women. (MSE)…
(1980). Free Speech and Campaign Reform. The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, a political campaign reform measure, was enacted to limit campaign contributions and independent expenditures, to mandate disclosure of contributors, and to establish public financing of campaigns, all to minimize the opportunity for political corruption. Unfortunate implications of such reform on the exercise of free speech include the following: disclosure puts small controversial parties at a disadvantage, since its contributors must assume the risk of harassment; limitations on contribution or spending constitute prior restraint on the amount of political communication in which people can engage; in advertisements, independent contributors are forbidden to quote the candidate they support; partisan considerations in the Federal Election Commission could detrimentally influence third party funding and the timely release of funds to certain politicians; and campaign expenditure limits impair communication with voters. (DF)… [PDF]
(2010). Students' First Amendment Rights and School District Demographics: Gauging School Board Responsiveness to Student Speech Policy. Current Issues in Education, v13 n3. This study examined the extent to which Texas school boards of education made efforts to locally modify student speech policy. Using online policy manuals provided by the Texas Association of School Boards, speech policies for 91 school districts were gathered using a purposive stratified sampling procedure and examined for local modifications to student speech policies under school-sponsored publications, expression, distribution of non-school literature, use of school facilities, and harassment. The geographical location of the district, district percentage of minority students, and total district student enrollment were employed as explanatory variables. The results of a chi-square statistic indicate geographical location and student enrollment were significantly related to whether school boards made changes to its speech policy. Although not entirely surprising, the more pertinent issue is whether an over reliance on school board associations for policy development curbs… [Direct]
(2004). Balancing Safety and Free Speech. Principal Leadership, v4 n5 p30-35 Jan. According to Jay Worona, general counsel for the New York State School Board Association, "Balancing safety and student constitutional rights is not easy. It has to be a careful balance. School officials must be prudent and not overreact. But one part of the equation has to be paramount. And safety should be the primary concern" (personal communication, October 16, 2002). Some civil liberty advocates worry that recent school shootings have led to an unnecessary suppression of students' constitutional rights. They point to "Tinker v. DesMoines Independent Community School District" (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark student First Amendment decision, in which the Court wrote that "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression" and that students do not lose their free-speech rights at the schoolhouse door. According to Worona, the theoretical discussion concerning the balance between… [Direct]
(1966). Free Speech Advocates at Berkeley. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, v2 n1 p41-62 Jan-Feb-Mar. This study compares highly committed members of the Free Speech Movement (FSM) at Berkeley with the student population at large on 3 sociopsychological foci: general biographical data, religious orientation, and rigidity-flexibility. Questionnaires were administered to 172 FSM members selected by chance from the 10 to 1200 who entered and "sat-in" the Administration Building at the University of California on December 2, 1964. A comparative sample of 146 student respondents, selected randomly from the student directory, was obtained by mail. Results indicated that the sit-ins were younger and more homogeneous in age, had parents who were more academically elite (in terms of PhD and MA degrees held), and comprised a larger proportion of females than that of the cross-sectional group. No differences appeared in academic achievement (accumulative grade point average) or in birth order and number of siblings. It was found, as predicted, that the FSM members were less…
(1979). Recent Trends in Free Speech Theory. This syllabus of a convention workshop course on free speech theory consists of descriptions of several United States Supreme Court decisions related to free speech. Some specific areas in which decisions are discussed are: obscene and indecent communication, the definition of a public figure for purposes of libel action, the press versus official secrecy, commercial speech and First Amendment protection, and rights of private property versus rights of free speech. (TJ)…
(1987). Elijah Lovejoy and Free Speech. Elijah P. Lovejoy, generally regarded as America's first martyr to freedom of the press, was killed by a racist mob in Alton, Illinois, in November 1837, after a brief but tumultuous career as an crusading antislavery newspaper editor and preacher. Born into a stern Maine Protestant family, he migrated to St. Louis, became a minister, and began publishing a religious newspaper called "The Observer." Increasingly opposed to slavery, Lovejoy's journalistic attacks earned him such enmity that he was forced to move his press and family to Alton. Lovejoy's life in Alton produced defenses of free expression that rank him among history's greatest advocates of civil liberty. His printing presses were destroyed on three separate occasions by anti-abolitionist mobs, until the community met and formally requested him to terminate newspaper publication in Alton. Lovejoy defended himself with a speech filled with religious imagery and allusions to death–rhetoric that indicated he had… [PDF]