Chester E. Finn Jr. wrote an article for Education Next titled When College Students Don’t Understand the Concept of Free Speech (22 September 2017).
« Every state requires students to complete coursework in civics or social studies in order to graduate. »
« That it isn’t working very well was obvious when, for example, NAEP assessed civics in 2006 and found that fewer than a quarter of high school seniors could supply a satisfactory answer to a question about the means by which citizens can change laws. Or when the Annenberg Public Policy Center surveyed American adults in 2014 and found that only 36 percent could name the three branches of the U.S. government. »
« What’s brought this failure into sharpest relief in recent days, however, was release of a seriously alarming survey by the Brookings Institution’s John Villasenor… More than half of current U.S. college students think it’s OK to shout down a speaker who says offensive things… The survey goes on to show that many also think it’s OK to use violence to suppress such speech from being uttered—or heard. »
« No wonder the Wall Street Journal editorialized that “Madison Weeps.”
Articles of Interest 