Warren Watson, director, announced today the creation of an annual fund-raising campaign to support J-Ideas, Ball State’s scholastic journalism and First Amendment institute.
Parties are invited to give $25 or more to the J-Ideas Foundation to support future activities of the program. Donations are tax deductible. <more>
J-Ideas Director Warren Watson blogs regularly for the Indianapolis Star. Here are his latest offerings:
Landmark First Amendment Research
with School Principals launched at Ball State
Ball State’s First Amendment institute has launched a landmark research project with 5,000 high school principals nationwide.
J-Ideas, a 5-year-old effort to support student journalism and First Amendment awareness, is reaching out to 5,000 principals to gauge their knowledge level and support for the First Amendment of the Constitution. The research coincides with Sunshine Week, a national effort to support Freedom of Information, an important principle of the First Amendment. <more>
Student journalists scoop professional press
By Gerry Appel
In an era where student journalists are often criticized for poor decision-making, one student newspaper should receive praise after scooping its professional counterparts. <more>
Mile high with the First Amendment...
By Randy Swikle
We were north of the Mile High City near the Rocky Mountains. The principals were voluntarily descending—not from the tall peaks but from their position abutting the summit of school hierarchy. When they reached level ground, we could see each other more clearly. And clear sight leads to insight. <more >
This is a story about First Amendment research. But bear with me a moment as I bury the lead.
We midwesterners can often use the sad-sack Chicago Cubs as our scapegoat. After all, the out-of-kilter baseball franchise has suffered unsatisfying seasons since William Howard Taft was president.
Their string of woe continued last summer when the favored Cubs were ushered out of the National League playoffs in the first round.
Some blamed the collapse – in part at least -- on a Japanese newcomer with the unlikely (and unfortunate) name of Kosuke Fukudome. His collapsing season drew the wrath of the impatient Cub faithful.
Not so with 15-year-old Jill Howe, a sophomore at Elgin High School in the Chicago suburbs. She dutifully wore here Fukudome jersey to school one day last fall when the pennant race was hot.
Not so fast, Jill.
Knee-jerk administrators told her she could not wear that unfortunate name on her back in a public school.
No court decision has had a greater impact upon scholastic journalism than the 1988 Supreme Court Case, Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. This decision put censorship power into the hands of principals, who often misuse and abuse this power, mistakenly believing that they can censor for any reason. Richard Just, the deputy editor of the New Republic, shares his thoughts with the Washington Post on the twentieth anniversary of Hazelwood.
Related:
-Read a column by Professor Paola Banchero at the University of Alaska Anchorage
-Read about L.A. Youth, a student written newspaper created after the Hazelwood decision
My View: Warren Watson
Caught on YouTube: Assault on free speech Published in the Indianapolis Star: January 17, 2008
The Bill of Rights, the legacy of our Founding Fathers, ran smack dab into cyberspace the other night in Muncie.
The culprit: the First Amendment. The surprising venue: YouTube, the popular video-sharing site. The result: an ongoing debate about political speech in the Muncie City Council and allegations that local lawmakers trampled on the First Amendment rights of a well-meaning citizen.
First Amendment research update included students, teachers, parents
Miami, Fla. – Three years after a groundbreaking survey of high school students showed that nearly three-fourths of them don’t know how they feel about the First Amendment or take it for granted, not much has changed.
Despite the increase in First Amendment classes from 2004 through 2006, 74 percent of students do not appreciate the First Amendment, this year’s “Future of the First Amendment’’ survey showed.
This is the second follow-up study funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and done by David Yalof and Ken Dautrich of the University of Connecticut. A 2004 survey, which questioned more than 112,000 students, nearly 8,000 teachers and more than 500 administrators and principals about their attitudes and knowledge about the First Amendment, was the largest of its kind.
Teamwork can create stronger
First Amendment student attitudes
Commentary by Patrick R. Phillips
Executive Director
Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
Key findings of the Knight Foundation’s most recent study of student attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors related to the Constitution, the First Amendment, and news media confirm that the sharp increases in the number of students taking classes dealing with the First Amendment between 2004 and 2006 have leveled off, that high school students don’t pay much attention to Constitution Day, and that students are influenced to a much greater degree by parents than teachers when it comes to how they define, and what media they use to get, the news.
Not surprisingly, these key findings contain both good news and bad.
>>Full Story
'07 survey shows Americans' views mixed on basic freedoms: nearly two-thirds say founders intended ‘Christian nation’; support rises for limits on campaign contributions.
http://www.fac.org
J-Ideas director honored by Indiana High School Press Association
MUNCIE, Ind. – The director of Ball State University's First Amendment advocacy organization was recently honored by the Indiana High School Press Association (IHSPA).
J-Ideas director Warren Watson received the Louis Ingelhart Friends of the Student Press Award Oct. 19 from the IHSPA during its annual convention in Franklin, Ind.
Nationally recognized as a champion for the freedom of college news media, Ingelhart was professor emeritus of journalism and director emeritus of student publications at Ball State. He died earlier this year.
>>Watson was also on the go in Colorado, at the Colorado State High School Press Association convention. See a photo gallery here.
EDAD 692 - Ball State University
Learn about J-Ideas' First Amendment course for principals
J-Ideas, in conjunction with Distance Learning and Teachers College at Ball State, is offering a course online for principals and administrators in fall 2007 about the First Amendment in schools and media literacy.
-Click here to read more about the class
-Click here to read detailed enrollment information
-View a sample syllabus here -Read testimonials from former students
-Administrator Jan Roland talks on the importance of principals and the First Amendment
The Amendment Man
Former Journalism Teacher of the Year
still fighting for the First Amendment
By Hilary Powell
Reprinted from Medill Reports
Oct 17, 2007
Lugging fat file folders, a briefcase, and a freedom-fighting mission, 62-year-old Randy Swikle jokes that, judging by his job, his mid-life crisis should be now.
“I never knew retirement would be so busy,” Swikle said.
He’s just back from a conference in Colorado. Wednesday, it’s off to the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater.
These days, Swikle’s a lean, muckraking, First-Amendment machine.
>>Full Story
Reprinted with permission by Medill Reports
Indiana passes journalism standards
By Gerry Appel
Chalk up a victory for high school journalism in the Hoosier State.
Following several years of revisions—along with some sweat and tears—standards for journalism in the state of Indiana have been approved by the State Board of Education, and will take effect immediately as a stand-alone set to the English/Language Arts standards. Indiana joins Mississippi as the only states to adopt stand-alone standards for journalism.
By having standards for both teachers and students, journalism classes should become stronger, according to Jack Dvorak, the director of the High School Journalism Institute at Indiana University.
“The standards are quite good and very rigorous,” Dvorak said. “If you (teachers) follow them, then any journalism course in Indiana will be an outstanding one.”
The standards were developed primarily by members of the Indiana High School Press Association, led by Executive Director Diana Hadley.
J-Ideas creates national organization for administrators
Ball State has formed the Principals Coalition for the First Amendment, a national organization for high school principals and administrators who support a free press, practices and advocacy in public schools.
The new organization will assist school administrators to foster an environment where First Amendment practices are encouraged, said Warren Watson, director of Ball State's J-Ideas project, a national student journalism and First Amendment institute.
"There are many, many administrators who believe in the First Amendment and freedom of expression in our schools," Watson said. "Free speech is at the core of our democratic values. We now have a special place for administrators to share ideas."
The new organization will showcase best practices in schools nationwide, and produce a regular newsletter and other materials for school administrators, including a curriculum DVD, "A First Amendment Guide for Principals and Administrators," which J-Ideas developed and is distributing nationally.
Two Connecticut researchers have become synonymous with the problem of poor First Amendment awareness in the nation’s high schools.
Ken Dautrich and David Yalof, professors at the University of Connecticut and backed by the Knight Foundation, have logged thousands of miles nationwide in developing a series of studies and followups about the First Amendment. more
Diana Hadley