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J-Ideas announces fund-raising campaign 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> FIRST VOICES Landmark First Amendment Research 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> -Ignoramcer in Palin, Dowd free-speech remarks -Plainfield pays respect to First Amendment -Palin-tology -Protesters' rights fenced off -Bad year for traditional news gatherers -Baseball and the First Amendment -Principals and the First Amendment -Remembering a crusader More First Thoughts: journalism teacher Tom Gayda speaks out Student journalists scoop professional press
Mile high with the First Amendment... 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 > |
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Warren Watson Principals and Tinker at 40 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. Well, cooler heads eventually prevailed and she was allowed to publically support one of her favorite Cubs once the administration realized the word was a name not an indecent suggestion. The whole episode typified the atmosphere in today’s public schools when it comes to student expression. Administrators often censor first and then ask questions later. It has been 40 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled overwhelmingly that a student’s right to free speech does not stop at the schoolhouse door. Tell that to many of today’s administrators, who routinely censor student media and root out controversial content. In many ways, we operate as if we are “in the land of the free and home of the easily offended,” said Ken Paulson, USA Today editor and former executive director of the First Amendment Center. We surveyed 700 principals, with research showing lagging support for free expression in general and student expression in particular. Only 25 percent of the principals believe that students should be able to publish without censorship. David Bulla, a journalism professor at Iowa State University and a veteran researcher in the area of high school journalism, noted that principals do not fully support the First Amendment. “Paradoxically,” he said, “the majority of principals believe the government should not interfere with newspapers outside the high school. Thus, the notion of freedom of the press is largely abstract for high school administrators. That is, it applies outside their schools, but not within.” Many who teach student journalism wonder what the results of our survey mean? Said Iowa State’s Bulla, ”How (can) scholastic journalism teach students to dig for important stories, report controversial topics and seek truth when the agents of the state have such a restricted view of press freedom on campus.” We interviewed a dozen of the principals who returned surveys to verify the hardening of attitudes we observed in the findings. Very quickly, those anonymous comments backed up the data. Here’s a sample: • “I think we have gotten too liberal about the First Amendment. The school should be a place of comfort for people. At times, free speech invades that comfort.” (Florida male, 55) It may come down to personal security. Principals juggle many tasks at once, including safety, good public relations and the need to satisfy parents, school boards, teachers and more. Kit Moran, principal of Dexter (Mich.) High School, believes in giving students a broad range in making content decisions for the student publication. “It’s how they learn journalism,” he said. “Many principals try to hold too tight a control. It comes down to how they lead. A principal who wants to make all the decisions, to control every little aspect of his school, will censor.” He added,” That person is more a manager. Someone who lets go is a leader.” (Watson directs the J-Ideas First Amendment institute at Ball State University. The research, done in concert with former Ball State researcher Vince Filak, will be presented at the mid-winter meeting of the Association of Educators of Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) later this month at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. J-Ideas conducts online and onside activities in support of student journalism and First Amendment awareness.)
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