CNN.com - Freedom of what? - Jan 31, 2005

...when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

No, that's not from a survery of Islamic extremists, or commies. It's our own home-grown high school students. Our future. 3 out of 4 high school kids surveyed would probably think either the First Amendment should prevent me from calling them morons, or just don't know that that is what allows me to do so.

What happened to civics classes? Social Studies? Where are the fundamental lessons for kids to learn that the First Amendment is a cornerstone of the society that allows their precious gangta rappers to pump lyrics of tits, ass, drugs and killing into their iPods? Are these kids really this stupid? The gov't should approve newspaper stores?! Are you kidding me? Essentially, 50% think we should have only state-run newspapers. Unbelievable.

I'm not really sure I can say here. I'm sort of bewildered by this. I'd just hope Now Child Left Behind would still leave these kids behind.