If you missed the headlines, the study commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut shows that young Americans have a shocking lack of knowledge about the nation's basic freedoms, even at a time when tens of thousands of their peers are risking their lives for freedom in the desert wastelands and cities of Iraq and Afghanistan. Makes you wonder what they think freedom is.
Consider the results of the high school study:
- Seventy-three percent of students polled say they don't know how they feel about the First Amendment or take their rights for granted.
- More than 30 percent would welcome press censorship and think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.
- Seventy-five percent incorrectly believe that flag-burning is illegal.
- Fifty percent incorrectly think the government can restrict indecent material on the Internet.
"These results are not disturbing, they are dangerous," says Hodding Carter, the president and CEO of the Knight Foundation. "Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation's future."
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