I remember having a civics class as early as junior high, and a US Government class in high school. I also had the advantage of parents who took an interest in my education. I cannot claim that I was not unusually advantaged. Still, I am left gibbering in horror at this.
Yet, 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.
Half of our high school students now believe in government censorship. In a few years, these kids will be voting.
I think I'm going to stop reading news now and go do something mindless for a while. This is bad on my nerves, and it appears that being mindless is definitely coming into style.
Update: Crooked Timber has the actual graph of responses to the various questions, and The Volokh Conspiracy has provided a link to the Bill of Rights Institute, which has materials for teachers who want to try to do something about the problem.
