We may never know all the circumstances surrounding the death of Tempest Smith, who was just 12 years old when she hanged herself one morning before school. But reports indicate that she had been deeply distressed by the relentless teasing she received from some of her classmates. "Tempest was her own person," said one classmate, "and the kids made fun of her a lot."
When Tempest's suicide hit home, however, many of her tormenters expressed remorse over what had happened. "I'm sorry if I said mean things to you," read one classmate's card at the funeral. "I didn't mean them. It was the easiest way to hide what was wrong with me."
Tempest's suicide, as well as the countless daily incidents of teasing, bullying, and violence in schools that may have less dramatic endings, is a chilling reminder that for too many students, schools are painful places. In response to student bullying and violence, many schools have instituted zero tolerance policies and codes designed to combat harassment and hate speech. But must schools sacrifice student freedom to ensure safer schools? This question highlights the extraordinary tension faced by school administrators, who are under pressure to find quick fixes for complex problems.
There is another option to con-fronting these complex problems, but it's no quick fix. And it will require nothing less than a radical rethinking of how schools teach and model what it means to be a free and responsible citizen. The solution isn't to restrict student freedom, but rather to give students more opportunities to practice freedom with responsibility.
First Amendment Schools
The First Amendment Schools project is built on the belief that the need for school communities today to develop a deeper understanding of First Amendment principles could not be more crucial—or more challenging. First Amendment Schools is a project of ASCD and the First Amendment Center, an independent, nonpartisan organization that works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education. Public and independent elementary, middle, and high schools are eligible to apply for First Amendment School grants; the selection committee will judge each application on the extent to which it gives evidence of a school's capacity and drive to live up to the project's goals of educating for freedom and responsibility.
Why is a deeper understanding of First Amendment principles crucial? One reason is that most people in the United States aren't even sure what the First Amendment stipulates. The results of the First Amendment Center's annual State of the First Amendment survey (2001a) revealed that nearly half (47 percent) of those surveyed couldn't name a single one of the five freedoms that the Amendment protects (religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition). In another national poll, one of five teachers and administrators was similarly stumped (First Amendment Center, 2001b).
In the absence of that understanding, it's no surprise that many U.S. citizens mistakenly assume that the First Amendment's sole purpose is to provide a shield for their individual rights; they ignore their responsibility to guard the rights of others. That link, missing in the minds of many of Tempest Smith's classmates, forms the basis of the civic frame- work of the United States, and its broad misunderstanding presents a vital challenge to everyone—and particularly to educators.
According to Charles Haynes, the First Amendment Center's Senior Scholar, the place to begin reestablishing this civic framework must be U.S. schools. After all, he says,schools are the institutions most responsible for transmitting civic principles and virtues to each succeeding generation. As a result, schools must not only teach the First Amendment; they must also find ways to model and apply the democratic first principles they are charged with teaching. (Personal communication, March 5, 2001)
What does a First Amendment School look like? Does such a school engender more intellectually and emotionally open communities of learning? Following are four guiding principles from the First Amendment Schools vision statement that provide a focus for any school interested in creating and sustaining a community based on First Amendment ideals.
A host of schools and school districts have begun their own experiments in liberty. Their stories, and others like them, exemplify elements of what it means to be a democratic community. These learning communities suggest that First Amendment Schools can work and that in schools that emphasize freedom and civic responsibility, safety and liberty are not mutually exclusive.
Create Laboratories of Democratic Freedom
The future of the American republic depends upon instilling in young citizens an abiding commitment to the democratic first principles that sustain our experiment in liberty.
Townsend Harris High School Flushing, New York
An important element of the Townsend Harris High School philosophy is that students should serve their school community and the community at large in return for their education. In fact, students take the Ephebic Oath, an ancient Greek pledge that concludes, "I shall not leave my city any less but rather greater than I found it."
Because of its emphasis on rights and responsibilities, Townsend Harris provides its students with an array of opportunities to practice democracy in school. Among the most dramatic of such opportunities is the school's annual simulation of a national or a New York election, in which the entire student body becomes involved. Students serve as the audience for mock media, debates, and rallies, and decide how to spend their "simbucks," simulated campaign contribution dollars. School administrators and teachers do not censor—or even review—student speeches, broadcasts, or publications.
Townsend Harris also celebrates a student body as diverse as New York City itself. As the school newspaper's charter makes clear, the school has provided a foundation that allows an open exchange of ideas in the interest of its diversity. In part, it reads:The Classic is an open forum for the expression of student views. . . . The Classic [also] recognizes the special, family-like nature of the community it serves, and will not target individual students or faculty members for criticism so long as there are viable official channels available for the redress of legitimate grievances.
What is the result of this emphasis on freedom at Townsend Harris? Ilsa Cowen, Townsend Harris humanities teacher and journalism advisor of 14 years, says:In an environment that celebrates individual differences and respects individual liberties, our students become sensitive to what might hurt others and are given a broad philosophical and experiential framework within which they can work out their beliefs. But most importantly they learn that the gift of rights entails the assumption of responsibility for one's words and actions, and that words are powerful weapons that should be used in the service of truth and the common good. (Personal communication, June 10, 2001)
Commit to Inalienable Rights and Civic Responsibility
Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition are fundamental and inalienable rights. All Americans have a civic responsibility to guard these rights for every citizen.
Modesto City Schools Modesto, California
Parents of a district student came to Modesto City Schools Associate Superintendent Sharon Burnis with a problem: Their son was being harassed at school because he was gay. In response, Burnis convinced the school board to broaden the district's anti-harassment policy to include sexual orientation. She also sent a small group of teachers and administrators to a diversity workshop sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Teachers Network (now the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN).
Not everyone in her community agreed with her decision. Some, per-ceiving the changes to the anti-harassment policy and the workshop as evidence of the district's endorsement of the homosexual lifestyle, voiced their objections to the Modesto City Board of Education.
In an attempt to address community concerns, the board formed a diverse 90-member committee to oversee implementation of the new policy. The committee met, but the core issues wouldn't go away. Opinions remained entrenched on both sides of the issue, and plans to implement the new policy stalled.
To help bridge the ideological divide, Superintendent James Enochs invited all committee members to attend a day-long workshop conducted by Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center. The workshop was designed to bring committee members to a common starting point despite their differences and to enable them to address those differences in a civic framework. The result, according to Rosalie Pinkert, Modesto's Character Education Coordinator, was thatwe were able to come to the unanimous agreement that protecting an individual's beliefs was entirely separate from condoning or encouraging the beliefs themselves. (Personal communication, June 5, 2001)
Once that framework was in place, the committee members quickly concurred on three important points: discussion should focus on points of agreement rather than disagreement; no student should be harassed or discriminated against at school, no matter what his or her gender, religion, race, or sexual orientation; and such an agreement did not require acceptance or approval of another's religious beliefs, philosophy, or sexual orientation.
To reflect this thinking, the district revised the title of the anti-harassment policy from Principles of Tolerance to Principles of Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect to Ensure a Safe Learning Environment. "As painful as it was," said Haynes, "the entire process established new levels of trust and understanding in the community" (al-Hibri, Elshtain, & Haynes, 2001, p. 117). One of the local pastors who had been most critical of the policy said, "I still don't agree with some of their decisions, but I now believe that they're trying to do the right thing—and that they'll listen to us" (al-Hibri, Elshtain, & Haynes, 2001, p. 117).
Include All Stakeholders
The First Amendment provides the civic framework of rights and responsibilities that enables Americans to work together for the common good in schools and communities.
Hyde Leadership Public Charter School, Washington, D.C.
Hyde Schools stresses the importance of family. Beginning with the first admissions interview, both student and parent are expected to be involved in education, to attend regular meetings and family weekends, and to model character in their daily lives. Regular meetings provide a forum for parents and students to raise concerns, ask questions, and celebrate school successes.
For Hyde's second public school venture, however, located in the Northeast section of Washington, D.C., school leaders had to embrace a different set of issues than the ones they traditionally faced at their boarding schools. "Many of our parents bring with them a lifelong fear and mistrust of school," said Chris Cuozzo, Hyde D.C.'s Director of Studies, "and often they come in expecting an adversarial relationship" (personal communication, May 26, 2001).
But this mistrust doesn't last long. According to Joanne Gobourne, Hyde D.C.'s Head of School,The key is believing in the value of other people's input. . . . All people, but particularly young people, need a voice. And if you give people the grounding to make good judgments, they'll almost always surpass your expectations. (Personal communication, June 2, 2001)
Cuozzo adds,By creating an environment where people are allowed and encouraged to speak freely, our 13-year-olds can sit and listen to each other now and respond respectfully. That wasn't happening before. But now they can think to themselves, "I can stand up and raise my hand without any fear of ridicule or retribution." Once you get that culture going, it really takes on a life of its own. (Personal communication, May 26, 2001)
Translate Civic Education into Community Engagement
A society committed to freedom and justice for all requires citizens with the knowledge, virtues, and skills needed for active engagement in public life.
Fresno County Schools Fresno, California
John Minkler, a high school social studies teacher, decided that his community's young people needed to be heard. He didn't anticipate, however, that the biggest obstacle to achieving that goal would be the students themselves. Only a few students had been involved in previous community service or problem-solving experiences. As a result, says Minkler, who now coordinates Fresno County's Youth Council, "Many of them believed that youth could not really make a difference" (personal communication, June 16, 2001).
Minkler told his students that respon-sible citizens sustain the precious freedoms that we enjoy. He taught students such civic participation skills as research, collaboration, and project planning and worked to deepen students' understanding of the core principles, rights, and responsibilities of a democratic government and its citizens.
Still, Minkler's students faced a significant obstacle: time. Many of his students developed community service projects but found that implementing them would take too long. Nevertheless, Minkler discovered that most students, energized by their ability to affect the community, were willing to do whatever it took to complete their projects. "I remember one group of girls," he recalled, "who created a 195-foot community mural. It took them 18 months, 60 volunteers, and over 3,000 hours of work. But they did it" (personal communication, June 16, 2001).
How can schools justify spending time to promote community engagement, given all the other demands on the school schedule? Minkler believes that service learning projects encourage students to solve real problems in their schools and communities. When students have opportunities to apply principles of democracy and civic participation while they study those subjects in school, their classes become more relevant.
The reasons for finding the time are clear, in the words of one student who saw his community service work bear fruit: In May, I was at a Dare to Dream retreat with 80 kids from our after-school service-learning program. When I heard each one of them describe their dream in front of the group, my heart filled with joy. That was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. (D. Oliver, personal communication, June 13, 2001)
Freedom and Responsibility
The need to teach students about freedom, while also giving them opportunities to practice those freedoms responsibly, is one of the most vital challenges of educators. And when schools educate for freedom and responsibility, safer and more inclusive communities of learning can replace chaos and contention in the hallways. It isn't easy, but as Ilsa Cowen's experience suggests, when students learn that freedom entails "the assumption of responsibility for one's words and actions," they also understand a deeper lesson: "Words are powerful weapons that should be used in the service of truth and the common good."
Resources for Educators
The Student Press Law Center (www.splc.org) is a legal assistance agency devoted to educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and to supporting the student news media in their efforts to cover important issues free from censorship. The Center provides free legal advice as well as low-cost educational materials for student journalists.
Street Law (www.streetlaw.org) provides practical, participatory education about law, democracy, and human rights. Through its philosophy and programs, Street Law empowers people to transform democratic ideals into citizen action.
The Center for Civic Education's We the People . . . The Citizen and the Constitution program (www.civiced.org /wethepeople.html#intro) complements the regular school curriculum by providing upper-elementary, middle, and high school students with an innovative course of instruction on the history and principles of constitutional democracy in the United States. We the People textbooks are designed for a wide range of student abilities and may be used as a supplemental text or for a full semester of study.
The mission of the American Bar Association's Division for Public Education (www.abanet.org/publiced/home.html) is to promote public understanding of the law and its role in society. The Division's programs and resources educate and inform youth and adults about law and the justice system.
Developing Democratic Character in the Young Roger Soder, John I. Goodlad, and Timothy J. McMannon, Eds. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001
Chapters address the nature and importance of democratic education and the relationships between democracy and a series of education issues, including religious dissent, school choice, and environmental education.
Becoming Good American Schools: The Struggle for Civic Virtue in Education Reform Jeannie Oakes, Karen Hunter Quartz, Steve Ryan, and Martin Lipton San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000
The authors tell the stories of 16 schools in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and Vermont that sought to alter their structures and practices and become places fostering innovative ideas, caring people, principles of social justice, and democratic processes.
Belonging: Creating Community in the Classroom Mona Hajjar Halaby Cambridge, MA: Brookline Books, 2000
A teacher explains the tools she uses to ensure that every student has a positive place in her elementary school classroom, including weekly class meetings in which students air grievances and express concerns.
A Democratic Classroom Steven Wolk Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998
The author helps his students learn democracy by living democracy—by encouraging meaningful learning across the content areas and empowering students to think for themselves.
Revolutionizing America's Schools Carl D. Glickman San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998
The book addresses issues of race, culture, gender, and religion and reveals how understanding these issues can contribute to purposeful change. The author outlines a set of activities designed to increase student choice, participation, connection, and contributions, covering such practicalities as student grouping, class schedules, curriculum selection, and school leadership.
"Why Common Ground Thinking Works" Wayne Jacobsen Educational Leadership, December 1999/January 2000, pp. 76–80
This article explores the Modesto City Schools conflict in greater depth and explains the "common ground thinking" approach that allowed Modesto stakeholders to finally agree on Principles of Rights, Responsibilities, and Respect to Ensure a Safe School Environment.
