Teaching the First Freedoms

I had the opportunity Friday to attend a daylong instructional session on how to incorporate the principles of the First Amendment into my classroom and even around school. I am already one of just a few teachers who incorporates any instruction of the First Amendment at all, so I have a base of knowledge and a framework to build on.

The session was held at Central Washington University as part of its yearlong First Amendment Festival. The instructor was Sam Chaltain, formerly of the First Amendment Schools program and now on special assignment with the Knight Foundation. It was, appropriately, free.

Most of the participants were professors from CWU’s Communication Department, yet there were a handful of college students and high school teachers, including me and one colleague from my own English Department.

In his opening lecture, Chaltain noted that educators must create the context and culture for learning and active citizenship. The First Amendment (as well as the 14th) provides opportunities to make curriculum more active through discussions and participation.

Opening the second session, participants listed several statements that summarized the morning. I listed a few in my notes:
We must help kids to acquire the skills they need to attain visibility, and we need to help them understand why visibility matters. Every student needs to find not only his or her voice but also a forum to speak without interruption and a chance to listen to the ideas of another.
We must provide meaningful opportunities for students to practice freedom responsibly. Students must learn to balance freedom with responsibility, and we must create a chance for that to take place.
We must balance individual rights with civic responsibilities. One of the most important ideas about the First Amendment is that we should guard the rights of others in order to fully appreciate our own.

In the exercise of freedom, Chaltain said, we extend the promise of America. That statement is the essential point that all educators -- especially those in public schools -- must remember and must work toward because everything else is based on it. The promise of America cannot be an empty one. It must be reachable and real for every citizen -- every person -- in order to live up to the dream of the founders.

Friday’s learning was less of an instruction on the importance of the First Amendment’s words as it was a reminder to me that the mission I have is so important to live up to the ideas and values and experiences behind those words. Maybe now, after this invigorating and stimulating day, I will have colleagues join me in bringing more active learning about first freedoms to the classrooms at our school. Certainly now more than ever -- at a time when people’s knowledge and value of the First Amendment has ebbed and those in power have sought to capitalize on that -- it has become so important to foster in our youth an appreciation for first freedoms and to show how those freedoms are woven into nearly every issue of the day.

-- Issaquah, Wash.