The Five Freedoms Protected by the First Amendment

This past week we began studying the First Amendment and exploring the five freedoms protected by what some call the most important provision of the Bill of Rights.  

Each year since 1997 the First Amendment Center has conducted a survey of American adults to assess their knowledge of the First Amendment.  The 2012 survey of 1,006 adults had a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.  The survey respondents were asked, among other questions, to name the five  freedoms protected by the First Amendment.  The results were as follows:

               ...65% could name freedom of speech
               ...28% could name freedom of religion
               ...13% could name freedom of the press
               ...13% could name the right to assemble
               ...4% could name the right to petition
               ...27% could not identify any of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Although these results may seem less than optimum, the percentages have generally increased each year since the poll's inception.  More importantly, the other questions asked indicated  that Americans value the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment even if they can't link them to a specific Amendment.  For example, 69% agreed that musicians should be allowed to sing potentially offensive songs; 57% believed that schools should not have authority to discipline students who use their own computers at home to post material administrators consider offensive; 75%  believed the news media should act as a government watchdog; and 59% do not believe the government should be allowed to take control of the internet and limit access to social media in the event of a national emergency.

I anonymously polled my students on their knowledge of the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment and I am pleased, although not surprised,  to report that their knowledge and understanding is significantly higher than the general public.  14 of my 15 students (one was absent) were polled and the results are as follows:

               ...all 14 could name freedom of speech and freedom of press
               ...13 of 14 (92%) could name freedom of religion
               ....9 of 14 (64%) could name the right to assemble     
               ... 5 of 14 (35%) could name the right to petition
               ... 5 students (35%) could name all five freedoms


As an aside, a national survey done in 2006 by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that while only one in 1000 of the respondents could name all five First Amendment freedoms, 22% could name five of the The Simpson's cartoon characters.  Of course, Homer is in the most need of free speech protections as he is constantly being offensive,  politically incorrect and religiously intolerant.  In fact, The Simpsons is a wonderful pedagogical tool to teach First Amendment freedoms and other constituational rights. See http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/articles/constitution

I also polled my students on their primary source of news and what social networks they used.  Here are those results:

               ...11 of 14 (78%) identified the internet as their primary sources of news while  2 of 14 (14%) identified newspapers. Interestingly, none identified TV or radio, although 11 of 14 could identify at least four of the five major U.S. TV news networks.

               ...all 14 students had Facebook accounts and Twitter accounts (a Twitter account was a  course requirement), 6 students had a Google+ account and 3 students had accounts with Reddit, Instagram and Pinterest.

               ...the students averaged three accounts each and five had four or more accounts.

Oh, and as to their knowledge of the Simpsons family?  Six could name all five and 11 of 14 could name at least four family members.  Only one pop culture deprived soul could not name a single family member!