Government essay
If you think about the constitution, what comes to mind? Do you know your rights? I have been asked why you should study the constitution. There are so many reasons why everyone should study the constitution. But the main reason is, you need to know your own rights. It will help you out in the future if you ever get yourself in a bad situation, or even if you ever get pulled over by a police officer. If you know your rights it will get you further when it comes to the law. In class, we learned about all the different scenarios that happen in schools, like the student that called his teacher a Nazi. The principle suspended him. But when they took it to court, the court told the principal that it was protected by the first amendment. Studying the constitution in high school is important because it will helps us in real life, especially studying it as a senior right before you leave for college, it is necessary for you to know your own rights.
This project was relevant, and important, and applied to real life because, before this project, when I thought about the First Amendment, the only thing that came to mind was freedom of speech and I always thought freedom of speech meant you could say whatever you wanted to/or about someone and that you were protected under the First Amendment. After this project as a senior in High School I have learned more than my parents ever have known about the amendments. For example, I have learned that the First Amendment is not just about freedom of speech. It has freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, and freedom to petition the government. We the people in the United States need all of those freedoms, for all of them to work. For example, if we had freedom of speech but not freedom to assemble, it wouldn't mean anything if we had to talk to ourselves. Also we have protected speech and unprotected speech. Protected speech is, political speech, ideological speech, personal beliefs, symbolic speech, expressive conduct, and commercial speech. Unprotected speech is, clear and present danger, true threat, defamation, obscenity, and conflict with legitimate government & social interests. Protected speech and unprotected speech is very important because it helps our courts decide how to solve a case that is on freedom of speech. Also, it helps us as Americans know what is legal and what is not legal.
In our class, our teacher assigned each one of us a court case about the first amendment. For example, mine was about a guy who burned his draft card right in front of the city hall. We had to do research on our case and talk to the class about it and decide if it was protected speech or unprotected speech. My court case about burning the draft card, actually was protected. It was under expressive conduct. I personally felt like this project was interesting because it was actually surprising on what court cases were protected and what ones were not.
There are so many scenarios/court cases of things that happen in school. Like, what I said earlier about the student that called his teacher a Nazi and it was protected. Another scenario is, a student made a website about his band teacher it was called “Ramond sucks.com” and it was where everyone could go and comment something mean about their teacher. The principal saw it and suspended the student on the spot, but the student took it to court and the court said it was freedom of speech. So my question is, should students have more constitutional protections while In school? I have thought about this question so many times. But after looking at all of the scenarios, I feel like students actually do get a lot of freedom and protection in school.
Knowing your rights can be challenging and confusing sometimes. The constitution is not just black and white, there are gray areas. But the best part of figuring out the challenges and gray areas is being able to actually know what you are talking about and not just making things up to get you out of trouble. When I was a kid I used to make mean comments towards other people and say freedom of speech! But after studying the constitution I finally realized that freedom of speech does not mean you can say whatever you want and get away with it. I personally believe that knowing what you can and can not say is one of the most important things you can and will ever know in your life.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYtTCfn-4iVQOvLjgRnmdjq0Htkpks6wfwUZAL97kx0/edit
This project was relevant, and important, and applied to real life because, before this project, when I thought about the First Amendment, the only thing that came to mind was freedom of speech and I always thought freedom of speech meant you could say whatever you wanted to/or about someone and that you were protected under the First Amendment. After this project as a senior in High School I have learned more than my parents ever have known about the amendments. For example, I have learned that the First Amendment is not just about freedom of speech. It has freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom to assemble, freedom of religion, and freedom to petition the government. We the people in the United States need all of those freedoms, for all of them to work. For example, if we had freedom of speech but not freedom to assemble, it wouldn't mean anything if we had to talk to ourselves. Also we have protected speech and unprotected speech. Protected speech is, political speech, ideological speech, personal beliefs, symbolic speech, expressive conduct, and commercial speech. Unprotected speech is, clear and present danger, true threat, defamation, obscenity, and conflict with legitimate government & social interests. Protected speech and unprotected speech is very important because it helps our courts decide how to solve a case that is on freedom of speech. Also, it helps us as Americans know what is legal and what is not legal.
In our class, our teacher assigned each one of us a court case about the first amendment. For example, mine was about a guy who burned his draft card right in front of the city hall. We had to do research on our case and talk to the class about it and decide if it was protected speech or unprotected speech. My court case about burning the draft card, actually was protected. It was under expressive conduct. I personally felt like this project was interesting because it was actually surprising on what court cases were protected and what ones were not.
There are so many scenarios/court cases of things that happen in school. Like, what I said earlier about the student that called his teacher a Nazi and it was protected. Another scenario is, a student made a website about his band teacher it was called “Ramond sucks.com” and it was where everyone could go and comment something mean about their teacher. The principal saw it and suspended the student on the spot, but the student took it to court and the court said it was freedom of speech. So my question is, should students have more constitutional protections while In school? I have thought about this question so many times. But after looking at all of the scenarios, I feel like students actually do get a lot of freedom and protection in school.
Knowing your rights can be challenging and confusing sometimes. The constitution is not just black and white, there are gray areas. But the best part of figuring out the challenges and gray areas is being able to actually know what you are talking about and not just making things up to get you out of trouble. When I was a kid I used to make mean comments towards other people and say freedom of speech! But after studying the constitution I finally realized that freedom of speech does not mean you can say whatever you want and get away with it. I personally believe that knowing what you can and can not say is one of the most important things you can and will ever know in your life.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UYtTCfn-4iVQOvLjgRnmdjq0Htkpks6wfwUZAL97kx0/edit