When do Children Obtain their Civil Rights?- Day 3

The saga continues today on Children's Rights vs. school authority. Ler's comment to Day 2's discussion is a nice lead in to today's discussion. He said:

"How does this teach values such as freedom of speech?"

And I would say this does the exact reverse. If we allow schools, one of the few forms of authority children see at a young age, to censor students to this extreme we are in essence teaching them that government censorship is okay. What is a school, after all, if not an agent of the government? I give greater leeway to private and parochial schools because they are not an agent of the state and therefore not bound by the tight standards of government agencies, but I would not encourage this trend in any organization.

It is a basic psychological principle we are dealing with called conditioned response. In a nut shell, a conditioned response is a learned trait resulting from a particular set of stimuli. As an example, if every time an infant sees a bunny rabbit someone plays a really loud noise in the baby's ear that baby will flinch, cringe, cry, etc. Conditioned response says that, eventually, if you show that baby a bunny rabbit the baby will have the same reaction, even without the noise. Children are extremely impressionable and in this case a child is being conditioned that, if she speaks her mind, she will get in trouble. Specifically, if she speaks out against authority (her school and it's agents in this case) she will get in trouble. Without any interfering influences, this child would eventually stop speaking out in order to avoid getting in trouble. That is the essence of brainwashing.

The child in the original news story is fortunate to have parents who are willing to stand up for her rights and show her that she should speak her mind, but not all children are so lucky. The ability and courage to speak out against authority is an important check on any powerful figure or organization. Children should learn early to observe and question authority, never bow down to its will or be intimidated into silence. That is the essence of freedom of speech.