Teaching Children About Freedom Of Speech

^{As a divided nation endures violence, protests and crackdowns on freedom of expression, there could not be a more important time to teach young children about the importance of freedom of speech.}

^Later this week, the United States will celebrate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, offering an opportunity for children and adults (including parents, teachers and other community leaders) to take a look at the principles the U.S. democracy was built upon—and what they mean today. The First Amendment to the Constitution provides for freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom to protest.  

If children do not learn these basic values of free speech and expression, and they grow into adults who refrain from speaking or become intolerant of other points of view, what will happen to the Republic?

If children do not learn these basic values of free speech and expression, and they grow into adults who refrain from speaking or become intolerant of other points of view, what will happen to the Republic?

The First Amendment and the concept of free speech can sometimes be challenging to comprehend and appreciate, but freedom of expression is as relevant today as it was when the Bill of Rights was adopted on December 15, 1791. Individuals can exercise their First Amendment rights in various ways—from writing a letter to a government or community leader, to marching in a protest, putting a sign on their lawn or kneeling for the national anthem. 

Debates about free speech are evolving on social media, on college campuses and in government actions. There could not be a more important time to teach young children about freedom of speech. In a 2020 Gallup and Knight Foundation survey of college students and their attitudes about free speech, 41% of the college students surveyed responded that they felt freedom of speech was "threatened/very threatened," a significant increase from 27% in the 2016 survey. 

Today, citizens young and old are exercising their rights under the First Amendment—using their voices to challenge systemic racism and hate, advocate for LGBTQ rights, fight censorship on college campuses, petition for school openings (and closings) and build awareness about climate change. Meanwhile, government leaders both around the globe and right here in the U.S. are threatening to limit freedom of speech, with everything from legislation to litigation to violent force. 

Civil rights hero John Lewis, the youngest speaker at the March on Washington in 1963, spent a lifetime encouraging others, particularly young people, to raise their voices to speak up about injustice. In 2017, Lewis told the Harvard Gazette: "I say to young people all the time, whether in high school or college or young people out in the work force or working on Capitol Hill, I say when you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, you cannot afford to be silent. You have to do something. Wherever you find yourself, speak up, speak out, and find a way to get in the way, to get in what I call 'good trouble, necessary trouble.'"

In recent years, few young voices have been as powerful and recognizable as those of Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg and Emma Gonzalez. Malala, a 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner (at 17, she was the youngest recipient to receive the prize), began using her voice at the age of 10, standing up to the Taliban in Pakistan and advocating for the rights of girls to receive a safe, free quality education. She and her father created the Malala Fund, an organization that advocates to hold governments accountable and to amplify girls' voices around the world. 

Greta Thunberg launched a global movement to raise awareness for climate change beginning with a school strike at the age of 15, inspiring young people around the globe to stand up and speak out. Time Magazine named her Person of the Year in 2019, saying "she emerged as a standard bearer in a generational battle, an avatar of youth activists across the globe fighting for everything from gun control to democratic representation."

Here in the U.S., Emma Gonzalez, a Parkland student sparked a countrywide conversation about gun control and mass shootings after she survived a school shooting in 2018 and along with her fellow survivors launched March For Our Lives, an organization whose mission is "to harness the power of young people across the country to fight for sensible gun violence prevention policies that save lives." The organization now has hundreds of chapters around the U.S. led by students who work to enact change on the local level, using measures like organizing walkouts at high schools, lobbying for better safety measures on campus, writing statewide legislation, and showing up at school board and city council meetings. 

And there are countless other young people using their voices to advocate for a better world and causes they believe in—everything from ending childhood hunger to improving literacy and getting more girls involved in programming.

It is crucial that they begin to learn the value of free speech and the power of using your voice from an early age. With this in mind, prominent First Amendment attorney Sandy Bohrer (my father), and I decided to write a children’s book, Your Voice Is Your Superpower: A Beginner’s Guide to Freedom of Speech (and the First Amendment), for ages four to seven to help parents and teachers start a series of conversations about the free and open exchange of ideas, thoughts and beliefs.

In an interview with Forbes last spring, I asked Hilde Lysiak, the then 12-year-old editor and publisher of the Orange Street News who started her own newspaper at the age of seven, what she thought about the importance of teaching young people about freedom of speech. "It's really just so important because without information and if the people with power were allowed to dictate what you could or couldn't say, not even just with reporting but in general, then we wouldn't be really free," she said. Lysiak defended her rights to free speech in an encounter with a state marshal in Arizona near the border with Mexico when he attempted to prevent her from reporting last February.

This June, an eight-year-old boy organized a Black Lives Matter protest in a St. Louis suburb, gathering hundreds of people to march against racial injustice. That same month, in New York, children marched outside the Brooklyn Public Library to protest systemic racism, giving speeches pledging to stop violence against black children and imploring everyone to help fight Covid-19 by wearing masks. In July, two Cedarsburg, Wisconsin, high school seniors discovered their school would not require masks but still banned spaghetti straps. They started a petition, organized a protest and won. Nearly 1,500 people submitted their signature, and within two weeks, their school district voted to reverse the policy—deciding that students and teachers would be required to wear masks when schools reopened. 

It is well established that the voices and actions of children and young adults can change the world. At a time of considerable risk and fear, young people are increasingly meeting the moment. A seed of hope is planted in every child inspired to become an active, educated and engaged citizen participating in a free, democratic society to bring about positive change.

Your Voice Is Your SuperPower: A Beginner’s Guide to Freedom of Speech (& the First Amendment) by Jessica and Sandy Bohrer, published by City Point Press. (c) 2020 by the authors.