Rights and Responsibilities
My favorite unit in Government classes isn’t taught anymore. I don’t support too many Social Studies classes these days. For some reason, someone in the school seems to think I know how to teach writing. Goodness knows what gave them that idea. However, I have supported classes in World Geography, U.S. History, Government, and Economics. None of them addressed rights and responsibilities.
I certainly did when I taught Government. I found that it was the only unit the students were actually interested in. They were particularly interested in the fourth amendment because many of them had already had run ins with law enforcement. Either that, or they expected to have run ins. That’s largely part of the populations that I have taught over the years.
We have an epidemic where people seem to misunderstand both rights and responsibilities. It’s really very simple. Every right that we have comes with adjacent responsibilities. Speech is really no different and in fact speech brings the most important responsibility of all. Goodness knows too many people seem to think they have speech rights that they simply don’t have.
Aaron Rodgers seems to be relishing his new role as a sports villain. His shots at Joe Biden seem to be a great example of everything we are talking about. Free speech does not mean that you have an absolute right of having that speech amplified. It also does not mean that you have the right to have everyone see that speech as beautiful and perfect. Freedom of speech means everyone has the right to respond to your speech as well. Sometimes they aren’t going to like it and sometimes you won’t like their response.
However, the part which gets completely missed are the responsibilities that come with free speech. This is usually where I started talking to my classes about slander, libel, and hate speech. Those are legal responsibilities and encompass the bare minimum of what is required from us as citizens. If we are going to do more than merely pass citizenship we are expected to actually contribute to the marketplace of ideas.
This is often where we delve into topics that we would cover in a basic philosophy class. I taught that one as well in high school, but they aren’t being taught at most schools. The fundamental question is what is the difference between facts and truth. The obvious difference is that facts are verifiable and truth isn’t. Naturally, any good philosophy teacher would go beyond that obvious statement to more complex questions, but we can stop there for today.
The responsibility of citizens and speech is simple. We take available facts and we try to arrive at our own truth. People can take a set of facts and reach any number of conclusions. That’s normal discourse. What isn’t normal is making up facts and poisoning the body politic with a barrage of bullshit. Yet, that seems to be exactly where we are.
Too many people start with the statement that I have the right to and then simply stop there. Living in a society comes with rights, but also comes with responsibilities. We have to at least coexist with those around us and ideally we would do more than that. Of course, if no one bothers to teach that in civics classes anymore then it makes perfect sense that people would not know these things.
You may drop the mic now.
1Spot. On.
Always enjoy your comments. While I was active as a teacher, I always attempted to include civic and moral responsibility in our daily exhortations. You are exactly the type of instructor I would desire for my grandchildren. As for Aaron Rodgers – textbook example of how to destroy a legacy. Sad.
2Check out You tube and watch how many cops are gleefully unaware of 1st and 4th amendment rights for protesters and drivers/passengers.
3That’s the main reason I taught the unit E Platypus. I suspect cops know the rights they have, but they also know most people don’t. So, they will trample on those rights and expect that most ignorant people won’t know the difference anyway. In teaching those students, I wanted to make sure they understood that once they voluntarily surrendered those rights they had no way of unringing the bell. On the other hand, if they refused and the cops still conducted a search they could get even the most inept of public defenders to contest the search.
4The Nevaduh Board of Education has done a decent balancing act between complying with “common core” and continuing to educate students. A class in Civics is still a requirement to graduate. I was really fortunate, the year I took Civics it was taught by a dynamic guy who deservedly won numerous national awards recognizing excellence in teaching. He also happened to be our basketball and baseball coach. And no, he didn’t “hand out” grades to us jocks. He made us sit up and take notice. That man probably sent more jocks off to college than any other HS teacher in the US. If only he had taught the required unit in Nevaduh state history. That should be a really colorful unit given the state’s history. Instead it was taught by a Miss Grundy style prude who could sap a tree without making a cut. IOW A typical history class in the “common core” history of lies, platitudes and jingoism.
Yeah, Dubya, “are kids be learnin,” no thanks to you, common core and the ‘revised’ history books of lies your brother Neil hawks.
5And here’s another high profile athlete that spews lies about Covid precautions. Glad his alma mater took some action but it didn’t stop him from using his celebrity to spew lies to fit his beliefs.
6https://crooksandliars.com/2022/01/gonzaga-suspends-hall-famer-john-stocktons
Aaron Rogers got inoculated against the football playoffs this past weekend.
7Exactly, Wyatt_Earl. Hope this attachment opens:
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/40/00/FCD6ADA8-6DA4-446B-9D35-F5015D1BC2A5/IMG_6575.jpeg
8Sorry but unfortunately it wouldn’t open, but it’s an image of Rodgers with the caption “immunized against the Super Bowl”.
9So, Nick and other proclaimed religious here:
Do you think the Founders also worried about the proclaiming of myth and fraud as facts, and therefore divided religion from government?
Make a great AP course, eh?
10Ormond @10, Checkmate!
11Well played Ormond. Well played. Of course, how we teach the impact of religion and its negative traits does come into a comprehensive teaching of history. Some of us are better at separating our thoughts and beliefs than others I am afraid. My days as the primary instructor in any class appear to be over, so I get the joy of watching others fumble through that process.
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