NCJ Number
163097
Journal
St. John's Law Review Volume: 69 Issue: 3-4 Dated: (Summer-Fall 1995) Pages: 525-528
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Educators striving to expose students to the experience of liberty while balancing the needs of the individual student against those of the larger school community must address the need to make the community more conducive to the exercise of individual rights.
Abstract
The role of the family is to shape their children's character and instill their values in their children. However, the school's role is to give children practice in expressing their character and the values they learn at home. Freedom of expression was the focus of cases in the 1960's and 1970's, whereas students Fourth Amendment rights are more often the current focus in large urban schools. Many incidents that might disrupt an overly large school can be handled and discussed in a small school where everyone knows one another, the instruction is organized, and the setting is sufficiently small and intimate for children to learn to exercise autonomy and responsibility in a supportive setting. However, size is only one aspect of the challenge to find a community conducive to individual rights. Schools need to have a discourse on values, and children must also be taught the value of authority. Footnotes