Wednesday, September 2, 2009
With a right comes responsibility
I really enjoyed this week of class. I thought the discussions we had were very thought provoking. I think they were also a perfect example of the very thing we discussed in class today-student code of conduct in the classroom. We are able, with this class, to create an environment in which everyone has the opportunity to express their thoughts on issues. There are so many different worldviews in a single classroom, that by regulating what is and isn't "P.C." and enforcing that is a limitation to the student who is not of the same opinion as that of the "P.C." majority. When everyone has the right to free speech, the many viewpoints which make up this world population can be understood and learned from, instead of ignorantly throwing aside. Like Jacoby says in her essay "A First Amendment Junkie", "[...] free speech is its own best antidote" (p.44). I think it is also understood that with the right to free speech, comes responsibility of what you say. Everyone understands that there are consequences to hateful speech, and the First Amendment itself is not in protection of it. We must use the right we are given to convey our worldviews with respect to the understanding that our personal worldviewe is not the only one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with you for the most part, and also think free-speech is a very important part of any classroom. I can see, however, the necessity for having a student conduct code that outlaws certain things. Obviously it is fine for our class to break out into a discussion (that's sort of what the class is about), but I could see how having a discussion about something could take a lot of time away from a teacher's lecture. It seems to me to be a fine balance between being able to talk about issues in class and insuring that teachers have enough time to teach the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteGreat points! And in regard to the personal responsibility of free speech, it should also be said that people who are openly hateful to others are also doing a disservice to themselves. The action discredits any possible good points that they may have on the matter and outright closes people minds before they get to share them. So yeah, people have a responsibilty to others and to themselves to be respectful and considerate.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you said about having to take responsibility for your words. I think alot of people take the idea of "freedom of speech" to literally. We are free to say whatever we want, but we are not free to give away the responsibility for what we have said. People are still able to respond to your words, and they will, regardless of just exactly how you intended for those words to be taken.
ReplyDeleteThe conversations that we have in this class really help to bring light to things that I know I wouldn't talk about. The term PC is so ambiguous in terms of what people see it as. Personally PC means to me that you keep your mouth shut so others feel more comfortable. As I'm sure many of us have had things that we wanted to say to someone or a group of people and we just didn't because; I don't know, it's just more trouble than it's worth.
ReplyDelete