Academic Freedom vs. Community Standards

[HTColeman]

I am getting tired of the other topics so I'll be putting up so old debate topics that I liked from past years

Resolved: When in conflict, academic freedom in U. S. high schools ought to be valued above community standards

Academic Freedom - the ability to freely express oneself in a public academic setting, freedom to educate as you wish.

Community Standards - guidelines to conduct educating methods and topics.

Things to consider:

Public high schools have a captive audience, meaning that students cannot leave class when they feel the teacher or someone has overstepped their bounds.

Community Standards will obviously reflect the values of the respective community, possibly a racist community

Only applicable WHEN IN CONFLICT, ex. the teacher wants to teach something but the community standards conflict, which prevails Academic Freedom or Community Standards?

 

[HTColeman]

yeah, it's real complex. I think that once you reach university status that complete acedemic freedom should apply, but under there (under where? HAHA!) I think that it's definately pretty gray.

So is that your technical assessment of the resolution, lol? Why shouldn't High School's have academic freedom? It would allow more ideas into the school, make school more interesting, and you might learn more. Think about it, most colleges have academic freedom, don't you learn more at college?

Also, the more ideas that a student is available to, the greater opportunity they have to "find themselves", to figure out what they truly believe in before they go to college. And what if they don't go to college? Where do they get that experience from, where do they learn how to listen to various ideas and choose which ones they support, a skill necessary for competent voting.