Throughout the development of human civilization, social hierarchies have always been established. Social status is one of the most effective ways to determine one’s influence. Public influence is vital because it forms a reputation of credibility for the organization, business, or person who is trying to make an impact on society. Anyone who is apart of the higher class has access to people’s opinions, freedom of expression, and in control of society. The majority of the public’s opinions is based on economics, entertainment, and politics that is constantly being broadcasted and shared worldwide. These large industries are usually controlled by a larger company. Having this share of power allows them to cater to their desires and decide what the public sees.
A group that frequently abuses their share of power is the United States’ Government. Specifically, Immigration Customs Enforcement abuses its power by threatening minority groups with the fear of deportation. This fear often creates censorship that jeopardizes Freedom of Speech. Freedom of Speech allows a citizen to speak their opinions or ideas without fear of judgment, retaliation, and censorship. The minorities of the United States are stripped from this right because they become afraid to speak their feelings and opinions in fear of ICE and deportation. Unfortunately, Freedom of Speech is also a common issue in the education system as it jeopardizes the education of students, hinders a professor’s teaching methods, and destabilizing society as a whole.
In the education system, Freedom of Speech is one of the main reasons why some students are not able to reach their full academic potential. Their academic potential is jeopardized because many people do not understand the difference between Freedom of Speech and discrimination. Discrimination is the act of unjust treatment towards a group, race, age, or sex. Some people believe that because they have the right to express their opinions freely, they are allowed to use racial slurs or believe culture appropriation is acceptable since they are only speaking their true feelings. This misunderstanding of Freedom of Speech has caused many minorities to be discouraged from education because they do not want to encounter such cruel treatment just for their race, beliefs, and religion. Most of the time, discrimination is presented as verbal or physical violence. An example of this cruel treatment would be how, “a swastika had been smeared in feces on a bathroom wall, one of 150 instances of that symbol showing up on campuses” or how disturbingly there were, “nooses decorated with bananas and the letters of an African- American sorority” (Steinmetz 54). It is absurd for people to bring back such traumatizing events and use it as an attack mechanism. These cruel actions can trigger tensions throughout college campuses, causing students to be afraid to come to school which is detrimental to both the student and professors. It is detrimental for the students because they are not attending classes and by not attending their classes, it causes professors to lose money since their attendance rate is lowered. These actions are meant to belittle the targeted minority. By having a goal to belittle a targeted group, it becomes more of a hatred act. The society needs to understand that, “free speech is speech that is not aimed to hurt” and “free speech that dehumanizes is not free” (Steinmetz 50). It is difficult for minorities to achieve a full and deserved education because they have to face discrimination before they can try to exercise their freedom of speech.
In addition to how freedom of speech can affect the educational system, it also affects how the professors want to express their opinions in their own class. The professors’ values in their own classrooms become censored because the higher education controls what should and should not be taught. Some educational material that I have personally experienced has been thought of as tedious and busy work. Many professors also feel this way about certain topics that higher education enforces. Canon is the basics of most educational systems. They set the basics of what students should learn and what should be valued for a lifetime. It is important what is being taught in the Canon because it provides the historical information of how education came to be. They will be carrying on centuries worth of information. A concept that William Bennett enforces is how, “American students need an understanding of its origins and development, from its roots in antiquity to the present” since they are the product of western civilization. However, some professors may disagree with this concept since the world is advancing dramatically which means the old information from the Canon may be outdated and useless. Some professors are also against the Canon because they feel like by teaching an ideology, it causes an individual (the student), “to be effective individually as an economic unit and fit to be organized with his fellows so that he and they can walk in efficient fashion together” (Hartman 136). This shows that higher education is trying to form the educational system into a factory of workers catered to what is needed in society. Many professors want their students to think for themselves and, “seek to understand how knowledge is created and experienced by the ‘learning self in the making” (Sandln and Malim 326) rather than learning the same material over and over again. The professors’ freedom of speech is stripped because they are not able to express their true opinions about the educational material that they are given due to the fear of losing their jobs.
Consequently, by not having an even distribution of Freedom of Speech, it causes society to destabilize. Society becomes destabilized because free speech is a key role in public pedagogy and vice versa. Public pedagogy is the analysis of real-world aspects such as cultural education, public space, and cultural and political issues. As Jennifer Sandlin and Jennifer Milam claim that public pedagogy leads a way to, “ 1) fostering participatory, resistant cultural production, 2) engages learners corporeally, 3) creates a (poetic) community politic, 4) opens transitional spaces through détournement (mixing)”. Freedom of Speech allows information to be spread to more people in different point of views and expand its learners. Without Freedom of Speech, society would not be able to operate this kind of social process to establish a public pedagogy. Public pedagogy is vital to society because it makes the public aware of other issues that do not usually get addressed. Public pedagogy spreads awareness in society in which Freedom of Speech plays a large role in because it forms credibility. Due to the loss of control of free speech, people do not have the “potential to connect learners with one another and to connect individual lives to social issues” (Sandlin and Milam). This destabilizes society because it is important for people to connect and share with one another as it causes more opinions and debates to rise. This creates a public sphere to form and without a public sphere, the society will not be able to discuss and improve societal problems causing it to destabilize.
During colonization, colonists fought hard to get the Bill of Rights to be established. Freedom of Speech is one of the biggest rights to be guaranteed to the public. It guarantees protection and justice. However, in the education system, Freedom of Speech is an issue that has cost students their education, affected professors and their ideal teachings, and caused a conflict in society.
Free Speech Leech 