Maybe Today’s Kids Are Smarter Then Us

Kids teenagers, adults-in-progress - are nearly unanimous in their opposition to censorship.

I spoke to a junior high group recently and they were filled with wrath over the fact that the school administration wouldn’t let them address the most vital issue of the day in the school newspaper. The administration, like most junior high administrations, probably feels that some issues are too complicated, too subtle and too far-reaching in their ramifications to be discussed in public by 13-year-olds.

And what is this forbidden issue?

“Halter-tops for girls - attractive fashion statement or destructive classroom influence?”

Meanwhile, my own two teenagers-in-residence are constantly exercising their right of free speech to complain about anything they see as censorship (or restrictions to free information, which they see as tantamount to censorship), whether it be in music, in movies, in school, in cyberspace or in books for English class.

Could it be that our teenagers are smarter than we are?

I know, I know, censorship is a complicated issue with depths that teenagers don’t always appreciate. It’s easy to say that nothing should be censored, but less easy to answer all of the uncomfortable questions:

What about Nazi ranting? Shouldn’t that be suppressed?

What about music that advocates the killing of cops? Does that serve any decent purpose?

What about Web sites that tell how to make explosives, or deal in kiddie porn?

What about books that advocate genocide or racial hatred?

Yet the teenagers I know still find the issue relatively simple, because of one overriding maxim. To put it in their own words: Hey. We’re not stupid.

The impulse toward censorship often follows from the assumption that kids are easily led. We must censor movie violence (or restrict the audience) because otherwise kids will learn that violence is acceptable, fun and has no consequences. We must censor song lyrics because kids will want to go out and shoot a cop. We must censor “Huck Finn” because kids will think the n-word is acceptable. We must not read “To Kill a Mockingbird” because kids will think … what? That Scout’s canned-ham costume demonstrates insufficient respect for pork products?

Well, what I hear from teenagers is that they are not the dumb, pliable sheep that everyone thinks they are. Just because a rapper boasts about being a tough cop-killer, they aren’t going to decide that shooting a cop is what they ought to do right after their math homework.

If they go see “Pulp Fiction,” they aren’t going to suddenly be under the delusion that shooting somebody in the face in the back seat is a humorous thing to do, good for numerous chuckles the next day while recounting it in the cafeteria. As even the title makes clear: It’s not real! It’s fiction!

Nor are teenagers so brain dead that when they read “Huckleberry Finn” or “To Kill a Mockingbird, they will completely miss the author’s point - the injustice of judging people by their skin - and instead will fixate on certain naughty words and use them as insults during soccer practice. Teenagers, of all people, understand when the author uses a term ironically or sarcastically, themselves being masters of irony and sarcasm.

So it galls kids to see adults “protecting” them against evils that they are perfectly capable of protecting themselves against. They recognize, correctly, that the only thing that will protect them against destructive or stupid ideas is their own good sense, so they might as well get some practice using it now.

All of this, of course, doesn’t exactly shed light on whether student writers should be allowed to debate the halter-top issue in the school newspaper. But frankly, I am heartened by the notion that kids want to debate controversial problems, want to argue the issues, want to be exposed to all kinds of ideas, even some that may not be too pleasant.

This is called “developing thinking skills” and it is exactly what students are supposed to be doing in school.

As I was saying:

Could it be that our teenagers are smarter than we are?

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review