The Newspaper in Education/Youth Readership Program
of the New Jersey Newspaper Foundation
Teacher's Guide to the First Amendment
One of the most important elements of the New Jersey Newspaper Foundation's presentation of Woman of the World: The Story of Nellie Bly is the attention given to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Chapter 3 of the Guide for Teachers, Students and Families illustrates the importance of the press freedom in the United States.
I urge you to click here to retrieve and then use the First Amendment Curriculum Guide, which was developed by the Illinois First Amendment Center.
In order to retrieve that PDF file you will need Adobe Reader, which comes installed on most computers. Adobe Reader is available free at www.adobe.com.
You can then print out the 82-page curriculum guide for use at any time during the school year.
Research by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 2005 showed that lack of awareness and appreciation of the First Amendment is most acute in the media-rich suburban schools of America. Many New Jersey communities fit that description.
The shocking fact to come from the Knight Foundation research was that many of the 112,000 young Americans randomly surveyed said they approve of government censorship of the media.
Government censorship: That's exactly what Nellie Bly found in foreign countries when she filed her news reports during the late 1800's.
As Chapter 3 of the NewsBook mentions, Nellie had to return to the United States before she could write the truth about what conditions were in other parts of the world.
We all must work hard today to keep America free.
The First Amendment Curriculum Guide is an important piece of useful information for teachers who want to teach students the value of freedom in America.
Tom Engleman, Program Director, New Jersey Newspaper Foundation