Could someone help me on this article?

[Christianalwaysg124RP]

I'm 15. I am in journalistic writing and I have to do an opinion newspaper article. I decided to do it on libertarianism and the constitution. Could you guys maybe give me some ideas on it? I am far from finished and I don't know what to add on it. I have the started it so far, but I don't know what else to add to it. It has to be related to students. I also want to tie in libertarianism with Libertarianism. I also don't know a way of tieing in how because of government "libertarian ideas are no longer brought up" and why libertarianism isn't in schools. It also has to be in essay style.

My article isn't starting out well so please help me on it.


Good Ol Republic
Why School is so darn Boring

“Sit in your seats, be quiet and turn around” the teacher declares to the classroom. Young Amanda loves to learn about history, but it’s too hard for her to keep focused in school. She continually begs the complaint “This stuff is meaningless to me.”

Let’s face it, students hate school more than ever in this day and age. As we live in the age of relativism, students want an alternative to teachings they will never use in life. Particularly, one subject that students have a large disliking for is Social Studies. According to research done in San Francisco, by John J. Chiodo, most high school students rank Social Studies as last in importance compared to the other core subjects such as English.

It is appalling that such a notion is made by students. Let’s look at this picture. Many students are dissident with the school system and their major plea is there is no relativism in schools. How are they dissident with schools when Social Studies is a subject that teaches about the behaviors of mankind? It even teaches what we do wrong and right. How could a subject that seems so relative be so irrelative in the minds of high schoolers?

In my best opinion, the reason is very simple. The core principles of libertarianism and the importance of the constitution are not taught as abundantly is the reason Social Studies is so boring to students. The values of a minarchist, libertarian, constitutional government are an issue that should be an idea students love. The other reason, is due to the government censorship on what is allowed to be taught in schools

Before I go of on my rant on how great libertarianism is, let’s define what a libertarian government is. As defined by the dictionary, a libertarian is a person whom: “ a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action. In simple terms, Libertarians believe people have the right to live out their lives as they see best as long as it does not harm the liberties of others.

I also mentioned earlier the term "minarchist." The term is always confused with "anarchism"-no federal government and essentially no government at all. A minarchist doesn't believe in no government, he is one who believes in small government.(as taught by Jeffersonianism) Putting the two terms together, a libertarian minarchist is one who advocates a government which does the least, upholding the principles of liberty.

The ideas of libertarianism could be thought of as the "Golden Rule" or "individualism", but it's not just those principles. Another principle the libertarians value is private property. When libertarians mean by private property, it is meant essentially your life, your home and your money. People shouldn't be forced to sacrifice their lives for a government purpose. People should also be free to make the choices he makes, and never blown back by the choice unless it harms others. This would mean we are against all direct taxes. Essentially libertarians believe in a "free market."

Imagine a fat person of existence. People continually tell him the food he eats is damaging his health and could kill him. Yet at the same time no one would want government interference taking away his food and his right to have food. The government taking away his food would be confiscation,fraud and stealing. (libertarians believe the government has done this through higher taxes, subsides, more government welfare and public social security)

The central theme of libertarianism is taught in schools, but many of the principles of libertarianism are not"

[LibertyEagle]

Help is on the way, Christina. :)

It is really neat that you're doing this.

[Christianalwaysg124RP]

Help is on the way, Christina. :)

It is really neat that you're doing this.

Thank you.

[Soccrmastr]

I was definitely thinking of doing this for my school newspaper. They have opinions section full of the most brainless bullshit.


My opinion, take out the minarchism part. One, there are many denominations of anarchism and government forms, and it seems foolish to explain just one, especially since it is quite obscure and not the best developed. Two, an American constituionalist government does not provide for a minarchist government. Our government is a form of American Republicanism that the founders developed. Three, Jeffersonianism political philosophy is not minarchism.

Also, not all libertarians are against taxation.

And I don't see where you're going with the boring social studies thing, then branching off into explaining libertarianism.

I'd say scrap everything you have and talk about how todays social studies courses and perpetuating a liberal viewpoint and a two aprty system, and with a subject that leaves so much room for opinion teachers are failing in their jobs of teaching kids, and instead making them memorize whatever viewpoint the text book makers have.

[MsDoodahs]

Hi...

Don't know if it will help, but ...

http://www.fee.org/publications/notes/notes/TheGreatest.asp

:)

[MsDoodahs]

Two, an American constituionalist government does not provide for a minarchist government.

A government that followed the Constitution would most certainly be a minarchist government.

[Christianalwaysg124RP]

Hi...

Don't know if it will help, but ...

http://www.fee.org/publications/notes/notes/TheGreatest.asp

:)

This helps a lot, thank you.

[Soccrmastr]

A government that followed the Constitution would most certainly be a minarchist government.

no, no it wouldn't

[LibertyEagle]

no, no it wouldn't

What reasoning are you engaging to conclude that? :confused:

[Christianalwaysg124RP]

My article isn't very good, but I got it done. :( It's due Monday.


No Freedom Allowed!
Why school is so darn boring

“Sit in your seats, be quiet and turn around” the teacher declares to the classroom. Young Amanda likes school, but she doesn't find any need for Social Studies. "This is meaningless to me", she says.

Let’ face it, students hate school more than ever in this day and age. As we live in the age of relativism, students want an alternative to teachings they will never use in life. Particularly, one subject that students have a large disliking for is Social Studies. According to research done in San Francisco, by John . , most high school students rank Social Studies as last in importance compared to the other core subjects such as English.
It is appalling that such a notion is made by students. Let’ look at this picture. Many students are dissident with the school system and their major plea is there is no relativism in schools. How are they dissident with schools when Social Studies is a subject that teaches about the behaviors of mankind? It even teaches what we do wrong and right as a society. How could a subject that seems so relative be so irrelative in the minds of high schoolers?
In my best opinion, the reason is very simple. The reason schools are so boring is due to two reasons. Firstly, the high respect for libertarianism and the Constitution are not as high values as they used to be. The second reason is because of more government control over our lives.
Before I go of on my rant on how great libertarianism is, let’ define what a libertarian is. As defined by Webster dictionary, a libertarian is: “ a person who upholds the principles of individual liberty especially of thought and action. In simple terms, Libertarians believe people have the right to live out their lives as they see best as long as it does not harm the liberties of others.
I also mentioned earlier the term "." The term is always confused with "anarchism", which essentially means no federal government and essentially no government at all. A doesn't believe in no government, he is one who believes in small government.(as taught by ) Putting the two terms together, a libertarian is one who advocates a government which does only what is absolutely necessary, upholding the principles of liberty.

The ideas of libertarianism could be thought of as the "Golden Rule" or "individualism", but it's not just those principles. Another principle the libertarians value is private property. When libertarians mean by private property, it is meant essentially your life, your home and your money. People shouldn't be forced to sacrifice their lives for a government purpose. People should also be free to make the choices he makes, and never blown back by the choice unless it harms others. This would mean we are against all direct taxes and believe in only a small amount of taxes. Essentially libertarians believe in a "free market."
Another message libertarians teach is "states rights." Libertarians believe the issues not expressed in the constitution are to be dealt with by the states.

The central message of libertarianism comes from the Constitution and the philosophy of the founding fathers. From the beginning the founders fought for freedom, life, and most importantly, liberty. It was not only believed by the founders that liberty is necessary for a prosperous government, but fought for.
It began with the harsh tide of the British government over the founders. The parliament of Britain wanted to tax individuals without representation. It also went against religious freedom with the expansion of the Church of England's rule over Protestantism in much of North America. The founders fought against this fighting in the American Revolution for liberty. Fighting the tide of the Church of England.
"The whole purpose of the Constitution was made to restrain the government, not the people," Republican congressmen and Presidential hopeful Ron Paul said. That's how it all began in our nation. Our government was formed by the Constitution, with it's limited form of government. The Constitution teaches checks and balances, a principle of limited government. This is the key principle of , to have less government. Since you have the to restrain government, the government becomes smaller.
Many issues taught in the Constitution are taught expressly in libertarianism. On states rights, it is taught in the Amendment. On the need for liberty for a nation to be prosperous, it is taught in the Preamble. The need for less taxes is seen in the American Revolution itself. On every issue, the founders were libertarian.

This is what the Constitution teaches, yet sadly this isn't the topic brought up in schools. Let's face it, the Constitution is barely brought up in schools. When it is brought up,all that is brought up is a simple gesture of, "The founders adopted the constitution in the year..." Nor is the history of each part of the constitution taught either. Throughout , the ratification process of the Constitution wasn't mentioned at all.
Another part of the Constitution not taught in schools is the basic provisions of each part of the Constitution. The date of each portion of the Constitution wasn't mentioned at all in the Social Studies textbooks or the teachers.
An example of the history of the Constitution not taught was in the Second Amendment. When studying shortly about the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment, it wasn't mentioned that the right was made for protection from the British government for each individual. This is an example of how much we devalue the historicity of the Constitution.
An example of both government censorship and disrespect for the Constitution is seen in the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act is a government Bill which gives certain powers to the Executive Branch not expressed in the Constitution. The two main powers the government has under the Patriot Act are the right to wire tapping and the right for warrantless searches.(section 201 and section 233) The constitution makes is clear that you can't have warrantless searches.

Since the government is allowed to have warrantless searches, this means they are allowed to suspend the right to corpus.(right to a trial by jury) Meaning that if someone speaks against the government and declares it unconstitutional, the President can censor your right to free speech, according to journalist Keith .

James Madison warned us about these things. "The means of defense against foreign danger historically have been the instruments of tyranny at home," he said. "Those that give up essential liberties for safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
These declarations were announced by Keith on his show "Countdown to Keith ." "Under the Geneva conventions anyone who speaks against the government and disagrees with the President on the Iraq war is considered unpatriotic," he said. "Then he can be put in prison without the due process of law."


Some may ask what government censorship and the what is taught at have any bearing on how fun Social Studies is. The two ideas have much to do with why students dislike Social Studies if we understand more of John research. John did a general survey of what was taught in schools. Throughout the early 1970's Social Studies was of the top favored subjects. Throughout the latter end of the 1970' Social Studies was one of the least favored subjects and he found that the constitution continually got less attention in the textbooks.

The Constitution is getting less attention in schools and students dislike Social Studies more. This causes me to believe students dislike Social studies is because the Constitution is taught less. However, since this a libertarian republic, I'll let you decide!

[wowabunga]

As a substitute school teacher I get to see the good and the bad. Not too much has changed since I was a student.... we had great teachers, average teachers and then a few teachers that liked to yell a lot.

The great teachers made the learning fun, or at least it didn't feel all that painful. They went out of their way with examples and true stories. Sort of like listening to a really good public speaker... they drew in our attention and we soaked it up.

The average teachers gave out books, gave out tests... and read their newspaper or talked sports or some thing to that accord.

The bad teachers need to be weeded out... but that taint all that easy.

In my opinion the worst thing that is happening right now in this generation is the negative attitudes the kids get from watching the daily influx of crap that permeates cable tv. To find a student who reads ( as a personal choice ) is rare. Why visit the library when you can turn on the tube and tune out, zone out, no need to relate with others.... type of self inflicted loneliness.

As a 2 full page cable tv advertisement recent barked: "Everything You'll Ever Need"

Peace and Joy,
Ramblin Randy