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Free Speech

Student Speech and Civic Education

Ronald Den Otter | 5.28.2026 10:00 AM

In this post, I shall continue down the free speech as autonomy-enhancing path, contending that engagement in freedom of expression activities (and its effects) in public schools can be politically educational, helping to prepare students for the public deliberation that a democracy like ours requires. It is not unusual for commentators, including judges, to associate public schools with civic education and democracy. In his recent majority opinion in Mahanoy, Justice Stephen Breyer characterizes them as "nurseries of democracy."

The relationship between free speech and civic education takes center-stage in what follows, with emphasis on the importance of trying to bring a certain kind of person into being, namely an autonomous one. A good democratic citizen will have adequate critical thinking skills, be open-minded, listen, and interact with those with whom they disagree in a manner that treats everyone as an equal member of the diverse political community.

The exercise of free speech rights by students, in public fora at their respective public schools, can make them more accustomed to the inevitably of disagreement. That way, they can learn how to disagree with others, who do not share their deepest political convictions, without necessarily concluding that they are stupid or evil. In conjunction with democratic education as part of the curriculum, they must be actively involved in educating themselves. No one can do it for them.

The practice of free speech can contribute to the development of critical thinking skills improve their ability to deliberate in the future. Long before they become adults, they should be able to take part in discursive activities so that they are familiar with how deliberation in a democracy is supposed to work. There is plenty of room for improvement. Like any other capacity, an intellectual capacity can be cultivated over time, with positive reinforcement and the appropriate educational experiences. There is no reason why some of those formative educational experiences cannot take place during junior high or high school when students interact........

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