The Importance of Academic Freedom

The Importance of Academic Freedom
What is academic freedom? Some might say, but really without even knowing it everyone with a social media profile if proof that academic freedom is alive and well. Academic freedom gives everyone the right to express their views in speech, writing, and through communication without fear of prosecution, unless the rights of others are violated. There are many elements of academic freedom such as; principles of academic freedom, electronic communication and academic freedom, the opposing side reasons for not wanting academic freedom. In order to understand academic freedom one must understand the principles.
Since the beginning of time people have wanted to question certain things that they did not agree with but couldn’t because the fear of punishment. Key principles of academic freedom are nature and purpose which is academic freedom with respect the rights of students and teachers which creates an educational context that promotes learning, development, and original research. Freedom of belief is that everyone has a right to believe whatever they believe in and to maintain or change their beliefs as they feel necessary. Schools may grade you on your knowledge of their beliefs but they cannot decrease your grade on your disagreement with their beliefs. Schools should encourage everyone to pursue their own interests and ideas. Inquiry should not be censored by restricting access to controversial topics. Everyone has a right to express their views privately and publicly without fear of punishment. Parents have a right to discuss their views with their own children and to communicate with the school if they do not agree with what the school is teaching. Academic freedom and freedom of speech are ...

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...ays be someone with a political agenda trying to stop people from saying something they don’t want to hear or let anyone else hear.
In conclusion academic freedom is very important and like freedom of speech and freedom of press it is our right to be able to say, write, or research whatever we as students have an interest in. Electronic communication is not going to go away it’s just going to become more and more popular because of social media. There are people of all ages on social media from old to really young. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you cannot have an opinion. As long as you word your objection correctly and in a educational way they cannot reprimand you for it. Political agendas should be kept out of the class room. If someone says that you have to think this way tell them that they are wrong and that you have the right to think however you want.