David Moshman

Tennessee is now the second state, after Louisiana, to pass a law protecting the academic freedom of teachers in public elementary and secondary education. Other states are likely to follow suit.

The new wave of academic freedom laws require governing boards and administrators to recognize the responsibility...

In a classic series of Saturday Night Live sketches, Jane Curtin would provide a liberal point of view and then her counterpart Dan Aykroyd would provide a withering response, beginning, "Jane, you ignorant slut." Their point/counterpoint was an over-the-top parody of political discussion. But no longer.

Broadcaster Rush...

Twice in the past two months, federal appeals courts have issued decisions in cases involving the termination of Christian school counseling students from their graduate programs. Both cases involve religious objections to homosexual behavior.

The outcomes, however, were different. In Keeton v. Anderson-Wiley, released Dec. 19, the U.S....

In 2011 the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) reached the distinguished age of one hundred. The presidents of AUCC's member institutions celebrated their centennial this fall by approving a new "Statement on Academic Freedom."

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), in an open letter...

Just in time for the annual allegations of a war on Christmas, gays appear to have won a major legal victory over Christians. Did gays win this year's war on Christmas?

Actually, there is no such war, and there was no such victory. Far from ruling for or against gays...

On November 10, the Michigan Senate passed a bill directing every school board to "ensure that each pupil in each public school it operates is required to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States each school day." A separate section clarifies that pupils...

Censorship is often deemed justified in cases involving children, violence or both. As I reported in an earlier post, however, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in June in a case involving children's access to violent video games that the First Amendment fully protects depictions of violence and...

In Tennessee, a "Don't say gay" bill would forbid teaching about matters of sexual orientation in elementary and middle schools. In California, a new law requires teaching about gays. So, should we teach about gays, or not?

When the question is put that way, the answer seems clear. Including sexual...

A safe prediction for the 2011-2012 academic year is that there will continue to be attacks on tenure at all levels of education. Why should teachers keep their jobs, it will be asked, if they are not doing their jobs well? Don't students have a right to competent teachers?

Indeed...

The U.S. Supreme Court has ended its current term with a major decision supporting the First Amendment rights of children. In Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, it upheld lower court rulings that a California law restricting the access of minors to violent video games was inconsistent with the...

On June 14, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to school districts across the country instructing them that federal law protects the right of gay-straight alliances to meet on school premises. And who is responsible for this pro-gay law? He didn't say, but the answer is: Conservative...

A 2006 cartoon in The New Yorker shows parents ordering their adolescent son to go to his room until his cerebral cortex matures. This nicely illustrates how we have come to think about adolescents.

Specifically, the cartoon illustrates at least five assumptions about adolescents and their brains: (1) adolescents are...

College faculty and First Amendment advocates are heralding a recent legal decision supporting the First Amendment rights of college faculty. Many see it as a major victory for freedom of speech and academic freedom in higher education.

A careful reading of the decision, however, shows that it does not protect...

My fellow Huffington Post blogger Rabbi David Wolpe has provided guidance to readers as to which Jews should be permitted to participate in public discourse and education about Israel and which should not. Interestingly, if his proposal were to be adopted, founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion himself would be excluded.

Did Arizona ban ethnic studies?

One might think so from the way its new ethnic studies law, which took effect Jan. 1, has been described and condemned. But ethnic studies programs across the state have declared themselves to be fully in compliance with it and most remain unchallenged.

Actually,...

December 2010 featured an unexpected academic freedom controversy. The spark was a change in academic freedom policy at Pennsylvania State University, approved by its faculty senate on Dec. 7. The revised policy included language clarifying the freedom of faculty in class to address issues that might be deemed...

Nebraska Husker fans sing, "There is no place like Nebraska," but I'm not sure that's entirely true. There is, for example, Kansas. In at least one respect, however, Nebraska is indeed unique in the nation. It is the only state to have a statewide academic freedom coalition.

Of course Nebraska...

There, I said it, right in the title. And however much it hurts I'll say it again: Academic freedom is not protected by the First Amendment. Recognizing this is the first step in defending academic freedom.

We should be clear from the start that academic freedom is not simply a...

On March 30, 2010, the Dailyer Nebraskan reported in its lead headline, "Texas Board of Education Votes to Place Jesus Among Founding Fathers in New Textbooks." The picture below the headline depicted the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with Jesus Christ restored, according to the caption, "to his rightful...

Academic freedom is commonly seen as a special right of tenured university professors to do as they please and get paid for it. As a tenured university professor, I'm tempted to say: If only it were so! But in fact this elitist conception of academic freedom is not only unreal...