Is Free Speech Really Free?

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Is “Free Speech” Really Free? Getting to speak your mind in elementary school all the way through high school is very limited, possibly due to the maturity level of most, but when college comes around it starts to open the doors to where decisions, ideas, and choice of classes are your freedom to express and declare what you want, but college systems are silently restricting the freedom that students have to voice their opinion. Allowing the right of free speech on public college campuses has become an important issue that many public colleges are starting to address. The author Mary Beth Marklein explains in her article that the freedom of speech students have on campus is not as extensive as college administrators claim, or what the student’s desire. Marklein reveals students feelings of being influenced to join programs where they are not able to speak their mind and provide input. Being a college student myself, I find it hard to feel that it is acceptable to say how I feel in certain situations but do not know how to go about it without a teacher having a grudge on you that may or may not hurt my grade. Just like Marklein clarifies, students cannot speak freely in fear of getting reprimanded for speaking against other students and teachers mainstream point of views. She believes that, “college is supposed to be a place where students should feel at ease to say what they feel without being afraid to do so.” (Marklein 276) Giving many examples in her article of this argument, the author shows the unfairness of how freedom of speech works in colleges. She provides many instances of where a student or student groups are suppressed for practicing their actions on college campuses. I think most college students would agree that there has been an instance where they disagreed with a teacher or wanted to do something in a different way but were either put down or

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