Liberty and Learning: Academic Freedom for Teachers and Students

"I strongly encourage teachers, administrators, districts, and state boards of education to make time to read this book together. David Moshman's flawless research, probing questions, and insightful principles will lay the foundation for a new era in academic freedom, perhaps prompting school systems to create strong policies to guard against challenges to intellectual freedom."  

-ReLeah Cossett Lent

Co-author of At the Schoolhouse Gate: Lessons in Intellectual Freedom

 

Academic freedom, argues David Moshman, is neither a special privilege of college faculty nor a First Amendment right of individual teachers and students. Rather, academic freedom is intellectual freedom in academic contexts, consisting of five principles that everyone is obligated to respect:

• Freedom of belief and identity
• Freedom of expression and discussion
• Freedom of inquiry
• Freedom from indoctrination
• Rights of equality, privacy, and due process

Moshman succinctly shows readers how these principles resolve some of the most intractable problems facing education today. On matters ranging from evolution to sex education to the literary canon, his principles address the concerns of teachers, administrators, students, parents, and their communities alike, providing tools that promote real student learning and thinking.