Freedom In Educational Institutions

Respected Judge/s and Fellow Contestants, I will support the motion that "Restrictions of Student's freedom in Educational Institutions is harmful for Innovative Learning".

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT IS EDUCATION'S HIGHEST GOAL Independent thought "is the most important lesson any educational institution can teach; the most important message any student can learn." Principals, teachers, parents and society in general must be actively committed to a curriculum that promotes free thinking and open questioning consistent with the ideals of a democratic society.
Expression is instrumental to the development of cognitive structures and higher-order cognitive skills. Learning to be innovative requires much more than thinking--it also entails extensive listening, speaking, reading, and writing in which ideas are advanced, exchanged, and evaluated. Schooling should provide students with such opportunities to be innovative and to engage in higher cognitive operations.
Freedom of speech necessarily includes the freedom to express one's ideas despite their unpopularity. Student thinking about any particular matter may be quite different from the official curricular viewpoint.
Education is the practise for adult life. While practising, students will often fall short of intended goals by misunderstanding, misapplying, inaccurately analyzing, poorly creating, and erroneously evaluating the subject matter on which they are working. If they are to derive benefit from this practise, students must be able to make errors without fear of punishment. Institutions must therefore have some tolerance for error--and for student speech.
Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the school or college gate. I would like to quote a statement about why it is so important for young people to be aware of, and concerned about, constitutional rights.
One of the great concerns of our time is that young people are disillusioned by our political processes and are disengaging from political participation. It is most important that our young become convinced that our Constitution is a living reality, and not just some document for lawyers and lawmakers to haggle over.
The values of free speech and privacy have been fundamental to Democracy. Privacy encourages participation and enhances its quality by allowing individuals the space within which to formulate their individual thoughts and opinions. Privacy allows people to question conventional wisdom and to seek their own answers. Invasion of privacy destroys dignity and personhood. My conception of the right to privacy is something that has a "spiritual value". This includes the"right to be left alone" and also asserts the individual's "independence, dignity, and integrity." In cases of intrusion into privacy, the core of the invasion is a "blow to the individual's dignity and an assault on his/her personality." Privacy therefore becomes a means of conferring and confirming personhood.
And with this I will end my case.