Ben Franklin was an influential champion of free speech and freedom of the press during the founding and formation of the United States of America. This lesson takes a look at two of Franklin’s works – Silence Dogood No. 8 and “On the Freedom of the Press” in order to gain insight into his thinking about two of our fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
FIRE’s K-12 free speech curriculum modules help educators enrich and supplement their existing instruction on First Amendment and freedom of expression issues in K-12 classrooms.