A collective gasp of outrage sounded throughout my journalism class at Florida International University. We had just heard that one-third of 112,003 high school students surveyed think the press enjoys too much freedom, and 36 percent want more government control over newspapers.

The survey, which also included teachers and administrators, showed that 73 percent of the students can't grasp the meaning of the First Amendment; 75 percent see flag burning as illegal; and although members of the Internet generation, half of the students believe the government has censorship over Web content.

"Who the heck's teaching these students?" one of my classmates asked. Although she and the rest of the class expressed strong support for freedom of the press, a show of hands pointed out that only 1 in 20 of us took a journalism class prior to college.

Sponsored by the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and carried out last year by the University of Connecticut, the study found that 30 percent of the high school administrators surveyed do not regard "journalism education" as a priority. Still, 85 percent of them claim simply not to have enough resources to expand their "student media programs" as they would like.

I remember reading another survey last summer, in my FIU Law and Ethics class -- this one indicating journalists are one of the least trusted group of professionals. Trusted or not, where would our country be without the press and vigilant reporting? Where will we end up if students, along with those who prepare them for the "real world," come to disregard more and more the important democratic functions of the press?

In its purest form, the press has, before elections, the responsibility of informing citizens to help them make smart decisions in choosing their candidates. After elections, the press must keep an eye on the government for abuses and injustices.

Without freedom of the press, the 2000 elections in Florida would never have been questioned, and neither would the possibility that government could have prevented the events of 9-11. Also, the public would never have found out about the torture of prisoners in Iraq or, three decades ago, about the now historic case of Watergate. The mass media would then merely serve as propaganda, as they did for the Nazis in Germany; or as a mind-controlling device, as they do for Big Brother in George Orwell's 1984.

Orwell's work of fiction paints a dismal portrait of our world's future: a totalitarian system in which the government brainwashes its citizens through the media. Newspapers can only say what the government tells them to. Televisions display the figure and play the speeches of Big Brother, whom citizens must obey and worship, and screens can actually watch what people are doing at all times. Should we begin to dread a similar fate?

Indeed, students who accept the notion of more government control of the press may contribute to the undermining of the very foundation upon which the United States was built.

The Declaration of Independence was a cry of freedom from British control. The Founding Fathers fought hard to expel these tyrants and create a country based on the ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" -- that is, a democracy.

In order to prevent any future transgressions of our inalienable rights, the drafters of the Constitution added to it the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment contains the most important among these liberties: speaking, writing and protesting freely.

These concepts are taught in any basic civics class, but are sometimes overlooked.

An institutionalized lack of passion and idealism in high school learning may be to blame for students' disinterest and confusion about the First Amendment. While in high school, all I had to do was look around me to see students falling asleep during lectures.

We must call for a higher investment in and support of high school media programs. Journalism classes in high school could actually arouse students' interest, with the integration of theory and hands-on activities. At the very least, these would serve to teach students how to actually apply the First Amendment and get them acquainted with the workings of the press.

Hodding Carter III, president of the Knight Foundation, called the survey's results "not only disturbing, [but also] dangerous."

A renewed focus on high school journalism education would put and end to Carter's nightmares and encourage students, from early on, to aspire to protect freedom of the press and maintain our hard-won democracy.

Ana Ribeiro is a journalism student at Florida International University.