7/28/2019 What Do High School Students Need to Know About
Law
1/2
What do high school students need to know about law?
Do you know what the seven pillars of theConstitution of the
United Statesis based
upon? As part of the social studies curriculumin elementary,
junior-high, and highschools across the USALaw-Related Education
(LRE)started in the early1970's.
Whether scheduled as a Law Day or as an integrated part of the
curriculum, LREintroduces students to the essential parts of the US
Constitution and the history of how
the pillars of a constitutional democracy, as mentioned above,
function. This has spawned
across the Atlantic Ocean to inspire a new generation of
soon-to-be leaders to educateadults regarding questions of basic
civil rights in different European countries for adults
to function as an adult in modern society. An example of this is
theEuropean Partnership
on Law-Related Educationprogram in Europe. As good as a program
as it is, there are
always ways to improve.
In 1978, a law was passed to for all states to have LRE
inculcated as a part of their
curriculum. Texas has published an excellent example online of
downloadable teacher
lessons related to this goal. There are a series oflesson
plansprovided for purchase tounderstanding how the US Constitution
works, from citizenship in kindergarten to a full-
fledged overview of the principles of the US Constitution in
later grades. In addition,there are free PDFs of other ideas, such
as the Pipeline project, wherein a lawyer visits a
classroom four times a year.
Nonetheless, numerous studies show that adults are woefully
ignorant of their rights andhow to use them. In one example, a
surprising number of adults still question whether or
not the First Amendmentgives people too much freedom. Contrary
to that opinion,
others think that the Second Amendment simply allows people the
right to bears. Theambiguous text has even former Chief Justice
Burgerweighing in on this issue. In a
speech in 1992 the conservative Chief Justice Burger declared
that the SecondAmendment does not guarantee people the rights to
bear arms at all. Former Chief Justice
Burgers views provide a rather stinging statement during a time
of heightened nationaldebate about whether this Amendment needs to
be appealed or not.
High school students, despite good programs, simply do not
graduate with enoughknowledge of the law and how it applies to
them. Many of them do not seem to
understand that they, as a part of a modern constitutional
democracy, have the knowledge
that they are not making their own views:Partisanshipand media
are doing it for them.Partisanship distorts peoples views on
issues. Basic facts about issues are now
misunderstood, while most people do not know why. High school
students, while
understanding the basic facts of the basic laws of the US, need
further education on howto leverage their understanding and
question the views of the media using their own basicfreedom of the
First Amendment. Debate is essential to this process, and is a
fundamental
principle to Western Civilization. How many students know how to
use history and the
law to debate current issues in an objective manner? We will
only know that by the media,
another example of how the media shapes our views by using its
own.
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.pdfhttp://www.usconstitution.net/const.pdfhttp://www.usconstitution.net/const.pdfhttp://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/law.htmhttp://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/law.htmhttp://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/law.htmhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.texaslre.org/curriculum.htmlhttp://www.texaslre.org/curriculum.htmlhttp://www.texaslre.org/curriculum.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/newseum-institute-announces-2013-state-first-amendment-survey-160000181.html;_ylt=AwrNUbJnye1Re2UA6HLQtDMDhttp://news.yahoo.com/newseum-institute-announces-2013-state-first-amendment-survey-160000181.html;_ylt=AwrNUbJnye1Re2UA6HLQtDMDhttp://news.yahoo.com/newseum-institute-announces-2013-state-first-amendment-survey-160000181.html;_ylt=AwrNUbJnye1Re2UA6HLQtDMDhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/gun-debate-must-avoid-crazy-second-amendment-claims.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/gun-debate-must-avoid-crazy-second-amendment-claims.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/gun-debate-must-avoid-crazy-second-amendment-claims.htmlhttp://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/11/09/partisanship-shapes-beliefs-about-political-and-non-political-issueshttp://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/11/09/partisanship-shapes-beliefs-about-political-and-non-political-issueshttp://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/11/09/partisanship-shapes-beliefs-about-political-and-non-political-issueshttp://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/11/09/partisanship-shapes-beliefs-about-political-and-non-political-issueshttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-17/gun-debate-must-avoid-crazy-second-amendment-claims.htmlhttp://news.yahoo.com/newseum-institute-announces-2013-state-first-amendment-survey-160000181.html;_ylt=AwrNUbJnye1Re2UA6HLQtDMDhttp://www.texaslre.org/curriculum.htmlhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.humanityinaction.org/programs/44-european-partnership-on-law-related-educationhttp://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/law.htmhttp://www.usconstitution.net/const.pdf
