What Do High School Students Need to Know About Law
High school students graduate with a fundamental, yet weak awareness of the law but do not fully view it as "theirs" and how to obtain more.
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What do high school students need to know about law?
Do you know what the seven pillars of the Constitution of the United States is based upon? As part of the social studies curriculum in elementary, junior-high, and high schools across the USA Law-Related Education (LRE) started in the early1970's. Whether scheduled as a Law Day or as an integrated part of the curriculum, LRE introduces 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 educate adults 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 the European Partnership on Law-Related Education program 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 of lesson plans provided for purchase to understanding how the US Constitution works, from citizenship in kindergarten to a fullfledged 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 and how to use them. In one example, a surprising number of adults still question whether or not the First Amendment gives people too much freedom. Contrary to that opinion, others think that the Second Amendment simply allows people the right to bears. The ambiguous text has even former Chief Justice Burger weighing in on this issue. In a speech in 1992 the conservative Chief Justice Burger declared that the Second Amendment does not guarantee people the rights to bear arms at all. Former Chief Justice Burger’s views provide a rather stinging statement during a time of heightened national debate about whether this Amendment needs to be appealed or not. High school students, despite good programs, simply do not graduate with enough knowledge 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: Partisanship and media are doing it for them. Partisanship distorts people’s 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 how to leverage their understanding and question the views of the media using their own basic freedom 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.
Thus, high school students not only need to know about laws, high school students need more education about the pillars of Western civilization and how to use them as well.
Do you know what the seven pillars of the Constitution of the United States is based upon? As part of the social studies curriculum in elementary, junior-high, and high schools across the USA Law-Related Education (LRE) started in the early1970's. Whether scheduled as a Law Day or as an integrated part of the curriculum, LRE introduces 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 educate adults 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 the European Partnership on Law-Related Education program 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 of lesson plans provided for purchase to understanding how the US Constitution works, from citizenship in kindergarten to a fullfledged 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 and how to use them. In one example, a surprising number of adults still question whether or not the First Amendment gives people too much freedom. Contrary to that opinion, others think that the Second Amendment simply allows people the right to bears. The ambiguous text has even former Chief Justice Burger weighing in on this issue. In a speech in 1992 the conservative Chief Justice Burger declared that the Second Amendment does not guarantee people the rights to bear arms at all. Former Chief Justice Burger’s views provide a rather stinging statement during a time of heightened national debate about whether this Amendment needs to be appealed or not. High school students, despite good programs, simply do not graduate with enough knowledge 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: Partisanship and media are doing it for them. Partisanship distorts people’s 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 how to leverage their understanding and question the views of the media using their own basic freedom 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.
Thus, high school students not only need to know about laws, high school students need more education about the pillars of Western civilization and how to use them as well.
