NCJ Number
115479
Journal
Police Volume: 21 Issue: 3 Dated: (November 1988) Pages: 14,16
Date Published
1988
Length
2 pages
Annotation
A British project is helping schools use input from police officers and other criminal justice personnel to develop courses to teach young people about the role of law in their everyday lives and to help them develop the skills needed to discover and use the law.
Abstract
The project rests on the view that the teaching of legal awareness should not be restricted to visits from local police officers. Instead, teachers themselves should see law-related education as a vital part of every pupil's education. To address the need for law-related education in Great Britain, the Law in Education Project has established eight groups of teachers to use advice from attorneys and others to develop a wide range of teaching materials for students ages 14-16. The materials examine real situations that young people will see as relevant. Students are asked to consider situations and decide if they would take action, assess the relative importance of phone calls that come into a local police station, examine the traffic laws, and act out a mock trial. These and other topics try to dispel ignorance of the law and encourage more positive attitudes toward the law and those who enforce it. Addresses from which to obtain further information about the Law in Education Project are listed.