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Bar News - September 23, 2005 Law Related Education - Offering Unique Opportunities To Touch Young Minds By: Beverly Rorick Attorney Steve Sacks consults with Alton Elementary School students at first-ever "live" mock trial. Previously, elementary schools submitted videos of their mock trial programs. The LRE program is funded in part by a grant from the New Hampshire Bar Foundation, by the Center for Civic Education and by the New Hampshire Bar Association. It brings together Bar members, educators, members of local and state government and members of the law enforcement community to develop activities that have a lasting impact upon student thinking. As many students and teachers have said, participation in LRE activities has deepened the students’ appreciation for the Constitution, the jury system and the way the law works. (Please see sidebar for one student’s comments.) In the We the People: the Citizen and the Constitution program, taking place in December and January, Bar members act as panelists at simulated Congressional hearings; they pose questions on constitutional issues to students, who have spent weeks studying a curriculum developed by the Center for Civic Education in California. At these sessions, the volunteers from the Bar (along with lawmakers and educators) listen to the students’ testimony in explanation/defense of the various principles and aspects of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. To further the sense of reality, the hearings are held at the Legislative Office Building in Concord and the winning state team competes nationally in Washington, DC. On Law Day in May, the ALIES program (A Lawyer and Judge in Every School), places lawyers and judges in classrooms at every grade level to talk about the law. Volunteers work with teachers to present programs tailored to the particular classroom, or the ALIES volunteers can use model lesson plans developed by the NHBA LRE Program. The ALIES program is supported in part by the ABA, which provides additional materials on-line to help attorneys and judges prepare. This year’s theme is: Liberty Under Law: Separate Branches, Balanced Powers. For the Mock Trial competition, the Bar’s Mock Trial committee (composed of Bar members) chooses a mock case each year for elementary, middle and high school teams to develop. Students develop evidence, act as witnesses, and prepare material to argue both sides of the case. Schools compete in a preliminary and then a final round to determine the state champions for the middle and high school levels. Bar members are involved in developing the cases, and in coaching teams and judging their efforts. District and superior courthouses are the settings and again the winning high school team competes in a nationwide contest, with financial support in part from the NH Bar Foundation. We the People: Project Citizen engages middle school students in hands-on learning and problem solving on a local issue of their choice—an issue involving school, town or state. Bar members evaluate presentation boards and portfolios that the students compile to explain and advocate for their solutions to the issues. The Bar members then grade the projects and choose a winner. All of the LRE programs depend on volunteers from the Bar. If you would like to become part of a program that reaches young minds, promotes better understanding of our system of laws and government, and provides young people with positive contacts with the legal profession, contact Valenda Morrissette at vmorrissette@nhbar.org or by phone at 603/224-6942. New Hampshire’s young people need the Law-Related Education program, and the Law-Related Education Program needs YOU.
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