Teaching teachers is great fun. High school civics teachers, from this state at least, tend to be really interesting, bright people. Talk to them and you will learn not only a lot about high school kids but also about thinking and politics in the smaller towns in this state. Civics teachers pay attention to current events.

Most of the civics teachers I encounter at From the Courtroom to the Classroom, a seminar for teachers who teach about the justice system, care passionately about thinking and about teaching kids to think which makes law-related education perfect for them. Law-related education is not about teaching kids to become lawyers. Instead, it�s about teaching them what they need to know to understand issues and events around them.

Law is a marvelous vehicle for discussion of information that some schools otherwise would not even mention. For example, orking with law-related education had me explaining what a minyan was to a group of students from a local Lutheran high school. A minyan is a group of ten Jews (either all men or men as well as women depending upon your flavor of Judiasm) and a group of ten is required for recitation of certain prayers. I found myself explaining the minyan because these kids were struggling to put together an argument that involved the relationship between freedom of assembly and freedom of religion. To strength their argument, they were branching out from Christianity to find examples in other religions.

Law also is a wonderful way of discussing controversial issues in the classroom including hate crimes, abortion, and affirmative action. This year�s mock trial case in Wisconsin deal with guns and the possibility that a kid had committed suicide. One of the social studies teacher�s at Kat�s school noted that the mock trial case taught analytical skills and speaking skills but it also allowed for discussion of the place of guns in society.

But none of that assures that those who teach civics courses will use what the law has to offer. That possibility becomes more of a probability when lawyers and teaching experts team up together to impart the background knowledge necessary and to demonstrate creative, hands-on lessons that will work at various ability levels. That�s what the institute does.

All of which explains why every year for the past three years, I�ve left my family for three days and gone to Madison to work with teachers. It�s not for the time alone in a nice hotel (although, much as I love my family, I do find that a treat.) It�s not for politics, although it is nice working with our state Supreme Court justices on a project. It�s for the fun of working with these great teachers�and hoping to make a little bit of a difference for kids.

(Although I do regret missing the announcement that Kat had won first place in the environmental science category for the science fair project from hell but who knew? We all assumed that the senior with the fancy project had first place.)

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