More than just child's play: Enhancing the class experience through role‐playing in children's law

Abstract

Issues impacting children, families, and communities involve an array of weighty interests rooted in a variety of consequential historical, legal, and political precedents. For more than 30 years, students in the course Child Rights and Remedies have explored these precedents while honing their critical thinking and advocacy skills through role play. Students are each assigned a role for the duration of the semester—a child advocate/child's attorney, a parent advocate/parent's attorney, a state attorney, among others—from which to analyze cases relevant to children. Students are asked to identify the strongest legal and policy arguments supporting the position of someone in their assigned role and to prepare to raise and defend the position in class. A recent innovation—developed as a result of mandated virtual instruction— expands student exploration of child- and family-related topics through contribution to a current events blog. This article will briefly discuss the benefit of role play in legal education followed by detailed guidance on using the approach to explore four key child rights cases. The article also includes the blog assignment description as well as example blog entries and responses.