The law studies movement: A memoir

Abstract

How does a curricular development or innovation come into being? What are the circumstances which nourish an idea into an established program? Who are the individuals directing this new current of thought? My reflections on these questions evoke a train of thought-a playback of the tapes of memory-of persons and events as I knew them. What follows I can describe best as a memoir. Although colored by personal involvement and perceptions, this account of the beginnings and growth of the law studies movement may contribute usefully to understanding the jig-saw puzzle of curricular change. For me, it began in the 1930s. I taught social studies in the daytime to raise funds for law school tuition. My ambition was to become a lawyer, and I can still recall reeling out of my civics classes and rushing to the intellectual challenge of evening law school. Inevitably during my three years at law school, I included constitutional law, criminal law, torts and contracts in my social studies classes because I found law omnipresent in the curriculum. What amazed me at the time was the effect of law-related discussions on the interest and quality of student thinking. In time, I began to find the uses of law in social studies an important means of breaking through superficial textbook commentary to case study confrontations of value conflicts, the nature of decision making, and the quest for a hierarchy of values in our society. Although admitted to the Bar, I remained an educator-a decision I have never regretted. The law, however, continued to remain a major interest and the uses of law in social studies education intrigues me. from 1951 to 1963 I wrote a series of articles entitled Recent Supreme Court Decisions forSocial Education with the objective of encouraging teachers to use case studies dealing with controversial public issues. Apparently these articles struck responsive chords among educators and publishers and, before long, I was an author and adviser for the film series, Our Living Bill Of Rights.1