Font size:
When Sonia Masih, a secondary school history and geography teacher, was asked to begin teaching the first law class offered at her school, she was somewhat apprehensive. With no background in law and no colleagues at the school she could turn to for help, she had to start from scratch to devise a teaching strategy. […]
Read moreWhen is the last time you played? I’m not talking about playing basketball or a board game or some game on your phone. I mean really played, and let go of everything! Like when you were a kid. It seems like once we hit our teen years, we stop playing games and being silly. Games […]
As my third and possibly final summer working with OJEN in Hamilton comes to a close, I am forced to reflect upon my time with OJEN and how it has come to change my life. Interestingly, I became involved with OJEN while in grade eleven, when I participated in a mock trial run by the […]
I’ve been in this justice education game for a while now. I’ve participated in programming for thousands of students, in classrooms, courthouse and communities. While developing this wealth of experience I’ve frequently contemplated the question of whether feedback or evaluation given by justice sector volunteers (“JSVs” -lawyers, judges and justices of the peace) is appropriate […]
I used to teach sociology to university students, and one of the things that I liked best about it was the chance to get them to think about really deep connections between social institutions and the cultural values from which they develop. I have done it with secondary students too. With so many of them […]
Recently, I facilitated the culminating session of a six week, advocacy-based program with the residents of Humewood House Sheppard, a resource centre for young pregnant and parenting women. In this program, we worked towards applying some of the skills that professional advocates use, in order to challenge negative stereotypes and public perceptions of young mothers. […]
At the core of most legal issues is an unresolved conflict. Indeed, conflict is an inevitable outcome of living and working with others, and whether or not it results in legal action, it affects everyone’s life at one level or other. This is true whether one is 7 or 97 years old. Within the scope […]
Aarika Heath practices criminal law in Brampton, Ontario but her first experience in a court room took place nine years ago as a student representing Brampton Centennial Secondary School in the Peel Region Mock Trial Tournament. Although, at the time she was already passionate about law, she had never set foot inside a court room […]
The job of teacher, as we know, is not just to transmit information, but of course to develop lifelong skills, engage students’ interest and build their capacity to be responsible citizens. I maintain that the challenge for the law teacher is a little bit more difficult than in other subject areas. Students in a law […]
We can make the biggest difference by starting early, and helping people avoid scary, confusing or costly legal problems. So how do we do that? En francais ci-dessous. This corner of the internet will be devoted to sharing ideas for effective justice education, youth experiences of the justice system, and strategies for making our system […]