The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project: A Case Study in Law and Social Justice

Authors

Maryam Ahranjani, University of New Mexico - School of LawFollow

Format

Book Chapter

Book Title

Childhood, Youth, and Social Work in Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice

Editor

Lynn M. Nybell, Jeffrey J. Shook, and Janet L. Finn

First Page

457 pages

Files

Description

Named for the late Supreme Court justices Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan, Jr., the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project has worked for eight years to mobilize talented law students to serve as mentors to junior high and high school students, learn about the importance of democracy and citizenship, and share their knowledge of the law with high school students. Besides the substantive curricular goals of the project, one of its social goals is to promote the pipeline of students of color to college, law school, and the practice of law.

To a certain extent, the project is subversive in its approach. Unlike traditional curricula covering the Constitution, which tend to be dry and straightforward, the founders of the Marshall-Brennan Project set out to inspire young people to care about the Constitution by showing them how it affects them every day in schools. The curriculum takes Supreme Court cases about public school students and asks students to read and analyze critical issues of constitutional law through their own lens.

ISBN

9780231518529

Publication Date

1-1-2009

City

New York, NY

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Disciplines

Law

Recommended Citation

Ahranjani, Maryam. "The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project: A Case Study in Law and Social Justice." Childhood, Youth, and Social Work in Transformation: Implications for Policy and Practice (2009): 457 pages. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/law_facbookdisplay/47