By Jennifer Bloom and Sally Revak

In this lesson from the LegalWays curriculum, students are encouraged to think about the rights and responsibilities of parenting. The responsibility to keep children safe is emphasized.  Lesson includes a short student reading with guiding questions. The “What do you think?” activity requires that the students understand the rights and responsibilities that they would have as teen parents toward their children and the rights and responsibilities that their parents have over them.  “Your Turn” asks students to brainstorm conflicts between parents and children and then craft solutions that would be acceptable to both sides.  “Your Turn” could also be used in mediation simulation. Although the lesson reflects Minnesota law, adaptions could be easily made.

Objectives

• Students will understand the function of the people involved in the juvenile protection area.
• Students will become familiar with the laws of abuse and neglect.
• Students will learn about the legal rights and responsibilities of parents and children.

Time to Complete

One class period

Materials Needed

• LegalWays Curriculum Overview ^[1]
• Juvenile Protection Teaching Guide ^[2]
• Student Handout Parenting ^[3]

Procedure

See Juvenile Protection Teaching Guide