Full Report - the Missouri Bar

Education in recognition of The Missouri Bar’s longtime
executive director who retired at the end of 2012.
With monies from the Foundation, The Missouri Bar
sponsored its annual summer institute. Thirty-five teachers
came to the Columbia College campus from July 16-19 for
The Courts — What You and Your Students Need to Know
(Federal and Missouri Courts). Scholars were Dr. Fred
Spiegel, Dr. Rick Hardy and former Missouri Supreme
Court Judge Michael Wolff. There also were pedagogical
sessions on how to teach about these topics, and the
institute ended with mock congressional hearings at the
Supreme Court of Missouri.
The 2013 summer institute, devoted to exploring the
powers of the presidency, will take place June 24-29 and
include: Greg Willard, a St. Louis attorney who is the
former attorney for President Gerald Ford and teaches a
course on presidential power at Saint Louis University
School of Law; and Mark Updegrove, director of the Lyndon
Baines Johnson Presidential Library and an acclaimed
author who has interviewed five U.S. presidents and four
First Ladies.
In addition, due to the large number of teachers who
have both We the People and Project Citizen materials
– programs previously made available by the Center
for Civic Education – The Missouri Bar will continue
to support these programs with help from the Missouri
Bar Foundation and The Missouri Bar Young Lawyers’
Section. Teachers and students throughout the state
continue to use the materials, and several regional events
showcase the students’ knowledge.
The We the People statewide constitutional hearings
were held on January 23, 2012 in Jefferson City. Joplin
High School won the state competition and represented
Missouri at the national constitutional hearings, which
were held in May. Due to financial support from the Young
Lawyers’ Section, a statewide hearing will take place on
January 28, 2013 at the State Capitol in Jefferson City.
Missouri lawyers and judges comprise a substantial portion
of the judging panels for these hearings.
The Missouri Bar Citizenship Education Program also
continues to provide regional workshops for American
Government teachers on how to prepare their students
for Missouri’s required end-of-course test in government.
Several regional workshops are scheduled for 2013.
Teachers who use The Missouri Bar’s materials report
a significant difference in test scores. The Missouri Bar
website also has extensive online resources for teachers to
use end-of-course preparation.
On September 17, The Missouri Bar hosted its sixth
annual Constitution Day program. The program was
broadcast from the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in
St. Louis. The program was on Free Speech and Political
Campaigns and featured panelists:
• Diana Bartelli Carlin, Ph.D., vice-president of
Graduate Education, St. Louis University and the
creator of Debate Watch.
• Governor Bob Holden, who served as both Missouri
State Treasurer and the Governor of Missouri.
• Jack Oliver, a lawyer and former deputy chairman
of the Republican National Committee.
The bar’s partner for this program is HEC-TV in St.
Louis. More than 10,000 students in Missouri and other
states participated. Last year, the 2011 program on the
powers of the presidency was presented with a Telly
Award, an honor bestowed for excellence in public programming.
For many years, The Missouri Bar Citizenship Education
program has also partnered with the Missouri Press
Association’s Newspapers in Education program. In 2012,
The Missouri Bar’s contribution was a series of articles on
elections, including the Electoral College and re-districting.
The series has won national recognition.
In 2012, The Missouri Bar Citizenship Education Program
was awarded an American Bar Association grant to
present a program on Civility and Free Expression. With
additional funds from the Missouri Bar Foundation, The
Missouri Bar will use the monies for a two-day conference
entitled Civil Discourse in the Digital Age. Thirty-five
teachers will be invited to this one-time event, to be held at
Columbia College. The Missouri Bar is tying this grant to
the Civil War in Missouri. By linking the conference to the
Civil War, teachers will gain greater understanding as to
what can happen when civil discourse totally breaks down.
The Missouri Bar sponsored its fifth controversial issues
workshop November 28-29 in Columbia. Thirty-two teachers
learned how to incorporate controversial issues into
their curriculum and how to teach their students to discuss
controversial issues in a civil manner. The Constitutional
Rights Foundation conducted the workshop, which was
funded by monies from the Missouri Bar Foundation.
Meanwhile, The Missouri Bar and the Missouri Department
of Elementary and Secondary Education continue
to co-sponsor a recognition banquet for 15 Outstanding
Missouri Citizens chosen from among all Missouri high
school seniors. Members of the Advisory Committee on
Citizenship Education – the committee that oversees the
state bar’s citizenship education program – assisted with
the selection of the students who were recognized. The
recognition banquet is held in March at the Governor’s
Mansion in Jefferson City.
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