Four Law Professors Give Course To Brookline High School Teachers

Four professors from the Law School are participating in a 15-week pilot project to instruct Brookline high school teachers in American constitutional law.

The project, described as an "In-Service Seminar" on civil liberties in America, brings experts from all over the country to conduct seminars in the Brookline public schools. The project was originated by the Anti-Defamation League of Boston.

Harvard participants are Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, Charles Warren Professor of the History of American Law, Archibald Cox '34, Samuel Williston Professor of Law, Paul A. Freund, Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Law, and Lloyd Weinreb, assistant professor of Law. The University of California, Brandeis University, Yale Law School, and Boston College Law School are also providing instructors.

Howe, who will lead two seminars on freedom of religion, said the high schools are currently concerned about the lack of knowledge in constitutional law among students and teachers.

No Thought

"I don't believe that most high school teachers have thought about civil liberties very carefully," Howe said, adding that such thought is now limited to "saluting the flag and learning about the division of power."

Robert Sperber, superintendent of schools in Brookline, sees the primary goal of the seminars as "bringing our faculty up to date on recent court decisions regarding civil liberties, and acquainting teachers with the controversies and problems resulting from these decisions."

Sperber noted that the In-Service Seminar is the first large scale project in the country to employ university resources for the teaching of American Constitutional Law. It is hoped, he says, that the project, will be part of a "new trend of cooperation between American universities and public secondary schools."