Statewide LRE Conference A statewide conference on Law Related Education and Civics will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13 in Springfield on the campus of the University of Illinois- Springfield. The conference designed to provide those attending with knowledge of a variety of law related education teaching strategies. The primary audience is students in the colleges of education but current teachers and others who work with youth in a variety of settings will benefit by attending. The conference is being developed by the Center for Legal Studies and the Teacher Education Program at the University of Illinois-Springfield with support from the Illinois State Bar Association Law Related Education Committee and Project LEARN. The conference will begin on Friday April 12 at 12:30. and finish by about 3 pm on Saturday. After a welcoming session and a session that introduces participants to the many aspects of law related and civics education the rest of the afternoon and early evening will be devoted to conflict resolution strategies. The conflict resolution session will be conducted by Topper Steinman and Vernessa Gipson of the National Center for Conflict Resolution in Education. Saturday will begin with a presentation by Dr. Phillip Paludan, a Lincoln historian, who will discuss Lincoln's life in relation to elementary and secondary teaching. Ten different workshops will be offered during the rest of the day allowing participants the opportunity to attend two different sessions. The workshops include, Lincoln in the Classroom, Local History, Cultural Diversity, Mock Trials, Infusing Civics Material into the Curriculum, Elementary Plays, Creating Historical Characters, and separate workshops on using We the People, Street Law, and Constitutional Rights Foundation instructional materials. Workshop presenters will be encouraged to set up display tables to allow those participants who are unable to attend the workshop to become familiar with the workshop materials. There will also be a luncheon presentation on School Law and Policy. The registration fee for the conference is $25 for both days or $20 dollars for one day. A pizza dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday is included with the registration. A nearby hotel has rooms available at a conference rate. For registration and other information on the conference, e-mail Peggy Dunn at mdunn@uis.edu or telephone the Center for Legal Studies at 217/206-6343. For additional information, visit http://cles.uis.edu/Civic%20Conference/   ABA OPENS NEW CONSUMER WEB PORTAL The American Bar Association's Division for Public Education has opened a consumer law web portal at www.ABALawInfo.org that can provide answers to a broad range of questions consumers may have from financing a new home to providing medical assistance to elderly parents. ABALawInfo.org's range of categories includes family, finances, home, job, criminal justice, courts, and more. This is an ongoing project of the Division for Public Education and will be updated and expanded periodically. INTERNET NEWS YOU CAN USE: LESSONS ON CHARACTER AND VALUES The U.S. Department of Education, in their October 2001 edition of "Community Update," lists three resources that provide information on character and values education. The Charter Education Partnership provides "11 Principles of Effective Character Education" at www.character.org The National Character Education Center offers information at www.ethicsusa.com And the Center for Civic Education encourages students to understand their rights and responsibilities at www.civiced.org. For an "all-in-one education web guide" try visting www.educationplanet.com. It has links to lesson plans, books, maps and much more.   NEW ABA PROJECT CALLS ON LAWYERS TO TEACH CHILDREN ABOUT DIVERSITY AND DEMOCRACY Since September 11, many children in the United States have witnessed events that even most adults do not understand. They have seen Americans attacked for the freedoms they enjoy. They also have seen Americans lash out at people who look different or share different beliefs. Now more than ever it is critical that children understand and appreciate the values that make America unique. The American Bar Association is calling on lawyers to support democracy in these difficult times by helping promote respect for diversity among America's youngest citizens. The "Tolerance Through Education" initiative, created by the ABA Young Lawyers Division, sends lawyers into the classroom to help children learn to embrace diversity and tolerance. "Our goal is that this program will help children learn to understand and respect others of diverse backgrounds," said Laura Farber, chair of the ABA Young Lawyers Division. "This helps them gain a fuller understanding and appreciation for the American form of government and for democracy around the world." The "Tolerance Through Education" initiative will be launched in a series of three programs for students. The first program, "Welcome to School: Helping Kids Belong," is a written curriculum designed to help lawyers engage third graders in conversations and activities about respect and belonging. An 18-minute video featuring children demonstrating these values and a CD of "The Child in Me," a song written for the program, are included with the curriculum. Third graders were selected for this program because, according to psychologists, this is when children begin to develop the norms that affect the formation of their lifelong values and beliefs, and when they begin to bully and tease classmates who look or act differently. The ABA Young Lawyers Division created the program with the help of the California Hate Crimes Task Force, a group of educators, law enforcement officials and criminal and civil lawyers who provide schools with training on handling hate incidents, and the Alameda County Office of Education. Third graders from the Chula Vista School District in San Diego participated in and provided input for the video. The program is non-state specific. The second program, "Playing Together for Peace," consists of role-playing and group discussions designed for lawyers to teach elementary school students how to resolve conflicts peacefully. The goal is to help children be more accepting of differences based on race, gender, economic status, religion and sexual orientation. The program will be launched at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Philadelphia in February. In the third program lawyers will engage in outreach to junior and senior high school students to discuss hate crimes - what they are, how to prevent them and their consequences. Lawyers also will teach students about the legal issues related to hate crimes. This program will be launched at the ABA Young Lawyers Division Spring Conference in Denver, May 16-18. Lawyers interested in implementing "Welcome to School: Helping Kids Belong" in their community's schools can contact Bernadette Norris-Weeks at 954/768-9770 or bnorris199@aol.com, or Ann Fiegen at afiegen@staff.abanet.org. For more information visit http://www.abanet.org/yld. The American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division is the ABA's largest entity, composed of approximately 130,000 members. The mission of the Young Lawyers Division, as the national organization of young lawyers, is to provide leadership in serving the public and the profession, and to promote excellence and fulfillment in the practice of law. The American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership association in the world. With more than 400,000 members, the ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law and a wide range of services to help lawyers and judges in their work. Media contact: Beth Akins, ABA Division for Media Relations and Communication Services, 312/988-6142 or akinsb@staff.abanet.org