#1 On My Bucket List: Law as a High School History Class

Partially because I need a proof of concept, before I could fulfill my #2 bucket list item: To Require Candidates for Public Office To Take And Pass A Test In Laws Which Regulate Their Behavior And Our Governance... I’d like to develop a History/Philosophy course for US High Schools in Law.

A mix of the history and function of laws: Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Property Law, Criminal Law, Corporate Law, & Ethics would be so much more interesting and useful than the names and dates of Secondary School’s history courses warmed over. Imagine how the courts might be less congested if people actually knew the law!

A history course in our laws would empower us to think more critically. It would better prepare us for understanding the issues, and provide us with the ability to reason, instead of attaching overly-broad labels that rely too much on identity politics to frame our political choices. Citizens would actually understand what was allowed and what wasn’t. (What a concept, huh?)

It would probably set the stage for more of us to get along better.. even if we were to disagree on certain issues.

The added perspective would also help us to moderate the pendulum’s swing... when change did occur, as we’d be more precise in what needs to change, as opposed to relying on wholesale labels which are more prone to attack broad categories and perhaps allow "the baby to be thrown out with the bathwater."

The concepts and the history behind how laws changed would be far more interesting and useful, than remembering names and dates.

A famous jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, once said: “A page of history is worth a pound of logic. So, let’s make some history while we make what’s taught in High School History more relevant, more creatively thought-provoking, and more interesting.

-Michael Arlen #MikeDrop