Article:
Every person wants to live peacefully, work peacefully and raise their children in a strong and democratic country.
The legal system of the state, legal consciousness and legal culture in a developed society guarantee the protection and safety of every citizen.
From an early age, a child must recognize himself as a free person who has rights and responsibilities. Younger schoolchildren need to be introduced to the most important legal knowledge and instill in them respect for the law. Legal culture, as a result of legal education, will allow the child to feel like a full and active citizen.
Peculiarities of perception by junior schoolchildren of the fundamentals of legal culture
Primary school age is the best time to comprehend social and moral norms and to develop positive personality traits. The life of a student in the lower grades is governed mainly by rules, not by legal norms. And children are already well acquainted with these rules. The problem is that a child of this age can objectively evaluate the actions of his classmate, but is not always able to correctly evaluate his own actions. The student must be taught to compare and analyze his behavior abstractly.
In an elementary school, the authority of the teacher is high, children are open and trusting, prone to imitation, malleable, open to new things, and this is fertile ground for mastering information and legal literacy: the ability to behave correctly in a legal situation and make the right decisions.
Legal education of junior schoolchildren is not an easy task for a teacher. Legal terms are difficult to understand, so it is important to correctly adapt the texts of legal primary sources for primary school students.
The sooner a child becomes acquainted with the legal aspects of the state, the greater the chance that he will grow up to be a worthy person who respects the rights of other people and knows his own.
What legal knowledge should primary schoolchildren receive?
Legal education of schoolchildren is not an independent discipline; it organically flows into the process of moral education of children and their acquisition of norms of behavior in society.
Information about legal culture for primary schoolchildren is presented in a playful form, easy to learn, and is based on examples from everyday life.
Primary school students should become familiar with the rights provided for by the Law on the Rights of the Child, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Students are required to respect the laws of the country and have a firm belief that they cannot be violated.
Primary school students need to know that:
- every person in our country is a citizen and lives in a state that protects him;
- every person is equal before the law and has rights (to life, education, recreation, freedom of speech, etc.);
- every person must obey the laws of the state, and this is his duty;
- if a person breaks the law, then he is responsible for it.
This knowledge will teach the student to use rights and freedoms, know the norms of behavior in society, fulfill his duties, acquire skills of interaction with different people in a variety of situations, respect others, and take care of property, his own and that of others.
Legal education of junior schoolchildren also includes the formation of patriotism. It is important that the child is proud of belonging to a certain nation, the Fatherland, his ancestors, knows the symbols of the state, the history of his native land.
Methods and forms of legal education for junior schoolchildren
As methods of instilling a legal culture, a teacher can use all types of pedagogical and psychological influence: conversation, persuasion, encouragement, suggestion, coercion, personal example (one’s own or the child’s parents).
Forms of legal education can be different: conversations, presentations, lectures, watching videos, using wall newspapers, books and magazines on law. Familiarity with legal norms can take place directly in class or during extracurricular activities.
Schoolchildren receive basic legal knowledge in social studies lessons, but elements of law can also be succinctly woven by the teacher into the outline of a history or literature lesson, music or a foreign language.
Extracurricular activities can be structured as business games, competitions, conferences, or held as court hearings (for example, a meeting dedicated to the trial of the fox and the cat who defrauded Buratino of money). The Convention on the Rights of the Child in bright pictures and poetic form is easily remembered by schoolchildren. A teacher can conduct a class hour on legal education and devote it not only and not so much to an explanation of legal norms, but to analyze with examples such concepts as “dignity”, “honesty”, “responsibility”, “decency”, “kindness” and “respect” "
Every school has a library where you can create a student’s corner of legal knowledge. This corner will contain all publications that may be useful for mastering legal norms. Librarians will conduct reviews and quizzes on legal topics. Such legal education in the library will expand children’s knowledge about human and child rights and provide information on any issues of citizenship and law that are relevant to them.
Legal education of primary schoolchildren should take place in a friendly, trusting environment and take into account the wishes and interests of children. Students, not on paper, but in reality, should feel respect from teachers and school administration. Only then will they assimilate moral and legal norms organically and consistently.
Legal education in school promotes the growth of legal awareness and reduces the level of child crime. You need to talk about law in a lively and exciting way; a dry reading of a legal text does not arouse interest and does not reach either the mind or the heart.
Young people should know the rules of behavior in public places and be able to comply with them, have a general understanding of the laws of the state, the rights and responsibilities of citizens, and responsibility for offenses. Legal education should be educational, have a preventive focus, and be delivered systematically and in doses, in accordance with age.
Legal education, continuous and consistent with the current legal system, should teach our children to adapt to modern conditions and predict the legal consequences of their actions.
