The conception and need of legal education at schools: attitude of 10-12 grade students

In this article legal education is presented as the process of acquaintance with legal knowledge and practical skills that leads to legal culture, legal consciousness and practical legal behavior of a person. In Lithuania, two national programs in the periods of 2004-2008 and 2009-2012, with regard to legal education of society, are initiated, carried out and critically overviewed in the article. The aim of the research presented in the article is to present 10-12 grade student conceptions on legal education—their understanding of the phenomena of legal education, their experience and ideas in regard to implementation and importance of legal education at school. 328 students from various types of schools in the area of Vilnius participated in the research in 2011. Research results show that students understand the value of legal education and link it to legal knowledge and development of legal consciousness. Improvement of legal education at schools is linked by students to the wide spreading of practical study methods—seminars, projects, contests. At present, the most effective parts of legal education at schools are those being carried out in lessons of civic education and history. Students think that legal knowledge and skills are important and necessary to defend their rights, dealing community issues and for participation in political and civic actions. The topics of human responsibilities, human rights and freedoms are understood by respondents as the most important topics in legal education. The legal knowledge that students feel a shortage of is in international law, labor law, consumer law. Various topics of legal education are much more important for girls as compared to boys (p