ABA MARRIAGE/DIVORCE EDUCATION PROJECT NEEDS VOLUNTEERS

The American Bar Association Family Law Section's divorce prevention project aimed at high school students is now setting up its operation in high schools nationwide. Called "Partners: Developing Healthy Peer Relationships," it has achieved enormously expanded distribution by a satellite-T.V. linkup. Broadcasts start October 4.

The Family Law Section's program has four basic elements. The fourth, called "Partners: Developing Healthy Peer Relationships" is a variation on the ubiquitous "Family Life Education" courses with their mock weddings, actual-weight simulated babies, etc. However, it goes on into the more painful areas such as abuse and divorce. (While education in rational partner-selection was considered too controversial by the public schools, the subject of marriage as an abusive environment was not.) The children see live presentations by a professional counselor, and by incoming Family Law Section Chairman Lynn Gold-Bikin. These experts take questions via interactive cable T.V., and present video vignettes. The final drama has the wife in a lawyer's office, where she is advised "So you want a divorce -- well you have to have grounds for a divorce."

At that point all T.V. ends and the children in their schools must find out such things as what the grounds of divorce in their state are, where the court house is, what are some of the painful realities they must face if they take this route, etc. This is where local volunteers come in. It is contemplated that divorce lawyers from the local community will serve as project advisors and appear as guest speakers to tell the high school students just exactly what divorce is and is not.

[Information below about the role of Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications may be obsolete]

Numerous opportunities for these guest-speaker experiences exist throughout Virginia. It costs a school district with KU-band satellite capability $400.00 to sign up with Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET) for this program from the teaching-by-television system. However, it appears that numerous schools from Accomack to Big Stone Gap are already subscribers to this network. They include such urban and suburban places as Fairfax, Annandale, Waynesboro, Manassas, Dumfries, Virginia Beach, Lynchburg, and a huge number of small towns and rural counties in remoter areas of the state. Subscribing school districts get 1,000 hours of programming with their yearly subscription, and all they have to do is choose which programs they will expose their captive audiences to. In order to bring the ABA project to one's locality, all a divorce lawyer has to do is the following:

1. Sign up with the ABA Project;
2. Contact the local school district and persuade them to
A. Subscribe to MCET (tel. 617-621-0290), or
B. If they are already subscribers, choose the ABA "Partners" program for their students; and
3. Volunteer to be the guest speaker from the local bar.
The volunteer from the local bar will be more than a guest speaker: you will be an advisor to the school for the entire course. The divorce-related sessions will cover grounds, support, custody, abuse, and marriage generally.

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Or to see ABA's page on its "PARTNERS" Divorce-Prevention Program