Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1996

Abstract

Law teaching is hard work. To my trial lawyer friends who expressed envy at the easy life I must be enjoying, I often said they should imagine having to prepare and present five or six oral arguments a week, every week, for months on end. To the novice teacher presenting several courses for the first time, the task often feels just that daunting. As practicing lawyers, we flatter ourselves that we are "experts" in our fields, and thus that it would be a simple matter to step over to the local law school and, with minimal preparation, unburden ourselves of our accumulated wisdom to eager pupils. In truth. the legal knowledge most of us gather in a life of practice is rather like a watery stew - uneven, containing (depending on our talent and diligence) varying numbers of meaty, nutritious nuggets, but overall rather thin, jumbled, and formless. What I found on sitting down to teach others about my own practice area is that I knew a great deal about some things, very little about others, and that I had never before tried to figure out how it all fit together. I came away from my year as a law professor with a heightened respect for the difficulty of the job, a respect that extends not merely to new teachers who must master and lend coherence to masses of legal material for the first time, but even more particularly to experienced teachers who bring excitement and a sense of discovery to courses they have taught for years.

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