CELL Blog | Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

Welcome to the first blog entry I’ve ever written.

One of my teaching habits when preparing for class is to try to view topics from my students’ perspectives- or at least what I think their perspectives are likely to be. My own experiences as a law student have been helpful, though increasingly too far back in the rear view mirror to be of much use.

For example, one semester a few years ago my law school faced a sudden and unexpected shortage of Civil Procedure instructors. I agreed to teach the course, the only time I’ve ever taught Civil Procedure or any first year course for that matter. As it happened, my class met on Monday mornings and thus would be the first law school class my students took.

As I thought about what to do, I remembered my own ill-informed reaction when I was a 1L. It ran along the lines of “This course is dull and unimportant. Who cares about these picky procedural details, give me real rules to think about.” Perhaps unfairly projecting this prejudice onto my students, I decided that I could get the course off to a great start by taking advantage of this mind-set.

So after a very brief hello, I adopted a grave visage and told my class that the Admissions Office had badly over-enrolled the entering class. As a result, three students from my Civil Procedure course would be among those 1L’s who would be terminated but allowed to enroll in next year’s entering class. I announced that after observing the students for a week, I would notify the three students who I had selected for dismissal and that my decision was final. Finally, I told them that I would give them a couple of minutes to write down anonymously any complaints they had about my plan, and I would pass them along to the Dean.

I could sense a bit of unease, to put it mildly. However, I said nothing, and after a few minutes announced that I wouldn’t collect their papers, but would instead call on them to tell me at once, in class, of any complaints they had.

As the students responded, I wrote their reactions on the blackboard in one of two columns. Though they didn’t realize it at the time, one column consisted of “substantive” complaints. This was a short column, consisting of variants of “it’s just not fair.” The second column was quite lengthy, and of course consisted of “procedural” objections: “It’s too late to dismiss anyone now.” “You shouldn’t have the power to decide all by yourself.” “Anyone who’s dismissed should have a chance to talk to the Dean.”

Finally I revealed what I was up to. We as a society care not only about what decisions are made, but also very deeply about the process by which they are made, and that this course is about how decisions are made in our formal system of justice.

I deemed the experiment a success. It made the point and I know I got their attention- many of the students reminded me about the exercise three years later, at graduation.