Mary, Your series of questions brought up issues I had not faced since I
gave up academia eight years ago. Others will undoubtedly give you good
advice on tricks they found that work for them, but your last question
really pins down the main issue. What you and other first-year legal
research instructors are required to do to is to tell these kids to "grow
up." Law is essentially a human enterprise, and the next human in power
can change it dramatically. They are struggling for fixed points when
there aren't any, not really.
Now that I am out in the "real world," I find no one pretending that
there is the assuredness of truth that we came to believe from our
professors. We learn to deal with power and live with compromise. We
learn to be civil to people whose thoughts we despise, because one never
knows who will be whose friend on the next issue.
One could take such thoughts as negative, but, if you look at it right,
you see that there is always opportunity. Perseverence and hard work
really do give one an edge as he anticipates more problems and is ready
for them better than the other side. Any C student can become another F.
Lee
Bailey (who was a C student). If it were a piece of cake, anybody could
be a lawyer. Tell them to revel in the complexity, as it is precisely
that which will keep them employed their whole life.
I remember one question I always got was: "Does it ever get any
easier. Is there a day when I don't have to work so hard?" My response
was, and still is: "No, you just get used to it."
Good luck. Charles Dyer, San Diego County Law Library, cdyer@sdcll.org.
On Tue, 20 Feb 1996, Mary Brandt Jensen wrote:
> Perhaps, this is a good time to discuss teaching styles in general. On
> the same day I'm reading evaluations, I got the mailing for this year's
> teach in. Both left me with this major question.
>
> How do you inspire students to become interested in learning to do legal
> research in the context of a large class?
>
> A similar question also relates to inspiration. In recent years, my
> lectures have taken on almost a cynical tone as I have become more and
> more disenchanted with changes made to major research publications. I've
> tried to teach my students not to have too much faith in publishers,
> indexes and secondary tools and how to get around problems with tools.
> What comes out in the evaluations though is that rather than transferring
> a healthy awareness of reality to the students is that I'm transferring a
> very unintentional discouragement. Any ideas on how to teach students to
> rely mostly on their own thinking and knowledge rather than a blind trust
> in publishers and indexers without coveying too much negative thinking?
>
> Mary Brandt Jensen University of Mississippi
> Director of the Law Library University, MS 38677
> Assistant Professor of Law mjensen@sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu
>
>
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