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How
one teaches is necessarily influenced by
what one perceives as the goals of legal
education. Certainly, the primary
goal is to prepare you to be effective
lawyers, judges and policy makers. At a
minimum, that includes helping you to
develop the ability to:
- think
critically, precisely, and
clearly;
- express
yourself succinctly;
- understand
the expressions of others;
particularly those who are
different than yourself;
- understand
human nature, particularly the
motivations and needs of your
clients, opponents, jurors,
judges, etc.; and
- use the
techniques of the legal
profession to represent a
client in general matters, to
recognize where you lack
competence, and to comply with
accepted ethical standards.
While it is
hardly arguable that preparing you to be
an effective lawyer is an important
goal, it is not the only one. Many of
you will be law makers and policy
makers, thus training you to understand
the values implicit in the law is an
important goal. Another important goal
is to train you to address in a
systematic manner your social
responsibilities as an individual lawyer
and your collective responsibilities as
a member of the bar. This includes your
responsibility to assist your community
in maintaining an accessible, effective
and socially responsible legal system.
Thus, my
objective is to help you continue the
process of meeting those goals. The
primary focus of my teaching method is
to provide you an educationally sound
introduction to role of race and racism
in the development of American
law.
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A.
Teaching Objective #1:
Educationally Sound Pedagogy
An educationally
sound legal pedagogy is a philosophy of
legal education which is grounded in
known educational theory. To be so
grounded, an educationally sound legal
pedagogy:
- trains
you to solve legal problems by
providing you with working
program for solving problems;
- provides
you with criteria for
indicating specifically what
progress you are making;
- provides
you with the opportunity to
practice each new skill
throughout the learning
process; and,
- provides
you with adequate instruction
on how to study for law school
and this course.
Thus, it is my
goal, through an educationally sound
pedagogy, to provide you with not only
an opportunity to learn but also to
excel.
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B. Teaching
Objective #2: Substantive Law Teaching
Objectives
Substantive law
teaching objectives are those objectives
that relate directly to the substantive
area of the law. They can be divided
into two categories: knowledge and
skills/abilities. The objectives of this
course are:
- to
provide you with a basic
understanding of the structure
of the legal system and how it
impacts different individuals
based on race;
- to
provide you information about
selected principles of law (or
black letter law) and
significant issues (or
unsettled matters) in race
law;
- to help
you understand the value
implications of legal choices
and race law;
- to help
you develop and improve your
analytical skills including
understanding, issue-spotting,
problem-solving, judgment and
synthesis;
- to help
you to understand the
importance of inference and
intuition in problem
definition and
problem-solving; and
- emphasize
that "personal
neutrality" is not
necessary to scholarly
objectivity.
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C. Teaching
Objectives #3: Diversity-Conscious Legal
Pedagogy
Class, disability,
gender, race and sexual preference
issues are such an integral part of our
society (and the legal profession) that
we often overlook how the law affects
individuals with different backgrounds
differently. In a diverse society, such
as ours, awareness of how different
class, disability, gender race and
sexual preference are effected
differently by the law is essential.
This is true whether the person is a
defendant, plaintiff, lawyer, juror,
judge or law student.
Diversity awareness should be a
normative part of the value system of
the practicing attorney. An education
which is aware of diversity:
- explores
how racial, ethnic, gender,
class, disability, cultural
and sexual orientation are
related to and impacted by the
structure of law. In
particular, it illuminates the
connection between racial and
gender issues and the values,
interests, rules and theories
that appear to be neutral but,
are in fact a representation
of the values of the dominant
culture.
- broadly
frames classroom discussion so
that we step outside the
doctrinal bounds of the law to
critique the rules, the legal
system and legal practice;
and,
- focuses
discussion on race problems,
interests and values that
reflect a broad range of
perspectives.
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