Academic

The dangerous supplement

By Gordon Smith, Christine, Hurt, Vic Fleischer, Fred Tung, Lisa Fairfax, David Zaring

Teaching Corporations was a bit frustrating on Tuesday.

I want my class to internalize the importance of a statute: in practice I remember turning to the D.G.C.L. at least twice a day, but I never really got the importance of the code as a student. The bookstore was late ordering the statutory supplement, but it had finally come in and on Friday I'd told my students that they'd need it for the next assignment. My grand plan for Tuesday's class was for them to flip through code provisions, get confused, and ultimately figure out for themselves how the statutory jigsaw puzzle fit together. Learning by doing, and getting down and dirty with a statute: what better use of class time, right?

Except that it dawned on me 10 minutes into class that most of the 91 students didn't have their statutory supplements with them. I shifted gears eventually into using the document camera to display the code on a projection screen up front, but felt like whole exercise was diluted. I was the one flipping pages, not the students.

Next time I'll tell the class more clearly that they'll need to bring their supplements to class. And I suppose it was a teachable moment for the ones that didn't: you'll need this or you'll be lost.

My father says class is always a bit off the day after a long weekend. Sigh.

Full post as published by Conglomerate on September 04, 2008 (boomark / email).