Corporate & Securities Law

What my kids and I have in common

I like to tease my children about wanting to watch the same movies and read the same books over and over again. (Maybe I am the devil leftist bloggers and pundits make me out to be!) I know nothing about the brain development of kids, but there must be something attractive about the familiar and about the ability to predict how things will be. This might help them gain confidence and learn in greater depth things beyond the story, like the concepts of plot, protagonist, conflict resolution, and so on. I’m sure there is a rich literature on this, but that doesn’t stop me from joking with them about the ruts they get in.

This occurred to me today when I walked into the Law School and realized it was the first day for the Class of 2013. One of the great joys of academia is the seasonality of it. The pattern repeats itself every year, like endless screenings of Ponyo, an excellent movie, by the way. I thought when I started as an academic that I might get bored after teaching the same things in the same classrooms to similar groups of 2o-something law students year after year, but I haven’t yet. There is something invigorating about new students of the law coming to us, about taking them through the year, and then welcoming new students next year. Just as multiple viewings of a movie allow you to see metaphors you missed the first time, to make connections with other art or aspects of life, and to see hidden references or subtleties that reveal the filmmaker’s craft, so to does repeated teaching open whole new worlds (to quote the movie my kids were watching this morning) in the craft of teaching and the material. I’m grateful every day for the opportunity to work at such a great institution and doing something that I think is truly valuable. Even if it is like watching the same movie over and over again.

Welcome to the Class of 2013! I wish you all luck in your life in the law.

Full post as published by Truth on the Market on September 20, 2010 (boomark / email).