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DearProfessorMoglenAnOpenLetter 29 - 10 Apr 2010 - Main.DevinMcDougall
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| | Dear Professor Moglen,
I am writing this letter because I think you provide a vital voice to the Columbia Law School community, and because the time you devote to students in office hours and the work you do on the wiki is more than commendable and should be more common. However, though you are one of the most engaging and dedicated professors I have encountered at CLS thus far, its not all just peachy. | | | | |
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> | I think a useful frame for understanding Eben’s pedagogy is hacking. No, I don’t mean with a machete, or even necessarily just computer stuff. I mean it in the broadest sense, of solving problems by manipulating systems to produce unexpected results.
In his teaching, Eben performs a counternarrative to the dominant narrative Jessica and others discuss above. I think part of what some have reacted to negatively is this: Eben’s “tough love” radical counternarrative ironically can sometimes feel similar to the traditional narrative of law school: pointed criticism from a charismatic, impeccably credentialed sage on the stage. I don’t think Eben is going for that effect, but the parallels and the social valence remain nonetheless.
I think the hacking part is that Eben is trying to get more out of this system than it gets out of him - to get more good and justice out of a law school classroom than it does harm. But it’s a high-energy system, and complicated, and as Eben likes to say, it runs hot, not sweet.
I think that perhaps more clarity as to what is going on would be helpful at the outset of the course. For example, Eben warns that he may seem irascible when he elects to “edit” a classroom conversation. It might be helpful to explain the whys and wherefores of this and other similar pedagogical choices a little bit more at the start of the course. On the other hand, this may lessen the “shock and awe” effect that is perhaps needed to stimulate rethinking of deeply held commitments.
Or maybe it would lead to more participatory hacking. In addition to the “A Word about Grades” page, there could be “A Word about Pedagogy/Learning,” which could basically be a refactoring of this discussion - or maybe just the Arlo Guthrie quote. In addition to classroom style, actually, it might also usefully include some of Eben's comments about reading and training memory, which have prompted me to rethink my own approach to learning.
Let me be the first to note that I haven’t even been through this course once, while Eben has been hacking on it for a while now. However, I would feel remiss not to participate in such an interesting discussion. So I offer these preliminary thoughts, in case they are of use in improving what has been, admittedly, my favorite law school course so far.
-- DevinMcDougall - 10 Apr 2010 | | | |
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