Individual Experiences Can Stimulate Student Interest
by
Robert Whitman

Source

The Law Teacher, Volume 1, number 2 (Spring 1994), p. 5.

About the Author

Robert Whitman is a professor of law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he has taught Trusts and Estates since 1966. This article is based on a talk Professor Whitman delivered at the Association of American Law Schools Trusts & Estates Workshop in 1992. For more information, contact him at the University of Connecticut School of Law, 65 Elizabeth Street, Hartford, CT 06105-2290, (203) 241-4670, FAX (203) 241-7666.

Law students - and professors - often complain about second- and third-year courses. Typical complaints are: Teachers do all of the talking, the material is boring, and student interest in a particular subject varies widely from "All I want is to pass the bar examination," to "I plan to practice in this area."

I confront these problems in teaching a basic Trusts and Estates course, and have found that offering individual experiences, both in and out of the classroom, can stimulate student interest and learning. Here are my suggestions:

Inside the classroom

You can encourage classroom discussions that center around personal feelings regarding trust and estate issues (e.g., Do your parents discuss their financial affairs with you? Should they? Under any circumstances, would you consider disinheriting a child?).

After the introductory class session, consider teaching each class session with three students who volunteer in advance on a rotating basis. The volunteers will know they are particularly responsible for being prepared for the class. Volunteers can join you at the front of the class, and have access to the teacher's manual. Over the course of the term, the effect is to actively engage all of the students. Another advantage is that each student picks the time that he or she is involved, and you will not have to deal with a series of students who answer "unprepared."

Using a group of volunteer teachers can also facilitate the use of problems that involve role-playing. Volunteers can be, or can choose classmates to be, a client, an attorney, a trust officer, probate judge, or a legislator. In class, you can direct the flow of discussion by presenting questions or problems, and then allowing a free-flowing discussion to take off from there. Consider setting up classes in two-hour blocks to allow ample time for lively discussion.

By using problems for class discussion, you may find that students are able to see the pressure points that actually exist in the system. For instance, if you set up a problem where there is a discretionary trust, a corporate fiduciary, and an income beneficiary who is dissatisfied with the distributions being made, through the discussion of the problem you can help students to see the whole range of issues and tensions that exist in that situation. While you can never be sure of exactly how the participating students will deal with the matter, it is safe to assume they will have a lively discussion.

Outside the classroom

You can encourage optional participation in extra learning opportunities (such as upper-class writing projects, class projects leading to law reform, and projects involving outreach to the public). Consider offering the opportunity to one or more interested students to coauthor an article with you. Help students to form interest groups to study various Uniform Probate Code proposals and make recommendations to the State Law Revision Commission, the Estates and Probate Section of the State Bar Association, the Real Property Probate & Trust Law Section of the American Bar Association, the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel, or a state legislature.

Encourage students to visit homes for the elderly and, under your supervision, help the residents to prepare simple wills, living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc.

Here are some other ideas for optional projects: