"Forget Socrates" is the title of this story today by Adam Liptak in a special Education Supplement to the NY Times about Concord Law School. Some quotes:
The school has no buildings or library, and its 1,600 students listen to lectures, attend discussion groups, have ''teas'' with the dean, hang out in the student lounge, take exams and submit essays entirely online. After four years of this, they are eligible to take the bar examination in California. * * *The article reports that Concord teaches "black letter law" while "professors at elite schools are less apt to take existing law at face value. They question the policies behind legal doctrines and tease out inconsistencies in judges' decisions. Professor Berman-Barrett was intent, instead, on drilling key concepts into her students, by repetition and encouragement. Her class was reminiscent of the bar review course that she sometimes teaches." More from later in the article:[Concord] does not use the Socratic method of calling on students at random to recite the facts and reasoning of cases under discussion. Many students find the method terrifying. ''Quite frankly,'' said Jack R. Goetz, Concord's dean, ''the Socratic method as typically employed in American law school is probably not the best way to educate people. We have a more nurturing atmosphere.'' * * *
Though both conventional and correspondence law schools now offer virtual classes, Concord says it believes that it remains the only fully online law school in the United States. Founded in 1998, it is among the largest law schools in the country. Thirty-three students entered its first class. The numbers have grown each year, and 916 students started last year.
The profession and other law schools appear threatened by the whole concept, and the American Bar Association has declined to consider an online law school for accreditation, which would be necessary for its students to take the bar in any state except California. But California, which has long allowed correspondence school graduates to take its exam, has reciprocity agreements that would let its lawyers practice in some other states.
John A. Sebert, a bar association official, says it has no plans to accredit a completely virtual law school, though it has recently allowed traditional law schools to offer limited online courses. ''We're training professionals who deal with people as problem solvers who need skills of negotiation, counseling and advocacy,'' he said. ''Most of us find it difficult to believe that that kind of training can be done solely in an online atmosphere.''
THE bar association's motives may not be entirely pure. The legal profession has long acted as a guild, restricting competition in the name of maintaining standards.
''The bar is a carefully protected monopoly,'' said Robert E. Oliphant, a professor at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. ''You bring in something like Concord and accredit it and you threaten a lot of other law schools that are marginal.''
Deborah L. Rhode, a law professor at Stanford who writes on the legal profession, believes that Concord may serve an important role.Here is the Concord Law School web site.''For many routine services where unmet needs are greatest, three years of on-site education is neither necessary nor sufficient to provide competent training,'' Professor Rhode said. ''Most law schools do not provide the detailed expertise and specialized training in form preparation and procedural rules that is necessary in areas like uncontested divorces, immigration, bankruptcy and routine real estate matters.''
''Online distance education,'' she added, ''may be a more cost-effective way to provide certain basic training, and could make legal careers accessible to those of limited means who are now priced out of legal education or forced to incur crippling debt burdens.''
This NY Times Education Section also contains several other interesting articles, including The Digital Doctorate and The B-School Hierarchy.
Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 25, 2004 07:59 AM