Winter 1998.book : Garrett.fm Page 199 Monday, January 26, 1998 1:19 AM Reviews Becoming Lawyers The Role of the Socratic Method in Modern Law Schools Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, s Jane Balin Becoming Gentlemen: Women, Law School, s Institutional Change Beacon Press 1997 Elizabeth Garrett t should be one of the functions of a clusions not only contrast sharply with my teacher to open vistas before his pupils, own perceptions of the legal academy, but they showing them the possibility of activities also diÖer from the reactions of my students – “I 1 that will be as delightful as they are useful.” male and female – who have participated with These words by Bertrand Russell capture me in Socratic dialogues. The recent publica- what I valued as a student and what I aspire to tion of Professor Guinier’s book Becoming Gen- do as a law professor. I thus Õnd Lani Guinier’s tlemen: Women, Law School, and Institutional study of the experience of women at the Uni- Change, parts of which she wrote with Michelle versity of Pennsylvania Law School pro- Fine and Jane Balin, presents an opportunity foundly disturbing. She and her co-authors to revisit the criticisms she levels against tradi- found “many women are alienated by the way tional legal pedagogy and to assess whether we the Socratic Method is used in large classroom can use some aspects of her work to improve instruction” and that “[e]ven those women the process through which students become who do well academically report a higher de- lawyers. gree of alienation from the law school than Nearly half of the book is a previously pub- their male counterparts” [page 28]. These con- lished study conducted by Guinier, Fine and Professor Garrett is an Assistant Professor of Law at The University of Chicago. She appreciates the helpful comments of Richard Badger, Scott Brewer, Emily Buss, Ellen Cosgrove, Barry Friedman, Jack Goldsmith, David Gossett, Dennis Hutchinson, Tracey Meares, Bernard Meltzer, Martha Nussbaum, Geoffrey Stone, David Strauss, and Cass Sunstein, as well as the Õne research assistance of Donald Bly. 1 Bertrand Russell, The Functions of a Teacher, in Gentlemen, Scholars and Scoundrels 522, 528 (Horace Knowles ed., 1959). 199 Winter 1998.book : Garrett.fm Page 200 Monday, January 26, 1998 1:19 AM Elizabeth Garrett Balin of the experience of women at the Uni- that it is not inherently alienating or abusive, versity of Pennsylvania Law School in the my discussion of legal pedagogy here is more early 1990s.2 In addition, Professor Guinier limited than my practice in the classroom. provides an introductory chapter that draws First, I oÖer a vision of the Socratic Method broader conclusions about institutional re- diÖerent from Guinier’s, and argue that this form; she includes a short essay about her role teaching method has a central role to play in as a mentor;3 and she concludes with a brief modern legal education. Second, I discuss afterword linking the preceding chapters to some of Guinier’s Õndings concerning the ex- her controversial and short-lived nomination perience of women in the Socratic classroom, to serve as Assistant Attorney General for an experience that she and her co-authors Civil Rights. In this short review I will not at- claim diÖers in a systematic way from the expe- tempt to discuss all the ideas and arguments rience of male students. Finally, I turn brieÔy to that Professor Guinier provides; rather, I will Professor Guinier’s recommendation that law focus on her analysis of legal pedagogy, most schools oÖer students a variety of teaching particularly her indictment of the Socratic methods and calibrate classroom experiences Method. My emphasis underscores the nature with the skills that lawyers use, whether they of our disagreement, but our important areas are litigators, transactional lawyers, in-house of agreement should not be overlooked. We counsel, legislative aides, or law professors. both believe that the law school experience should help all students, men and women and N students of diverse backgrounds, become law- yers; we diÖer in our assessment of the value of At one point Professor Guinier states that law the Socratic Method, properly used, in that schools establish “the harshest and most ad- endeavor. versarial version of the Socratic Method as the My discussion of the Socratic Method benchmark for success” and relates that one should not be understood as an argument that commentator has described “the stereotypical it is the only legitimate teaching method in a Socratic approach at its worst as learning how law school; on the contrary, I believe profes- to ask rude questions” [page 13]. Her phrasing sors should adjust their teaching techniques to in this passage suggests that there is a kind of Õt their abilities, the nature of the material, Socratic Method other than the harsh stereo- time constraints, and other factors. But many type, but much of her discussion centers of Guinier’s criticisms of legal pedagogy are di- around this caricature. She does not provide a rected at the Socratic Method, so, as a profes- deÕnition of the Socratic Method, except in a sor who believes strongly that the Method is a footnote where she does not suÓciently dis- vital tool to help students become lawyers and tinguish it from the case method of teaching4 2 Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, Jane Balin, Ann Bartow & Deborah Lee Stachel, Becoming Gentlemen: Women’s Experiences at One Ivy League Law School, 143 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1 (1994). 3 This essay was previously published as Lani Guinier, Of Gentlemen and Role Models, 6 Berkeley Women’s L.J. 93 (1991). 4 These are two diÖerent teaching methods; one can study cases through the Socratic Method or through a traditional lecture format. I use the Socratic Method in my introductory tax class, but I teach the concepts primarily through a series of problems rather than judicial opinions. See also Philip E. Areeda, The Socratic Method (SM) (Lecture at Puget Sound, 1/31/90), 109 Harv. L. Rev. 911, 911 (1996) (noting that the Socratic Method is not the case method, but stating that they are “well suited to each other”). 200 1 Green Bag 2d 199 Winter 1998.book : Garrett.fm Page 201 Monday, January 26, 1998 1:19 AM Becoming Lawyers and where she again talks about “its most ex- serves several times in her book [e.g., pages 4, treme form” [page 110, n.10]. In fact, the mod- 6, 15], lawyers are, Õrst and foremost, problem ern Socratic Method diÖers dramatically from solvers, and the primary task of law school is the stereotype; as Professor Areeda observed, to equip our students with the tools they need “The relentless questioner who never utters a to solve problems. The law will change over declarative sentence is extinct.”5 Moreover, the course of their lifetimes, and the problems most of Guinier’s descriptions of Socratic they confront will vary tremendously. Law classrooms strike me as descriptions of bad professors cannot provide students with cer- teaching. For example, she relates stories of tain answers, but we can help them develop professors who appear not to value critical reasoning skills that they can apply, regardless thinking [page 35] or appear to reward people of the legal question. who “think fast but not always those who Professors could lecture students about le- think deeply” [page 2]. To assess whether Pro- gal reasoning, but those who use the Socratic fessor Guinier’s critique of the Socratic Method prefer to rely as much as possible on Method is warranted, we must Õrst under- active learning. Just as a professor who imme- stand the Method as it is actually practiced in diately answers her students’ questions loses modern law schools and analyze the reasons an opportunity to help them discover the an- professors use this teaching style to train law- swers on their own, the professor who dis- yers. We can then identify more accurately penses legal principles in classroom soliloquies both the beneÕts it provides to all students, as will reduce students’ opportunities to engage well as the dangers it may present. in independent critical thinking that could A professor who relies on the Socratic lead them to a deeper understanding of the Method today uses participatory learning and material. In addition, Socratic discourse re- discussions with a few students on whom she quires participants to articulate, develop and calls (in some classrooms, randomly) to ex- defend positions that may at Õrst be imper- plore very diÓcult legal concepts and princi- fectly deÕned intuitions. As Martha Nuss- ples. The Socratic Method should not be a baum writes in a related context, such critical destructive tournament where gladiators of examination means “accept[ing] no belief as unequal power and experience vie to the authoritative simply because it has been death. Rather, the eÖort is a cooperative one in handed down by tradition or become familiar which the teacher and students work to un- through habit, … question[ing] all beliefs and derstand an issue more completely. The goal is accept[ing] only those that survive reason’s de- to learn how to analyze legal problems, to rea- mand for consistency and for justiÕcation.”7 son by analogy, to think critically about one’s One challenge of law teaching is to provide own arguments and those put forth by others, an environment of active learning for 100 or and to understand the eÖect of the law on more students at one time. A teaching strategy those subject to it.6 As Professor Guinier ob- which includes calling on students without 5 Id. at 919.