IIT Chicago Kent College of Law - Transcript Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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! The Student as Seen by the Faculty HE editor requested Mr. VVood to prepare an article for the Transcript on, The Student as Seen by The Faculty. In response to this request he received the following letter. April 30, 1926. Mr. F. Allan Minne, Editor, The 1926 Transcript. ' Dear Allan: ' You asked me the other day to write something for the Transcript on the student as seen by the faculty member. Any formal article on this subject would require considerable skill and literary style, both of which attributes I promptly disclaim. The better plan, in my way of thinking, is just to answer your request by an informal letter. The circumstances of the faculty members of Chicago-Kent are different from those of the average college professor. Few of us are engaged in teaching as a professiong most of us are primarily engaged in the active practice or administration of law, before or on the bench. None of us are salariedg each receives a uniform compensation based entirely on the actual number of hours of teaching. All of us have as students young people of mature age, most of whom have definitely chosen our own profession as their own vocation. These facts, and the standing of the legal profession, combine to give us a genuine interest in, and a serious duty toward the students. I believe our View of the student can be treated under three quite distinct subjects. First, we see him as a studentg a young man of presumably sufficient preliminary educational training. It is decidedly a problem to cause him to acquire the right attitude toward the law, and the proper way in which to view, and to reason out, legal principles. The best we can do is to so conduct our respective courses that the means of acquiring these requirements are placed within his grasp. In the last analysis, the student is himself the only one who can achieve thisg we can do no more than oifer it to him. We note with interest, and often with surprise, the progress of our students, and their mental development in legal reasoning, and we view with interest also their participation in school activities, and their school spirit and school loyalty. Secondly, we see every student as a potentialityg as a future lawyer, and we seek in our respective courses, and in the curriculum as a whole, to give to each student that view of the law as a profession which will not only encourage and foster in him the desire and ambition to become a lawyer in the real sense of the term, but which will also instill and develop in him those traits of mind and character which are necessary for the attainment of that end. The ultimate and fundamental question which presents itself to us, as a faculty, at the end of each semester, in our consideration of the progress of each student toward his prospective and ever approaching graduation is this: Will he make a good lawyer P Sometimes the question assumes this form: VVill he ever make a lawyer? Our most serious duty toward ourselves, our school, and our profession, requires the most careful consideration of this question, and the standards of the school and the profession require that those students, 108 S l9:Zf6f

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Things IPANEIEDHYI For the bar is drawing near, Drawing us with fear and terror, Terror of a failure. So the class begins its fasting, Begins to burn the midnight oil, Begins to worry of the finals, Begins to think of cuts and things required by the examiners, Examiners who hold our fate. Thus the noble Hiawatha Told his tribe of the Law School, Told of many perils, Told of bar examinations, Examinations of July and November, November and july feared by all the seniors, Feared by Hiawatha. VVith his last words came his parting, Parting for the desk and quizzer, Parting for a life of study, Study of the law. Time of fasting and of prayer, To the great god Knowledge, Knowledge to help him pass the bar. Nalla '26 192 61?

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fi l f as to whom the above questions must be answered in the negative, be advised to alter their plans. and to prepare themselves for some other occupation to which they are more suited. It is as impossible to eliminate the personal element from the teaching of law as it is to eliminate it from a jury trialg and so I feel moved to say that, thirdly, we view each student not only as a problemg not only as a potentialityg but also as a personality-as a person. We of the faculty have each and all been through the same mill. XVe have attended law school ourselves-many of us at this very college. VVe see, in each class that we confront. other young men encountering the same difficulties, and seeking to meet and cope with and solve the same problems that faced each of us ten or twenty or thirty years ago. And we find, in teaching them, opportunities to be of help to them. There is an inspiration to be found in the acquaintanceship of earnest and ambitious young men. There is a real satisfaction in noting the progress through school of those students who in personality, and temperament, and mental ability have shown themselves fitted for the legal profession. There is a recompense, not capable of admeasurement in pecuniary terms, in the service. we thus render to the younger generation, and in the friendship and loyalty of the scores of young men yearly added to the roll of alumni of our mutual college. VVILLIA it G. W ooo The Facullp as Seen by the Student VVe have all been afforded the privilege of learning on many occasions via the printed page and viva voce, as the Italians used to say, just what the pro- fessors think of us students. Vlfhat could be more in keeping with Equity than an opportunity for these same students to defend themselves and also to air their views about the profs themselves? Of course, we have to do all the work, so we may not be able to come in with as clean hands as the profs, but since Equity looks to the intent rather than to the form, perhaps our good intentions will get us by. We don't for a minute want to be misunderstood about this here thing. This is not a criticism of the men who are giving of their time that we may be able to step from the platform of the Eighth Street Theater into some law office at S25 per. It is merely an appreciation of their efforts. It is interesting to note the changes in attitude towards the faculty mem- bers that come with the passing of the months as students. Well do we remem- ber the open-mouth attention which we gave our instructors as beginning How tickled to death we were to learn that rcs iflsa. Ioqzzitor meant that if we were in an elevator that fell, that the owners of the building could not deny it. And Master and Servant. Say, how we ate that stuff up! Didn't we think Will we ever get over being proud of our residence in the pork-packing queen of the sweet ater seas? Hot dog! That sure was sum'n, as Sam and Henry say every night at 10 P. M. W'e may have been just a little con- fused as to just how we were to work that into an impassioned plea to the jury to save poor Nell, but we never doubted for a minute that we would not.only 109 ist V NJ freshmen. that the fellow-servant idea was pretty good dope? 1926 y 'rv IX! JN