Why?

During the Barbri lectures my mind tends to drift. I am almost certain this symptom is a common reaction to three hour class sessions of any kind, let alone plain blackletter law. One subject that I continually ponder is education.

In the last month we have been provided a sampling of teaching styles, a variety of personalities and abilities. Each professor uses his or her traits, although some don't seem to have much to work with, to illustrate, to explain a variety of legal concepts. Some instruct with vigor, others with detail. Some use hand motions and sound effects, to keep, or draw, our attention and to stick the material into our memory. A few simply drone, buzzing for hours, reading their outlines verbatim, and others use repetitive repetition, like salesman on a late night infomercial, really driving the point, nailing it down, screwing it in, gluing it shut and plastering it with duct tape.

For me though, the most effective interim professors have been those that explain why. The temps who explain the background, the details, the reason, the purpose, the policy, the point of the law, are those that have the greatest effect on me. There's something about learning why that places, perfectly,
a piece of information in my mind.

These teachers do not simply lecture, they do not simply preach the tenets but they express the goals, the background behind the rules. Since I was a kid, I've always wondered, and asked, why. When I understand the why, the policy, then the how, the what, the where, the who and the when seem to come together.

The why gives me understanding, not mere knowledge. I've found that in general the big difference between knowing and understanding is the why. I don't know if other people are the same, as we all learn differently, but it seems that understanding connects me with a fact, or in this case a law, and when my mind connects, my mind memorizes.

When they don't explain why I'm left wondering the point, and then I miss it. Well, if nothing else, I've figured out how I learn, so I guess I'll get back to doing that.