I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this morning, the National Security Law podcast, Episode 241, “Let’s Barbie.” The hosts, Bobby Chesney (below left) and Steve Vladeck (below right), started with some words of advice for new law students. I have my own version of this that I deliver to our 1Ls at OCU Law, and I was struck by the near-complete lack of overlap between when they said and what I say. These two are more than merely two professors with a podcast (and a Twitter account). They are serious scholars (see, and read! e.g., Steve’s new book on the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket) who are committed to their institutions (Bobby is now Dean Bobby, but both evidence their commitment to teaching in every podcast).
So, they started with wise words about self-care: Check in weekly with family and close friends, they advise. Don’t disappear into the four-month black hole of the first semester of law school. And then, they advised students not to panic if it seems like other students seem to be grasping the material more quickly. They are all there for a reason. Things tend to even out over the course of the first semester. This is great advice, and I said very little of it. That was an error, but I come by it honestly. We teach at different institutions, and I have different concerns about the dangers my students face.
I find that the students who get in the biggest trouble are students who do not realize, or whose lives do not allow them to address, how much more demanding law school is than college. I worry, because I have experienced this, about students whose parents think they can rely on them as back-up childcare providers or miss class to go for airport runs to pick up out-of-town relatives who are coming in for an anniversary celebration. I worry about students who live at home or are married with young children and cannot carve out daily a quiet space for extended periods of intense study. So my first bit of advice to my students is that they need to have frank conversations with family and close friends. They need to explain that they are not “just a student.” They have a full time job and then some. Succeeding in law school will take their full time and attention, and family and friends need to accommodate that. My students who do poorly in law school do not lack intelligence or drive. They lack the time and freedom to give themselves the opportunity to succeed.
But listening to Steve and Bobby, I realize I need to temper my message. Law students need not be ascetics. Self-care is also important to student success. Fortunately, I have great colleagues, including staff, whom I trust communicated that message to our entering class. Nonetheless, I am sometimes told that my students for some reason take me very seriously. I need to let my students know that they can allow themselves some down time and enjoy the benefits of friends and family for support and companionship. They need not feel guilty about that or think that they would thereby be disappointing my expectations.
