Your Students Are Waiting for You!

This week, I and some of my colleagues at Touro Law Center had the pleasure of spending some time with guest coach/mentor/speaker Paula Lustbader from Seattle U. School of Law. Paula came to talk to us about 1L orientation programs that ease students from their role as student-only to their role as member of a profession. One of the things she shared with us that she tells students is that their clients are waiting for them. Right now. They're just waiting for the students to learn what they need to learn to that the now-student/then-lawyer can help the waiting client. I liked that.

And it applies to us, too. Our now-elementary-students/then-law-students are waiting for us. They're in their elementary school classrooms as I write and you read. They're learning how to add, subtract, group, and estimate -- all skills that form the basis for the logical thought processes law school requires. They're learning how to get along with others in groups and pairs and how to work through a problem on their own -- all skills that form the basis for the relational and learning processes law school requires. They're being told that if they work hard, make good grades, and keep their rooms clean, then the sky is the limit. Some of those children have already decided: "I want to be a lawyer." Right now, we're imagining each other. Us, their future professors; them, our future students.

And they're doing some exciting things to prepare for their futures. Here is a great blog post with pictures about a collaborating writing exercise accomplished by students in different locations using Google Docs and Skype. Both applications are free, and they're so easy that . . . well . . . even a kid can do it. Spend some time today imagining one of those kids in the pictures 10 or 15 years from now sitting in your classroom, waiting expectantly for all the education they've known to move to a higher level.

Your students are waiting for you.