Mad Midwifery: Bringing Theory, Doctrine, and Practice to Life

I share Judge Edwards' concern about the health of legal education and about lawyers as a force in society. I differ, however, in defining the sickness and prescribing the cure, at least when it comes to teaching. In my view, we need to integrate, not to dichotomize and polarize further, the practical and the impractical, the doctrinal and the theoretical. His critique, and my intuitive response to it, challenged me to examine and articulate where we disagree, based on what I have learned in my five years in the classroom and what it is I hope to accomplish in my teaching.

Judge Edwards' remarks also heightened my sense that teaching, not scholarship, may be the endangered activity and that a perception of disjunction between theory, doctrine, and practice impedes the evolution of more inclusive styles of teaching.