When Professors Get in Their Own Way: Law Teaching and Academic Perfectionism

Abstract

The law is a demanding discipline, requiring meticulousness and precision. So it’s no surprise that those who are attracted to it can often be ambitious, high strung, and sometimes quite critical – of themselves and others. This is an article about how diagnosing and addressing their own perfectionist tendencies can help law professors to be more effective in the classroom.

While the article mentions a few specific teaching techniques that readers might find useful, technique is not its focus. Rather, the goal here is to connect certain teaching challenges with the perfectionistic tendency to have unrealistic goals and expectations for oneself – expectations that can, in turn, cause anxiety, depression, and debilitating procrastination. The anxiety that perfectionist law professors frequently experience can, in turn, create ineffective teaching and dysfunctional dynamics in the classroom.  Learning to control one’s perfectionist tendencies can result in more effective, and considerably less stressful, classroom teaching.

This article, by a senior law professor with over 30 years in the classroom, aims to save some inexperienced law teachers from beginner mistakes and to help some seasoned professors become more relaxed and effective when teaching  -- and maybe even to enjoy themselves while doing it.

Keywords: teaching, law, perfectionism