[Law students] are not just customers of legal education, but are also in a sense a sort of employee: Law school classes rely on students' participating in the class, as a means of helping educate the other students. Learning, the theory goes, is a cooperative endeavor, in which students benefit from hearing each other's comments.You can read the whole thing. What I have to offer is a thought experiment, based on years of work on admissions, which at my law school (Wisconsin), involves carefully considering a multitude of factors and not just making offers to the people with the best GPA and LSAT.
I have pored over hundreds of applications, looking at different life and work experiences and different educational backgrounds, trying to understand the character and frame of mind of the applicant. Much effort is put into assembling a student body, and it seems well worth it to produce a classroom full of interesting individuals, with diverse knowledge, goals, and points of view.
But if these individuals sit through class silently, why did any of those factors matter? We could have programmed the computers to admit students based on their numerical scores and saved a lot of time. You might argue the law school has an interest in the larger community that needs its supply of lawyers, but why does it matter who goes to which law school? And yes, the students (may) interact with each other outside of the class and (may) maintain ties with the school as alumni, but it is the interest is in the quality of the classroom experience that drives the complex admissions process.
So here's the thought experiment. What if the law school application required a short essay, asking the prospective students to describe how they planned to behave in the classroom? Now, imagine an applicant who writes:
I intend to sit quietly and never volunteer. It suits my learning style to listen and take notes and to think about things on my own. I hope not to be called upon to speak, but if that happens, I intend to pass or, if that is not permitted, to give a short simple answer that will get me off the hook as quickly and easily as possible.Who would admit that student?
Do law school applicants tacitly represent that they will actively participate in classroom discussion? They answer the questions and write the personal essay that they should know we use to in our efforts to find students who will make a strong contribution. They should feel an ethical responsibility to the classroom community they asked to join and to the rejected applicants they are displacing.
They should know that we wouldn't have accepted them if we had thought they would sit passively and keep their thoughts to themselves.