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Kim Davis, a middle school teacher in North Carolina, responded to my blog post entitled "Three Comments About ‘Losing’ a Trial." She entitled her response: Three Simple Truths about Lawyers and Teachers.
She had received her end of grade testing results for her students and felt "disappointed, thrilled, and sad." She felt the three points I made as an attorney dealing with losing, were instructional for teachers. She responded to my three "lawyer" points by applying them to the challenge of teaching.
1. It’s not about you. She draws the parallel that end of grade testing results are NOT a personal validation or invalidation of a teacher.
2. The Facts. Teachers cannot control the "facts" going on in students’ lives that interfere with the ability to learn, concentrate, or even attend class daily. She says, "They are just facts. No matter how much we love them, work with them, encourage them, the facts are… the facts. Teachers, you know what I mean."
3. Measuring your Wins and Losses. "One test, one day, does not measure whether I am an effective or ineffective teacher. Teachers cannot measure wins and losses by test scores exclusively. We have to measure wins in the lesson the kids won’t stop talking about, or the Socratic seminar that continues at the lunch table long after the teacher has left, or the note you receive, ‘you made me believe I could do math.’ The wins also come from parents who say incredibly kind words to us at unexpected times, or a student who you taught years ago, tells you how much he loved your class. Those are our wins."
Her email was much longer, but you get the idea. I want to share my response because I believe everyone needs to know what teachers know:
MY RESPONSE TO A GREAT TEACHER
Dear Kim,
Until recently, I taught a religion class every school day to 20 high school students. I have done so for three years (this time) and for a total of seven years. We met each school day at 6:30 a.m. I learned more about talking to juries from those students, than I ever learned from a law professor.
Teaching taught me:
1. Yesterday's lesson (no matter how good) doesn't mean a thing when I stand up to teach today;
2. I don't know what I will say today that will be the most important thing in one of my student's lives - and if I learn sometime in the future, I probably won't remember saying it;
3. Sometimes showing up matters more than anything;
4. My best lessons have been when I threw out a tremendous lesson plan and taught what the students' questions led to; and
5. Loving and caring about the students trumps expertise and honoraria every time. Through it all parents' appreciation at the end of the school year doesn't matter nearly as much to me as a hug and a tear many years later with a student who tells me I changed their life.
I agree with you on another major point - "No child left behind" testing does not measure a teacher's ability, nor success in the classroom. I feel it is a tool invented to justify disassembling public education. There is no way a test can measure the impact of a teacher who loves and cares about their students, unless the measure is conducted on the students' success as people, 20 years after the class concludes.
Announcing a change:
Please enjoy this post, then checkout my new location -YoungonTrials.com Thank you, Steve
I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU.
Email me at Bestlawyer@aol.com. Let me know what "losing" means in your occupation and why it makes you better.
Announcing a change:
Please enjoy this post, then checkout my new location -YoungonTrials.com Thank you, Steve
Today I lost at trial. While it bothers me, losing does not decimate me like it used to. I know I will win and that I will lose as long as I am trying cases; it is the way of the trial. There are several thoughts I have on winning and losing that are important to keep in mind if you are going to be a trial lawyer.
First: a trial is not a personal validation or invalidation of you as a person, or even you as an attorney. I feel that many attorneys don’t go to trial because they cannot bear the risk that a jury will find them "inadequate." There is an inherent fear that many attorneys have that prevents them from stepping into trial. This fear is a natural offshoot of the evolutionary selection that people go through to become attorneys. To become an attorney you must live a life of exceeding others. You did not make college without excelling in high school. You did not make law school without excelling in college and on the LSAT. Many of your first year classmates found law school was not for them, and either flunked out or quit. You could not have graduated without excelling. You passed the bar. How many of your classmates did not? Throughout life people who become attorneys constantly heard how good they were, or received recognition for their abilities, or were validated for being "better." But at trial, at least half of the attorneys will learn that they are not good enough when the judge or jury rules in favor of their adversary. I believe many attorneys never go to trial because they cannot bear the prospect of being told, "You lost at trial. You are not good enough." A hint: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! If you spend your time worrying that the jury will rule against you, you will never try a case. Fear will grasp your heart and you will never enter the killing pit we call a courtroom. Set those feelings aside: you are good enough. Now get your butt into trial.
Second: the attorney does not make the facts. He or she was not there. Your client brought this steaming brown pile of facts to you and dropped it on your desk. No matter how you mold them and shape them and paint them in bright colors, the facts are the facts. Sometimes a client you represent is just wrong and will lose, no matter how good you are.
Third: your win/loss record is not a measure of whether you are a good trial attorney. Attorneys brag all the time that they have never lost a trial. Jacob Stein, the great Washington, D.C. trial lawyer said, "Show me a lawyer who has never lost a case and I will show you someone who either tried only one case, or is a liar." In truth, better lawyers’ clients lose trials to worse lawyers’ clients all the time (see Second point above). So how do we measure who wins and loses at trial? I contend my client can lose at trial (because of the facts) and I can be the winner at trial. If I try an unwinnable case (and I frequently have) and I get all of my evidence in, and my opponent cannot get all of his evidence in, if I make a better argument, etc., I win the trial, even though my client loses. My "win" in that case has several great benefits: I have had judges refer their friend’s cases to me after I lost in the judge’s department. Former jurors on a case I lost have come to me as clients. Opponents who prevailed against me have later come to me when their next case surfaced because they recognized who the better attorney was. Don’t think the loss is a loss. It is a learning experience and can produce great benefits, including future cash flow.
Announcing a change:
Please enjoy this post, then checkout my new location -YoungonTrials.com Thank you, Steve
