When I was taking my final law class for my MBA studies, I was surprised to see what my professor had listed as required reading: John Grisham’s The King of Torts. Really? As required reading?
Normally I read John Grisham on my own time, between semesters or as a late night treat when I’m having trouble relaxing before bed, but I never thought a professor would assign one of his books as an assignment.
The King of Torts follows the story of Clay Carter, a young public defendant turned litigator who stumbles upon a case while defending a murderer that promises to make history as one of the largest tort cases in theU.S.As he gets sucked into the lifestyle of the tort lawyers ofWashington,D.C., you’ll witness his tremendous rise and inevitable fall.
It’s a good story. It’s full of mystery, drama and romance. But why would my professor assign this to me? Turns out I learned a lot about Tort Law while I was being engrossed in the extra details of the luxurious and eventful lifestyle that Clay was newly exploring. And it gave a great foundation for us to discuss in class how tort reform law has changed business law over the years.
The more I asked, the more I learned this particular professor was known for assigning fiction novels based on law practice to assist his students in learning about particularly complicated subjects within his classes.
He wasn’t the only teacher I’ve ever had to assign a piece of fiction to help me understand a class subject either. When I was just a Middle School student, I was assigned My Brother Sam is Dead while we reviewed the Revolutionary War in History and my High School English teacher assigned To Kill a Mockingbird while my History Teacher was teaching us about the Civil Rights Movement. And when I told my undergrad teacher of my interest in the Civil War, he recommended I try John Jake’s North and South Series, which I still re-read every few years or so. But all of my experiences had been limited to history and with the strict warning that novelists take facts and exaggerate or change them to fit their story lines, so not to be too caught up in small facts, dates and times. Remember how David changed the number of panels in The Inverted Pyramid at the Louvre to fit into his storyline of The Di Vinci Code?
Can fiction really help us understand subjects such as Economics, Law and Biology? At theUniversityofLouisvillethere is a professor by the name of Ronald W. Eades who is doing just that. He realized that a number of his American Legal History students were dreading the subject and reluctant to engage in the curriculum. As an experiment he began assigning book reviews related to law subjects such To Kill a Mocking Bird, Billy Budd and The Trial and even short stories such as The Lottery to try and engage students in the subject. And it seemed to work. He still continues to use fiction as a way to expand his students mind related to law subjects.
What about you? Has a professor ever used a novel or piece of writing other than a text book to assist you in learning about a class subject?
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