Using Thanksgiving to Get to Know Students
Of the many other reasons clinical legal education is a dream job, the ability to get to know our students in a real way is my favorite. It occurred to me this Thanksgiving that I’ve been taking in students every year for the holiday and it is wonderful.
Thanksgiving is a tough holiday for law students because they are often too far from home to afford to go back. And, even when they can afford it, the short period of time and the proximity to exams means it often isn’t worth it. Even when students choose not to go home for the holidays, they’re often still blue from missing their families. I’ve been taking students in for Thanksgiving since all the way back when I was a student myself.
The tradition began accidentally. When I was a 2L, I was one of four Indian students at the school (which felt like a regular pow-wow compared to my 1L year where I was the only tribal member). Of the four of us, I was the only one who permanently resided near the school. The others lived on or near their tribal land. One student couldn’t get herself back to the Navajo Nation for the holiday, so I told her she could join us. It was one of the best decisions I made in law school. She’s been with us every Thanksgiving since, except for the one year when she foolishly tried to impress the parents of her new partner by cooking for them. She’s become an auntie to my kids and a true friend.
Since that worked out so well I made it a point to invite students who had nowhere to go every year after that, and I continued that tradition once I became a professor. This tradition has become an invaluable way to get to better know and understand my students. They let their hair down a bit, relax, and talk about life outside of their law school pursuits. It’s terrific to learn about what they’d be doing with their families if they’d been able to go home with them. It’s endearing to hear them on the phone wishing their families a happy holiday, or to hear them comforting a sibling who misses them. It’s great to be reminded to see them as people—not just students.
It’s also rewarding to let them get to see me as a person, too. The aura of the professor dissipates for them a little. They watch me interact with my family, cuss at the football game on the TV, and scramble to get the meal out of the oven and on the table without burning it (which I most certainly did not do!). It’s nice to be able to show them that they have a family away from home should they need it. It’s nice to have even more people to be thankful for.