For students who hope to move to a conventional university or college after studying through College for America, not all
courses will transfer automatically as
general education credits, Money said; some are counted
only as electives.
DEARS is a non-scientific instrument and is intended
only to provide
general guidance for those considering taking
courses or even obtaining a degree via distance
education, regardless of the source.
The Report's central conclusion is that, although traditional legal pedagogy is very effective in certain aspects, it overemphasizes legal theory and underemphasizes practical skills and professional development.5 By focusing on theory in the abstract setting of the classroom, the Report argues, traditional legal
education undermines the ethical foundations of law students and fails to prepare them adequately for actual practice.6 Traditional legal
education is effective in teaching students to «think like lawyers,» but needs significant improvement in teaching them to function as ethical and responsible professionals after law school.7 As I will discuss in greater detail below, in
general, the Report recommends «contextualizing» and «humanizing» legal
education by integrating clinical and professional responsibility
courses into the traditional core curriculum.8 In this way, students will learn to think like lawyers in the concrete setting of actual cases and clients.9 The Report refers to pedagogical theories developed in other educational settings and argues that these theories show that teaching legal theory in the context of practice will not
only better prepare students to be lawyers, it will also foster development of a greater and more deeply felt sense of ethical and professional identity.10