Gordon Robinson | Teaching to think not pass exams

I know this is a New Year.

But will Jamaica take a new approach to overcome the fundamental obstacle to its progress? It’s neither political nor religious. The one issue blocking Jamaica from success is the way we educate our children. This isn’t restricted to the primary level. In 2024, during a hiatus from these pages I published a treatise on the fatal flaw in our legal education on my Blog. A revised version seems appropriate to start 2026.

For more than a decade, starting early 1990s, I volunteered as an Associate Tutor at the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS).

I didn’t “volunteer” because of any debt to society although I did owe Jamaica my tertiary education. I did feel obliged to pass along the experience I’d gained thanks to Michael Manley’s brain fart that granted me free legal tuition. The “volunteer” aspect came about simply because, as a Grumpy Old Man, I wasn’t going to conform to any teaching program or method nor was anyone going to tell me how or what to teach. So, for as long as it lasted, like Old Blue Eyes, I did it my way!

I opened every new class’s first tutorial with a speech kinda like this:

“Attendance at these gatherings isn’t required. Feel free to go to some other tutorial or none at all. You won’t be asked to sign any attendance register. That insane requirement only means you were here for a minute or to take a nap. But there are rules. First and foremost I don’t want to hear any of you say the word ‘exam’ out loud. I don’t care whether you pass or fail what NMLS calls an ‘exam’. I plan to show you how to pass the exam that you’ll face every day for the next 30 years.

“I will promise you that, if you pay attention to the lessons learned in this class, there’s no ‘exam’ set by NMLS that can daunt you.

“Secondly you WILL be required to think. For four years you’ve been taught how to digest and regurgitate text books. This year, in this class, you’ll be shown how to add value and how to think for yourself. That will prepare you for the real world.”

So, at the end of each session, I gave the class a lateral logic puzzle to solve. The following week, I refused to teach any law until somebody in the class solved the puzzle. There was no Google or ChatGPT so they had to work it out. In the beginning they often needed help from yours truly but, as their thinking muscles developed, they would regularly find the answer without prompting. An example of one of the easier tests:

“Bob loved fresh fruit and had his own little orchard so he could pick straight from the tree. One afternoon he was picking some cherries when he fell. Although he wasn’t climbing the tree, Bob was killed instantly from multiple fractures. Explain.” Solution at the end. No peeking or googling allowed!

All assignments given in my subject (Civil Procedure) were a team effort as I convened extra gatherings and helped the class from a practical perspective. Word soon spread and I was asked to do the same for the Commercial Law class. Since I was no expert in the field I asked a friend to volunteer his time. The first question on the assignment was “You are asked to incorporate a company. Devise a questionnaire for the client to fill out.”

My friend asked the class “Do you know where the Companies Registry is?” Nobody knew. “Do you know it has a website?” Nobody knew. “Well, find the website because the questionnaire you need is on the first page.”

If THAT is educating students to practice law you can call me Pearl!

I’m happy to report none of my students have failed the daily exam of life. I walked away from NMLS about two decades ago because the system of allegedly teaching the practice of law from lecture theatres to students who already held law degrees was just too irritating. The final straw came when I broke one of my most inflexible rules and attended a “staff” meeting where an Eastern Caribbean consultant was pitching his idea that NMLS should introduce multiple choice exams. According to him (from memory), “Multiple choice exams are scientifically proven to be the best way for students to show teachers their knowledge.”

To avoid barfing, I left the meeting and never returned to NMLS. You see, this consultant was wandering through the wrong jungle. NMLS is where the students supposedly learn the practice of law. Teachers (preferably experienced practitioners) should be showing their knowledge to students not vice versa.

So it came as no surprise to me to read in The Gleaner that, in 2024, 57 per cent of the class failed NMLS’ ethics exam. Of course in today’s world where politics rules every action or event, the students mounted protests through media and all of a sudden the issue became whether or not the failures or the consequences of confirmed failures were justified.

Bah. Humbug!

Legal education in Jamaica has forever been flawed and that 2024 contretemps was another symptom of that disease. Most NMLS students have already studied the law’s academic intricacies for three tortuous years. At NMLS what they need to learn is PRACTICE OF LAW not more academics.

A new system is essential. Lecture theatres should only be used for the occasional guest lecture from seasoned practitioners; moot courts; panel discussions; or other educational insights into real life. Teachers should caucus with students not lecture. NMLS students should spend time as interns to experienced practitioners; work at their chambers; understand the ethical rules of practice from the ground up; and experience the conduct of every aspect of legal practice from beginning to end. Reports from mentors and caucus leaders should replace exams. Interim reports supplemented with remedial caucuses would also help.

For pity’s sake stop the autograph seeking court attendance program. What’s the point of attending court when you have no advance idea of the issues being tried or argued?

How do we get busy, disinterested senior lawyers to participate? Elementary, my dear Watson. There’s the extreme option of mandating it like the powers-that-be have mandated so many new nonsensical, useless responsibilities (e.g. POCA; Accounts reporting etc). As far as I know not one “investigation” or discovery of improper conduct has originated in or arisen from any of these reports. General Legal Council’s ignition continues to be sparked by client complaints. So my preference is to offer Continuing Legal Professional Development (CLPD) credits to any senior lawyer agreeing to mentor one or more law students thus releasing seniors from detention at boring CLPD seminars too often led by lawyers who appear to only understand academics. While I’m on that subject, congratulations to new D.P.P. Claudette Thompson and senior practitioner, Tracey Long, who excellently conducted two recent CLPD seminars I was forced to attend. So there’s hope.

Thank God the seminars are now available virtually. Oh, and NMLS can contribute a stipend for the student-intern out of savings from paying fewer lecturers despite charging massive tuition fees.

Every new system will have glitches. But, until we take our minds out of the box that restricts legal practice education to lecturing/tutoring by Academics followed by written examinations faithful to the British way, we’ll continue to produce too many Academics and too few Lawyers.

Why are we still mimicking every “tradition” forced upon us by former colonizers including systems of legal education and justice culminating with the colonizers’ judges telling us what our laws mean? British legal “tradition” includes pledging fealty to Monarchs like Henry VIII who created his own church so he could divorce his first wife and marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn; then beheaded Anne to marry again. And so on and so sixth.

Sigh.

Peace and Love.

P.S: Bob lived on the fourteenth floor of a high rise. His “little” orchard contained miniature fruit trees planted in pots on the balcony. He tripped and fell over the balcony. Words like “orchard”; and “picking”; are triggers so you’ll think of traditional farms. Avoid being trapped in that or any box. Ignore what seems obvious. Nothing in this world is as it appears.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com