[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-160434-en":3,"doc-seo-160434-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":92},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},160434,2336474466412,"\tJames","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_155a257f0dc6eb9ab79c44ca47cae57d",8,"Research & Report","Normalizing Struggle - Article 2","Normalizing Struggle examines and critiques how legal academia frames law students’ academic struggle as a problem and equates struggle with failure. The article argues for a shift in legal educators’ attitudes by forgiving and embracing student struggle, even designing curricular opportunities for it. By treating struggle as normal, law schools can improve student wellness while producing lawyers better able to handle the ongoing problem-solving demands of practice. The paper outlines multiple parts addressing pedagogy, prevalence, and instructional strategies.","Arkansas Law Review  \nVolume 73  Number 1 Article 2  \nAugust 2020  \nNormalizing Struggle  \nCatherine Martin Christopher Texas Tech University  \nFollow this and additional works at: [https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr](https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr)  \n Part of the Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Legal Education Commons, and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons  \nRecommended Citation  \nCatherine M. Christopher, Normalizing Struggle, 73 Ark. L. Rev. 27 (2020) . Available at: [https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr/vol73/iss1/2](https://scholarworks.uark.edu/alr/vol73/iss1/2)  \nThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arkansas Law Review by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [ccmiddle@uark.edu](ccmiddle@uark.edu).  \nNORMALIZING STRUGGLE  \nCatherine Martin Christopher*  \nINTRODUCTION  \nA person who is effective in law school, on the bar exam, and in practice utilizes the same set of skills in each of those scenarios: close, critical reading; synthesis of multiple sources of law into a coherent rule or schema; appreciation of both the big picture and the fine details of a set of rules of law; analysis of afactual scenario for facts that meet or fail a legal test; assessment of the validity and strength of counterarguments; and, of course, clear, concise, thorough, organized communication.1 Because all these skills are useful from the first day of law school to the last  \n* Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Bar Success, Texas Tech University School of Law. J.D., University of Pittsburgh. This Article braids together a lot of threads from my classrooms, service, and scholarship, and I could not have woven these strands alone. Thanks to Alyson Drake and her excellent research team; Louis Schulze; participants at the Central States Law Schools Association workshop, including Kara Bruce, Mark Burge, Eric Johnson, Noemie Boivin, and Neil Sobol; participants at the 2019 Southwest Consortium of Academic Support Professionals Workshop, the SEALS 2019 Annual Conference, and the 2020 AALS Annual Meeting; the AccessLex semi-secret working group, including but not limited to Sara Berman and Ana Cordova; the Women’s Faculty Writing Program at Texas Tech University, especially maestros Kristin Messuri and Elizabeth Sharp; Brian L. Frye and S.J. Morrison of the Ipse Dixit podcast; and the many others who have engaged with this Article. The Texas Tech University School of Law not only provides ongoing financial support, but it’s also a wonderful family of colleagues, students, and alumni. Many, many thanks.  \n1. See Karen McDonald Henning & Julia Belian, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie: Increasing Assessments and Individualized Feedback in Law School Classes, 95 U. DETROIT MERCY L. REV. 35, 39 (2017) . Missing from this list of crucial skills is legal research. The ability to conduct efficient, effective legal research is a skill probably more important in law practice than in law school or bar prep. No suggestion is made here that legal research become a part of the bar exam or bar prep, but legal research probably should be taught and assessed throughout legal education, not merely as part of a first-year legal writing course. Just as I hope that law schools adopt a writing-across-the-curriculum model, so too I hope they adopt a research-across-the-curriculum model. See Jamie Baker, Beyond the Information Age: The Duty of Technology Competence in the Algorithmic Society, 69 S.C.  \nL. REV. 557, 558 (2018); Alyson Drake, The Need for Experiential Legal Research Education, 108 LAW LIBR. J. 511 (2016); see generally Alyson Drake, You Can’t Write Without Research: The Role of Research Instruction in the Upper-Level Writing Requirement, 18 FLA. COASTAL L. REV. 167 (2017) .  \n28 ARKANSAS LAW REVIEW ","cbCaih1q14uRoiGT","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaih1q14uRoiGT","pdf",547419,2,1,43,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Skill transfer between law school, bar exam, and practice\n## Struggle as normal and productive\n# Part I\n## Traditional legal education and conflation of struggle with failure\n# Part II\n## Pervasiveness of struggle among law students\n# Part III\n## Reframing struggle and study strategies that encourage productive struggle\n# Part IV\n## Creating opportunities for struggle in effective law teaching\n# Part V\n## Recommendations for law schools to normalize struggle","[{\"question\":\"Why does the article argue that students’ struggle should be treated as normal in law education?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that struggle is inherent to learning and continues throughout lawyers’ careers. Legal educators should acknowledge it, expect it, and convey that students’ struggle is normal and productive.\"},{\"question\":\"What critique does the article make about traditional legal academia’s approach to academic struggle?\",\"answer\":\"It criticizes how traditional legal education disapproves of student struggle and conflates struggle with failure. This marginalizes students who do not succeed immediately and leads to unnecessary overreaction.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article propose law schools and professors can normalize struggle?\",\"answer\":\"It recommends reorienting attitudes by forgiving and embracing struggle and building opportunities for struggle into the curriculum. It also draws on literature to show that effective pedagogy includes creating conditions where students can struggle with material.\"}]","Normalizing Struggle - Article 2 | PDF",1788063377,108,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":87,"head_meta":89,"extra_data":91,"updated_unix":29},"normalizing-struggle-article-2","",{"@graph":37,"@context":86},[38,54,69],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,48,51],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":53},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/normalizing-struggle-article-2/160434/",4,{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":55,"author":56,"headline":13,"publisher":58,"fileFormat":61,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":62,"datePublished":63,"encodingFormat":61,"isAccessibleForFree":64,"interactionStatistic":65},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":57},"Person",{"url":42,"name":59,"@type":60},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-06","2026-08-30",true,{"@type":66,"interactionType":67,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":68},"ViewAction",{"@type":70,"mainEntity":71},"FAQPage",[72,78,82],{"name":73,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":75},"Why does the article argue that students’ struggle should be treated as normal in law education?","Question",{"text":76,"@type":77},"It argues that struggle is inherent to learning and continues throughout lawyers’ careers. Legal educators should acknowledge it, expect it, and convey that students’ struggle is normal and productive.","Answer",{"name":79,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":80},"What critique does the article make about traditional legal academia’s approach to academic struggle?",{"text":81,"@type":77},"It criticizes how traditional legal education disapproves of student struggle and conflates struggle with failure. This marginalizes students who do not succeed immediately and leads to unnecessary overreaction.",{"name":83,"@type":74,"acceptedAnswer":84},"How does the article propose law schools and professors can normalize struggle?",{"text":85,"@type":77},"It recommends reorienting attitudes by forgiving and embracing struggle and building opportunities for struggle into the curriculum. 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