Reuters, Law Professors 'Cold Calls' Spur Heated Debate:

A robust debate over law professors' use of "cold calls" — randomly calling on students in class instead of waiting for volunteers to answer questions — is unfolding online after a prominent conservative attorney took to social media to decry an opt-in approach used in a Yale Law School course.

“The idea of a law school class where students could opt out of being called on!” wrote Adam Mortara on Sunday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that has been viewed more than a million times and generated hundreds of comments. “Judges don’t let you put up the red light when you don’t want to answer.”

On my two law school tour last week I saw something that genuinely surprised me. A student had a tri-folded cardboard name tag in front of him. No big deal, I thought, in a big class professors might need those and while I don’t use first names many of my colleagues do.

Then he…

— Adam Mortara (@AdamMortara) September 24, 2023

Mortara, the lead trial lawyer for Students for Fair Admissions in the SFFA v. Harvard case in which the U.S. Supreme Court barred race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities, was at Yale Law on Thursday to discuss that case in a session held by the campus chapter of the Federalist Society.

Mortara, who is also a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, told Reuters on Tuesday that he was prompted to post his thoughts on cold-calling after a student at the event talked to him about three-sided name plates used in another class. The name plates enable students to signal to the professor whether or not they are prepared to speak, depending on the color they displayed. Mortara said he did not know which professor taught the class.

“The whole point of what we do in law school is to train people to be agile minded like a lawyer,” said Mortara in an interview. “I really don’t understand the idea that you should opt out of interacting with the faculty in a dynamic and spontaneous way.”

Proponents of the Socratic Method—the instructional process that includes cold-calling used in the legal academy since 1870—say the prospect of being called upon at any moment incentivizes students to keep up on their reading and teaches them to think on their feet. But critics say cold calling is a relic of the past that creates unnecessary anxiety among students.