The requirements for effectively teaching a University law class are uncomfortable chairs, sugary food, memorizing the students’ names and incorporating examples from Saturday morning cartoons into the lesson plan.
At least in the minds of University law professor Tom Lininger and Comic News columnist Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant.
The two spoke as advocates of humor in society and education this summer during a meeting of the City Club of Eugene.
Lininger, winner of the University’s Ersted award for stinguished teaching, spoke first. As members and guests ate lunch in a Downtown Athletic Club ballroom, Lininger told the story of his first attempt to use cartoons in his lectures. When his lesson on “complicated fact patterns with people known only by A, B, C, or D” met with the clicking of keyboards as students’ attentions drifted, Lininger changed his approach.
“Scooby-Doo and the gang robbed a bank…” he began, and so began his preference for “humor and levity” in teaching, rather than the fear and intimidation techniques he endured in his college years.
Jasheway-Bryant, an award-winning author, comedy-writing teacher and director of local stand-up comedy troupe, “The Comedy Workout,” followed. She stressed the importance of humor in society as a whole.
“I always poke fun of people who have more power than me,” she said, and broke into a song for President Bush in the tune of The Wheels on the Bus. “The people of G8 want to be left alone, left alone, left alone; the people of G8 want to be left alone; don’t give them shoulder rubs.”
Both speakers agreed that humor helps students learn and increases productivity, as well as creativity, in the work force. Asked by a club member why he felt fear and intimidation were more common in teaching than humor, Lininger responded, “It is easier to be feared than loved.”