Monday’s post by Victoria McCoy Dunkley, on the harm of “perfect” resonated with me. So, I wanted to expand on that, because that’s what we do in Academic Support!
The concept of perfect IS harmful and subjective, meaning striving for perfection often feels like a losing battle, and it mostly is. However, it’s hardwired into most of us that are lawyers, law professors or law students that it’s ideal to be a perfectionist. In fact, I’m currently co-authoring a UBE book, and we find that we have said “practice makes perfect” at least once a chapter. After reading Victoria’s post, we decided that needed to be changed. It comes so naturally, that phrase, but is it helpful or true?
Does “Practice make Perfect?”
First, since I’m agreeing with Victoria that there is no perfect and that it’s unattainable and subjective, it makes me think that maybe I’ve been using an empty phrase. (Dunkley, 2020)
Since I’m using it in context of the bar exam, practice does NOT make perfect. If we are discussing the UBE, a “perfect” MEE score is a 6. However, those essays aren’t perfect! They might be better than average, but they are far from perfect. A passing score on the Bar Exam in general is far from perfection, so practice makes perfect doesn’t really work in that context.
What about law school? Again, even the best exam answers aren’t usually “perfect”, they are merely some of the best of the bunch. But by no means perfect.
What about legal practice? After all, that is what we are ultimately practicing for when we go to law school and study for the bar. Is there perfection in the legal practice? Of course not. Lawyers, many wiser and more practiced than I, will confirm that each time they submit a motion they find something they could have done better, something they could have improved. Litigators will also tell you that even after winning cases they reflect upon things and look for ways to improve. So, no, not even a winning case is “perfect.”
So, what can we say instead of ‘practice makes perfect?’ Well, my co-author, Toni Miceli, suggested that we use ‘Practice makes prepared’ and Victoria suggests in her post that ‘practice makes progress’. I love both of those phrases, mostly because they both capture the idea of growth mindset.
We can’t be perfect, but we can always improve. We can’t be perfect, but we can be prepared. We can’t be perfect, but we can make progress.
I can’t speak for her, but I feel like the author of “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance”, Dr. Angela Duckworth, would agree that “practice makes progress” is better than “practice makes perfect.” Her book discusses practice at length, and how of course experts practice far more than non experts.??? She discusses Spelling Bee Champions, Olympians, and world renowned artisans – noting that the thing they all have in common is the frequency of their practice. However, she also notes something else. Even experts and champions strive to be better. They look for negative feedback and how they can improve. To quote Dr. Duckworth, “experts are more interested in what they did wrong – so they can fix it – than what they did right. The active processing of this feedback is as essential as its immediacy.” (Duckworth, 2016) So, even the champion doesn’t have a perfect performance!
I think this is incredibly important for law students, especially entering first years who are learning a new language and skill. But it’s also important for bar students, practitioners, and those of us that are educators. We can always improve. But to do that we need to reflect. We need to let go of the idea of perfection, and reflect immediately on areas of improvement. This reflection can be difficult, especially since it’s hard to admit that we are not perfect, nor should we be. So reflecting on our faults and on our mistakes can be daunting.
It’s also worth noting that deliberate practice is not easy, nor does it feel good. Since I’m a former dancer, I was especially taken with the quote by dancer Martha Graham that Dr. Duckworth used: “Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration. There are daily small deaths.”. I can tell you she’s not exaggerating. I can also tell you that no professional dancer ever thinks their performance was perfect, and they always reflect to see how they can improve.
Dr. Duckworth explains that for practice to be deliberate, you need 4 main things:
- A clearly defined stretch goal
- Full concentration and effort
- Immediate and informative feedback
- Repetition and reflection and refinement
I think the part that we, as a profession, forget is the reflection and refinement. Or rather, we do it, but don’t talk about it. That leads us to believing that other students, other practitioners or other educators are “perfect” when they are not. We talk about our successes, and raise each other up, but let’s also talk about the failures, and how we can learn from them. It’s hard to practice if we don’t reflect on what we did wrong, and after all “practice makes progress” and progress is what we need instead of perfection.
References
Duckworth, A. (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. New York: Scribner.
Dunkley, V. M. (2020, September 14). Perfect Hurts. Retrieved from Law School Academic Support Blog: https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/academic_support/
(Melissa Hale)
