Seeing the Forest

I was speaking with Lorraine Lalli from Roger Williams the other day, and she commented that among the chief struggles for first-year students is an inability to see the forest for the trees.  They may understand a case; they may even master its principles; but they have a tough time seeing how the case fits into the larger scheme of things, how a rule connects to themes and principles running through a particular area of law or to themes running across legal disciplines.  If we can teach them how to find those larger connections, we will have taught them something much more valuable than any case. (dbw)