Terence Blackburn always knew he was going to be a lawyer.
But he didn't always know he was going to be an educator.
While studying law at Columbia University, the MSU-Detroit College of Law dean met a breed of teachers that he never wanted to emulate.
"The model of teaching there was one that I absolutely detested," Blackburn said. "It was an arrogant, teach-from-above model.
"I just wanted no part in it."
For 15 years, Blackburn practiced law and stayed away from the education sector until his wife, who was working as an adjunct professor at Seton Hall Law School, came to him and asked him to help her teach a class because of her heavy workload.
"She told me, 'It didn't have to be like it was at Columbia,'" he said.
In 1988, Blackburn dove into a profession that allowed him to pass on his knowledge.
"The ability to take complicated subject - to make that accessible and interesting and exciting - I thought that was a great joy," he said.
Blackburn took his experience in law and created a game in which students drafted legal contracts for their clients.
"The students were very nervous because this isn't the kind of work one does normally," he said. "But it is absolutely the type of work that one has to do when they go out and actually practice."
Blackburn said his job as dean no longer allows him to spend as much time in the classroom as he would like. This semester he is involved in a team-taught business enterprise class comprised of five professors.
Second-year law student Sarah Abraham is in the team-taught class.
"I have had professors in graduate and undergrad who don't want to be there," she said. "He told us the first day he really wants to be there."
Abraham said she likes the enthusiasm he brings to the subject material and that she looks forward to his lectures.
"He can hold my attention even when the subject matter gets dry," she said. "I want to hear what he has to say and how he is going to say it in a way that is just hysterical."
Even after teaching for more than six years, Blackburn said he still learns something new about a case or a subject every year because of his students.
"You learn from them," he said. "There are 90 really bright minds that are all thinking and poking at the issues and they can all teach you.
"That is what keeps the mind young."
And while he said he wishes he was in the classroom more, being dean is almost as good.
"I think I have an ability to understand how to put a system together," Blackburn said. "Instead of making a difference in the students in front of me in my own class, I can make a difference for all 800 students in the school."
