Heh... A comment on my last post has prompted me to at least post a second time within a week.
So, HA!!! I have done it!
I can spend a little time here ranting about my summer class and my fellow students. I'm taking Evidence right now and I'm enjoying it a lot. Very interesting stuff and very crucial to future practice in law. After all, evidence is the core of the legal system. Without it, you can't win cases, gain leverage in negotiations or even file a suit. It's the stuff that Law and Order is all about. Collecting evidence and finding ways of introducing it and using it to get the bad guys. None of the open and shut stuff with CSI. Don't get me wrong, CSI is awesome but jeez.... you wouldn't believe how much prosecutors HATE the show!!!! During voir dire, they actually now ask jurors to state whether they watch CSI regularly!! You just don't want a jury that's expecting forensic evidence like tracing a single flax seed found on the victim's shoe to a remote area of northern Montana. Sheesh...
Anyway, I digress. I feel for my poor professor and I'm getting very frustrated with the majority of my classmates. I don't know what their problem is, but for some reason the majority of the class chooses to sit like idiotic, drooling morons who apparently don't read the assignment. My professor winds up sitting there after asking a simple question, waiting and waiting for someone to volunteer and answer. Now, if you're wondering what happened to the Socratic method, it doesn't really exist anymore. Not in the "Paper Chase" style anyway. (Well, it might at Harvard, but I'm not at Harvard so that's my reality.) Instead, today's professors are nice enough to leave students alone and expect volunteers to fill in the time and discussion.
So me and a few of my chums in the class have taken it upon themselves to try and move the class along by relunctantly volunteering answers. If we didn't, I'd swear we'd just be sitting there the whole time waiting. Either that or my professor would give up. We look like teacher's pet overachievers to the rest of the class, I'm sure. (It doesn't help we sit in the front two rows.) Do I care?? H*** NO! I want to move the class and my learning process along, thank you very much.
It's just so frustrating sometimes!!!! I swear, I think I may wind up going postal at some time. (If you're wondering, the preceeding statement would most likely wind up as non-hearsay evidence of my state of mind if I ever did go postal. Heh....)
I know the students in my class are quite intelligent. You have to have a modicrum of intelligence to get into law school, after all. I know these people are overachievers who do the reading and know what's going on. Yet for whatever reason, everyone wants to keep their traps zipped. I've been told that some people were told that volunteering was pointless as it does nothing for your grade so why bother?? My answer to that?? Well, how are you supposed to get the material if there is no discussion to get all the pertinent points??? How can you know that you truly understand something if you don't try and explore the minutiae of the theory behind legal concepts???
Law is not black and white. It's not simple, straightforward formulas that get you to one answer. Justice is blind and in that blindness is a cold, impartial and sometimes harsh fairness. In truth, the law really rests on whether you are more persuasive than your opponent and can find ways for the law to fit what your side wants. There are very few absolutes in the law. In that sense, the more that you can debate and discuss, the more you can truly dig down and learn to be an advocate.
I don't think some of my classmates get that. Maybe it's an age factor. I happen to be much older than most of my classmates. I didn't decide to do law until well after I graduated college and went into the work force. I hate to think that way though since I know that it's unfair to judge them as an age group.
Ah, well... enough of this rant. I'm probably making a big fuss over nothing but it's driving me nuts!!!
Anyway, I'll try and post more. I'll probably mostly rant and rave about everyday stuff. Boring, really... so we'll see.
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5 comments:
Congrats, kiddo. But now there'll be even fewer people to help puff up Ben's blog!
Also, ya might want to explain things like "voir dire" to us laypeople...
Ah,there are echos in my head. At the risk of offending the maturationally challenged - as if I care who I offend - I do believe that age may be a factor. Recent studies show that the generation behind us expects everything to come easy; to be handed everything with little effort or output on their part. Okay in my world, that's called LAZINESS. Let's call a spade a spade. Is this just a politically correct way to say those a decade ahead of us have raised lazy kids? I could go on and on with this line of reasoning but it will just end up at the same place: it's not thier fault, it's the reality in which we live. No one is home to raise the children anymore, so guilt is the predominant driver in childrearing. Parents [mothers] feel guilty about the lack of time they have to nurture their children, so there is much more leniency as a result. Capital punishment is a no-no; and the only "no" heard. Parents are more reluctant to say "no" to their children, with the end product being people who are not used to taking direction well, or doing anything they do not want to do. Now, if I had done something fruitful with my advanced Psychology degree I would tender a possible solution. But this is the way we live and there is really no changing our lifestyles as Americans at this point. Should we expect more from outside players, such as the education system? That's a question for an education major.
Hey, don't feel too bad about people not participating in class. I am a firm advocate of don't waste my time with stupidity. Also, have fun with the class. These are the perfect opportunities to chat up the professor and ge the most out of the class. After all, they decide your ranking anyway. If your classmates don't want to make an impression that is their issue. By the way, guess who.
Hello, Ms. M!!! =)
I fully intend to take advantage of the situation. The professor is great. He knows his stuff and is very approachable. I just feel bad because he's just not getting anything back from the rest of the class. I'll admit three hours of class is tough to sit through, but as one of the comments said, deal with it!!!
To answer a couple things:
1) Voir dire- basically where potential jurors are questions to address their suitability for jury duty. Questions are posed by lawyers on both sides, who are then allowed to eliminate certain jurors on the potential biases based on the way the jurors answer the questions asked.
2) I'd heard about the studies showing the "Gimme now" attitude of the next generation. I forget the exact term used but in the employment context, some college grads are having difficulty finding jobs because employers have this negative impression of that generation. I agree that it's bad parenting but it still doesn't prevent me from getting annoyed with that attitude!!!
Eh, wouldn't worry about my blog. I think I'm doing a decent enough job puffing it up by my lonesome. ;-p With some occassional help from that rat bastard! =)
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