Dust in the wind, dude.

So, I work a full time job during the day and go to law school at night. The worst thing about the whole situation is time management. MLW is great – she does a lot of the little things that keep a house running on a day-to-day basis, but she works 2 jobs.  Best. Wife. Ever.

 

For the most part, I really enjoy law school. Most of the classes are interesting. I also don’t stress out about grades too much, so that helps. 

 

The most annoying thing about law school is the Socratic Method. Basically, the professor calls on one person in a class of about 100. He asks a few basic questions about the assigned reading, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. Then, the fun begins. Basically, the prof keeps asking the poor soul question after question relating the legal theories of the case. He changes a key fact and then asks the student to figure out how the new situation would stack up to the old one. A single student is usually on the spot for about 10-15 minutes, but I’ve had professors that kept one person on the hook for an hour. It is NOT a fun experience, even if the questions are not that difficult. When it is complex stuff, you’re ready to put a gun in your mouth by the end.

 

The idea is that by making the students answer questions, it teaches them to develop legal analysis skills to apply the reasoning of the underlying law to the real situations they will eventually face. Problems occur when the professor forgets that he is teaching to an entire class (so he/she doesn’t make sure to emphasize the key legal points), or students are too awkward/shy/unprepared/useless/retarded to coherently answer the questions. 

 

Now that I’m finishing up my 2nd year of part-time school, I’m taking less and less large classes that do this type of thing. More of them are seminars with smaller groups and are discussion-based. Those can still suck, but I didn’t expect law school to be all teddy bears and gumdrops.

So, in conclusion, Socrates should stay where he belongs: in a phone booth with Ted (Theodore) Logan and Bill S. Preston, Esq.