Lawnmower Man II and amateur law school commentary
People mow lawns like nobody's business around here. I shouldn't complain - everyone's front yard is currently sporting those lush, green, spring stripes. I love those stripes in a freshly-mowed lawn or baseball field. But now the guy across the street is going at it with his mower, and it is so loud.
Anyhow, I finished my second exam today - Environmental and Toxic Torts. The exam was fair, and that's all I will say since I took the exam early and most of my classmates have yet to take it. Two down, three to go next week.
There's a bit of bouhaha going on over at IndyNet, our law school's "official" blog, regarding some faculty issues. I read the blog regularly, but I comment infrequently. I requested that my personal blog not be linked directly from there because I wanted to speak my mind here without feeling like I was somehow associated with the law school's blog. I am a student with a student's perspective on law school, but my page is primarily personal thoughts and not law school commentary. That said, occasionally I do comment there, particularly when an issue arises that I feel needs another voice, or in this case, some voice of reason.
The current controversy has to do with a student-driven petition regarding a young professor's bid for tenure. I am neither for nor against his tenure, although he has only been teaching for three years, and that seems quite young to me to be expecting, or even requesting, tenure at any law school. But what do I know? Not much about faculty/administrative procedures, and I would not even question the faculty/administrative decisions to grant or not grant tenure. I am not an insider, and I don't pretend to have any greater perspective.
What is noteworthy regarding this particular controversy probably has more to do with my coming to the end of my law school experience and less to do with any insight I might offer regarding the young professor in question. What troubles me about the comment string to the post is that many of the current and prospective students have this misplaced sense of entitlement and disrespectful attitude. The comments deviate from the young prof's tenure to bashing the academic instituion here to bashing another controversial professor, who is a seasoned staple at our law school. She is one of those professors who you either love or you don't. She's tough and opinionated and difficult and stubborn in her views. She can be offensive and abrasive, and she's hard as hell to please. But she's brilliant and stead-fast in her position. Simply put, you may not like her, you may not agree with her, but she's certainly not afraid to stand her ground. And she can support a position with such ferocity and force that you just might eventually back down. And if that is not a positive attribute of an excellent attorney, I don't know what is.
I should note that I haven't had this particular professor. I know her only in passing and in reputation. But I certainly wouldn't go onto a blog and disrespect her, or any other professor for that matter.
My point is this:
Just because you have the ambition and opportunity to go to law school and achieve a higher education doesn't make anyone better than anyone else. Whether your parents are footing the bill for your degree and throwing in a condo on the canal to boot, or you are working two jobs and sleeping little in order to make your lawyer dreams come true, no one owes anyone anything. Most of us fall in the middle of that spectrum, and most of us take it in a respectful stride. Those students who think they are "buying into" a law school education and as such, they are entitled to not only pick their professors, but bitch endlessly and disrespectfully about every little thing they don't agree with, and then demand that they are owed something because they bought into this program, are approaching law school from a skewed point of view. Fortunately (or maybe not so), law school academia allows and fosters such independent thought. Maybe it's old school, but I completely disagree.
IU-Indy has top-notch professors. It is a top-notch school, regardless of where we are ranked. Yes, I'm nostalgic at the end of my time here. But I also see this crap attitude from a select group of students, and I don't appreciate having that negative attitude following in my footsteps.
Law school is tough. It may or may not be reflective of what one experiences out in the working world of the justice system. Current and prospective students shouldn't be so quick to pigeonhole the experience. It is a privileged opportunity, one that I am forever grateful for, and what comes with that privilege is a diverse group of professors and experiences that allow one the opportunity to make their own path.
I couldn't have asked for a better environment or better professors than what I've had here. The good, the bad, and the ugly all have made me the graduate that I'm about to be. The students who are fighting against the flow of the system for their own ulterior motives are simply asking to miss out on experiences that would likely make them better off in the long run.
Anyhow, I finished my second exam today - Environmental and Toxic Torts. The exam was fair, and that's all I will say since I took the exam early and most of my classmates have yet to take it. Two down, three to go next week.
There's a bit of bouhaha going on over at IndyNet, our law school's "official" blog, regarding some faculty issues. I read the blog regularly, but I comment infrequently. I requested that my personal blog not be linked directly from there because I wanted to speak my mind here without feeling like I was somehow associated with the law school's blog. I am a student with a student's perspective on law school, but my page is primarily personal thoughts and not law school commentary. That said, occasionally I do comment there, particularly when an issue arises that I feel needs another voice, or in this case, some voice of reason.
The current controversy has to do with a student-driven petition regarding a young professor's bid for tenure. I am neither for nor against his tenure, although he has only been teaching for three years, and that seems quite young to me to be expecting, or even requesting, tenure at any law school. But what do I know? Not much about faculty/administrative procedures, and I would not even question the faculty/administrative decisions to grant or not grant tenure. I am not an insider, and I don't pretend to have any greater perspective.
What is noteworthy regarding this particular controversy probably has more to do with my coming to the end of my law school experience and less to do with any insight I might offer regarding the young professor in question. What troubles me about the comment string to the post is that many of the current and prospective students have this misplaced sense of entitlement and disrespectful attitude. The comments deviate from the young prof's tenure to bashing the academic instituion here to bashing another controversial professor, who is a seasoned staple at our law school. She is one of those professors who you either love or you don't. She's tough and opinionated and difficult and stubborn in her views. She can be offensive and abrasive, and she's hard as hell to please. But she's brilliant and stead-fast in her position. Simply put, you may not like her, you may not agree with her, but she's certainly not afraid to stand her ground. And she can support a position with such ferocity and force that you just might eventually back down. And if that is not a positive attribute of an excellent attorney, I don't know what is.
I should note that I haven't had this particular professor. I know her only in passing and in reputation. But I certainly wouldn't go onto a blog and disrespect her, or any other professor for that matter.
My point is this:
Just because you have the ambition and opportunity to go to law school and achieve a higher education doesn't make anyone better than anyone else. Whether your parents are footing the bill for your degree and throwing in a condo on the canal to boot, or you are working two jobs and sleeping little in order to make your lawyer dreams come true, no one owes anyone anything. Most of us fall in the middle of that spectrum, and most of us take it in a respectful stride. Those students who think they are "buying into" a law school education and as such, they are entitled to not only pick their professors, but bitch endlessly and disrespectfully about every little thing they don't agree with, and then demand that they are owed something because they bought into this program, are approaching law school from a skewed point of view. Fortunately (or maybe not so), law school academia allows and fosters such independent thought. Maybe it's old school, but I completely disagree.
IU-Indy has top-notch professors. It is a top-notch school, regardless of where we are ranked. Yes, I'm nostalgic at the end of my time here. But I also see this crap attitude from a select group of students, and I don't appreciate having that negative attitude following in my footsteps.
Law school is tough. It may or may not be reflective of what one experiences out in the working world of the justice system. Current and prospective students shouldn't be so quick to pigeonhole the experience. It is a privileged opportunity, one that I am forever grateful for, and what comes with that privilege is a diverse group of professors and experiences that allow one the opportunity to make their own path.
I couldn't have asked for a better environment or better professors than what I've had here. The good, the bad, and the ugly all have made me the graduate that I'm about to be. The students who are fighting against the flow of the system for their own ulterior motives are simply asking to miss out on experiences that would likely make them better off in the long run.
posted by Amanda at 6:51 PM
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