Scales of Just-ass

Recently, I sat in on a night law class. I am not sure why admitted students are encouraged to do this. You might think it would dispell fears of applicants who read the book "One L" by Scott Turow upon the advise of ill-willed relatives. It doesn't.

These are the only reasons I can imagine why Admissions staff would invite pre-students to sit in on a class:

1) To weed out the ones who like torture from the ones who don't.
2) To scare pre-students into actually doing their required summer reading/assignments.
3) To encourage students to study art history.

The class I sat in on was "Civil Procedure"- sounds innocent enough. It was like walking into a foreign language class. Terms like "comparative nucelus of operative fact" and "ancillary jurisprudence" where thrown around like putty in dialogue between teacher and student. I was in a bad science fiction movie with jibber jabber like that, plus the repeated use of the ominous phrase "Rule 14"- sounds scary doesn't it? EVERYONE had their laptops open in front of them for note-taking. My pen and pad of paper made me feel like a technological caveman.

Ok, the truth is that it wasn't so bad. I was excited to set foot in a classroom again and I'm looking forward to the challenge of grasping new concepts. I love the college classroom atmosphere and am thrilled to become part of a student body again after a year of real-life work and responsibility.

When I found out that law students don't write papers, except for in legal writing class, I almost cried from let down. It feels so good to confidently take up an argument and find ways to cleverly defend it. Yes, I am a nerd...

Sitting in the back row, looking at all the laptop screens in front of me, I decided that law classes serve another purpose. Law class is a chance for students to discover how many times within an hour that they can win Solitaire....