"Let Us Suppose": Welcome to Law School

I've been putting off my first 1L post with the pretense of "I'm too busy for that!" But as I sit here freezing on the desolate third floor of the library reading criminal law, I figure I'm due a short break. And a C.S. Lewis quote in a criminal law textbook? Let's say law school is not what one might expect.

But that's not totally true. As I did expect, the days are long, the reading material is dense as Cajun gumbo, and the professors are self-admitted masters of oratory. None of which I will refer to by name, nor any fellow students, for the sake of respecting their identities. For example, I would only refer to a consitutional law professor as "Professor Constitution."

Before my readership makes a mass exodus from this weblog, let me confirm that this is not going to strictly become a law school blog. It will simply become a mostly law school blog.

HA!

A friend advised me not to be "That Guy" in my classes. The student raving on about his knowledge of the homework or asking tangential questions that show his or her better-than-the-professor-knows-it knowledge of the material. I have certainly avoided that. I've actually only spoken up in one class a couple times, ever-so-briefly. Actually I wonder if the promised and unnerving Socratic Method is some sleeping giant that will suddenly be released from the dens of academia as of yet, for only a couple classes have employed the infamous law school calling-on of students.

Prof. Criminal Law, however, ironically was the one who told us he didn't use the Socratic Method (the Greeks eventually put Socrates to death, he reminded us, to nervous chuckles throughout the student stadium seating) - and then went on to question us more than any other professor. Actually I reviewed my notes, and I have only 2 typed pages of nothing but questions asked by the professor.

By the way, the other main characters in my evolving story will be Prof. Contracts, Prof. Torts, Prof. Civil-procedure, Prof. Legal-Traditions-and-Systems, and Prof. Legal-Research-and-Writing.

I could tell you more, but the truth is I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. I can tell you the reading is interesting. Very fulfilling.....and the hardest I've ever done. Well this end's my break.

Does anyone have a heating blanket? (I heard some chair-scooting. There must be other life forms up here on the 3rd floor.) "Utilitarianism and punishment of the innocent..."