{"id":5505,"date":"2009-06-10T10:14:16","date_gmt":"2009-06-10T15:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=5505"},"modified":"2009-06-10T13:07:50","modified_gmt":"2009-06-10T18:07:50","slug":"is-anybody-out-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/06\/is-anybody-out-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Anybody Out There?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clip_image002\"A large part of my life has been devoted to getting into law school (it was not an easy task for me), and now that I am here I find myself slightly disappointed. <\/span>It is not that I don\u2019t find law school to be challenging or interesting; it is just that it is not as intellectually stimulating as I had hoped. <\/span>Maybe my expectations are too high, but is it really too much to ask to have an interesting class discussion?<\/p>\n

Before I go any further, I want to make sure that everyone understands that I am not faulting the professors for the lack of class participation. <\/span>The majority, if not all, of the professors I have had at Marquette have tried to elicit class discussions. <\/span>Students are just unwilling to say anything. <\/span>Wait, let me correct that: \u00a0most students are unwilling to say anything. <\/span>There are some students who participate in every class, and, while I appreciate their contributions, no one wants to hear the same person talk all the time. <\/span>It is about balance, about involving as many perspectives as possible to gain a greater appreciation for the law and the effects it has on individuals.<\/p>\n

I think I struggle with the lack of class discussion in law school because my college experience was filled with heated class debates. <\/span>My college professors not only expected class participation, they demanded it. <\/span>I remember one class in particular when, after multiple unsuccessful attempts to elicit a discussion, the professor stormed out of the classroom in disgust. <\/span>She came back into the room after a minute or two later to say something to the effect of, \u201cEverything I was going to lecture on today will be on the final. <\/span>For those of you who were prepared to discuss the material, thank you. For everyone else, your lack of respect for me and your classmates will not be tolerated. <\/span>Your actions have ruined it for the rest of the class.\u201d <\/span>It goes without saying, that that never happened again. <\/span>Every student thereafter was ready and willing to participate. <\/span>Do law students need the same kind of wake-up call?<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe that is too drastic, and maybe my undergraduate experience was atypical, but I do wholeheartedly believe that I learned more from class discussions than I have ever learned from a series of lectures. I understand that not everyone, including myself, is prepared for every class, but I don\u2019t think that should matter. <\/span>We are all intelligent people and should have something to offer regardless of whether we completed the assigned materials. <\/span>And if you are a person who is afraid of being wrong, or of saying something stupid, I say go ahead and say something stupid. <\/span>I am wrong all of the time, but I don\u2019t usually realize it until someone points it out. <\/span>Sure, sometimes I am embarrassed, but most of the time I am just happy that I realized I was thinking about it the wrong way before the final exam.<\/p>\n

I am as much to blame for the lack of participation as the rest of my classmates, partially because I don\u2019t want to be \u201cthat girl” who talks all<\/em> the time. <\/span>If everyone spoke up once in a while, we would be able to have rich, interesting class discussions instead of having to settle for lecture after lecture. I know the importance of class participation is nothing new. (For example, Althouse has an interesting blog post entitled Is class participation obligatory for law students?<\/a>.<\/em>) However, I wanted everyone to know that it is not only professors who think students need to participate more in class. Some students, like myself, crave a more interactive learning experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large part of my life has been devoted to getting into law school (it was not an easy task for me), and now that I am here I find myself slightly disappointed. It is not that I don\u2019t find law school to be challenging or interesting; it is just that it is not as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-education","category-marquette-law-school","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}