I'm So Sorry
After today’s CivPro review, I’m not sure what to think. He forced me to ask myself several questions, none of which I currently have definitive answers to.
1) Why am I at law school?
2) Did I study hard enough?
3) Will being a lawyer make me happy, or will I be part of the 20% that develop a drug or alcohol problem?
4) What would I do if I wasn’t in law school?
5) Is this blog unfairly ruining my classmates’ reputations?
The only one I’m confident answering is the last. Hearing the class generalized, in the least favorable light, leads me to believe I’ve done more harm than good. My classmates are some of the hardest working people I know and to hear them criticized for drinking every night and focusing too much on intramural sports makes me feel like the shittiest person in the world.
I never intended to do that to any of you. I’m so sorry.
I know how bad many of you want to succeed and I’m not so selfish as to believe I can continue including you in my writing. I don’t blame myself for the class grades, we apparently got more than we deserved. I simply feel responsible for taking away from your efforts.
I know a couple of people after class mentioned they felt like Prof. CivPro was talking to me during his lecture; my only fear is that he wasn’t. I realize I tend to use a lot of hyperboles but I always naively assumed that by speaking in generalities I’d hide the few guilty amongst the masses of innocent.
I’m constantly using phrases like, “a 2Q” or “a group of 2Qs” not realizing I’m implicating the entire class. I realize how hard everyone works and I am so sorry I’ve taken that away from you.
If I can figure out a way to keep the blog appropriate, yet entertaining, I’ll continue to write. If not, I’ll be forced to find a new hobby.
posted by Jon Swanburg @ 6:03 PM
22 comments
22 Comments:
Keep writing!
Just put up a prominent disclaimer on the site and you will be covered.
Really though - every class gets the same type of lecture, and the distribution has been that way for the last 100 years. I'm sure there are some bitter and anal folks out there who are going to find you to be a convenient target to blame all of their problems on, but if it wasn't you they would find someone else.
Keep writting!! This is a blog, this isn't an officail representation of anything except YOUR sense of humor. Anyone who takes this any more seriously than that really needs to find more interesting things to do.
At least you are more responsible (at least more sober) than this guy:
http://nakeddrinkingcoffee.blogspot.com/
no worries........but we have never met. and you will please refer to me know on as margaret.
I feel as the other idiot with a blog, I should throw in my two cents (Osler also has a blog of course, but he is not an idiot).
I made a decision in the early days not to write about my felow classmates unless it was to praise them for something. And I never write about things which take place in class. Not for any moral reasons but beause I like to be the star. Instead, I've devoted my time to things like the entymology of the word "y'all". Which means my space suffers from not being as Baylor-y as yours (or sothebearsays was).
It also means I've managed to stay out of trouble. But it also means my blog isn't as funny, and maybe not as honest as yours is. Like you said, you found out about how Baylor actually is from Chris' blog. No one could ever say that about mine, but they could say that about yours. And I think that's pretty valuable.
Keep your chin up. And maybe we need a blogger ethic panel that's all the rage these days (that's a joke, I can't imagine anything more painful than people taking these things seriously in some sort of Baylor symposium -- I'd rather gnaw off my leg).
Hey! I'm a blogger AND I teach ethics! I could be the guy who forces Stephen there to gnaw off his own leg!
Excellent.
He means it too Stephen. Mwa-ha-ha!!! And yes, I should be studying. Guess I better get gnawing.
Would I then be able to qualify for the handicapped space? Because I see a potential upside of gnawing off my leg.
For the record, its not ethics I am opposed to, but the idea of a panel on blogging.
I doubt that Prof CivPro's remarks were generated by anything you wrote here. He once made it very clear to our class that the faculty doesn't think enough of any particular one of us to devote much thought to any one student--therefore making it unlikely he would change a review session (much less an entire exam curve) based on your comments here.
In any case, I would at least give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he wouldn't be so--for lack of a better word--shallow as to generalize about the whole class for what you described/alleged/implied others in your class were doing.
Your CivPro curve reminded me of our Contracts II curve...they were both pretty brutal, and no one in our class--that I'm aware of--was blogging about drinking/partying/sports.
I think it's fair to say that 90% of us don't 'work hard enough' in our first quarter--partially because we don't know what's really required and partially because we don't really know how to 'work' in the law school sense. That's factored into the program to some degree; for example, go back and look at your 1Q outlines after your second quarter and see how little material you actually covered during that first quarter in comparison to second quarter.
So, it's not really accurate to say that not working 'hard' is the cause of 'bad' first quarter grades. The curve, if it's honest, sets itself. If you had some spread-out outliers towards the top end, it's going to reduce the number of As and A-s. If there was a big gap between a small group of high-mid range and a large group of mid-range, the curve should reflect it by consisting of a lower number of Bs than B-s.
Prof CivPro was in Guadalajara this summer, and he witnessed--it was hard to miss--the disgusting amounts of 'non-hard work' going on. Yet, the Islamic Law curve wasn't exactly brutal.
So you definitely shouldn't blame yourself, and if anyone else blames you for their bad grade--well, that speaks for itself.
And now it's Miller time. Cheers.
Gnawing off a leg is not a big stretch. Today I threw an eraser at a student and grabbed another by the hair, and people seemed to think it was a pretty good class.
Of course, I threw the eraser very gently after saying "catch!" and pulled the hair as part of a description of courtroom presentations, but still, that first paragraph sounds pretty hardcore.
Ok, I'm going to stop cross-blogging now.
i agree with what that 2L said...not because i know but mostly because it makes us look better and totally sounds smart.
Fuck what anyone says. Yes, what they say matters, but there's only so much you can do. Do your thing. Study, live your life, and as long as your happy and proud of what you've done at the end of the day, that's all that matters.
After what WJC says about all the hard work you need to do, its really not a big surprise that his kid didn't know his name! Some people just don't want to work 90 hours a week, some people think trivial things like spouses and kids and friends matter. What schmucks! Keep doing what you do and remember, work to live; don't live to work!
Anonymous 11:33pm---
You're an idiot.
The man has an ego bigger than a Lincoln Towncar. Anyone with such a high opinion of himself clearly sees the rest of the world in a very skewed manner. I'd take what he says with many, many grains of salt. Perhaps around the rim of a margarita glass? Keep up the good work- don't let him get inside your head and you'll be fine.
I’ll keep blogging with a modicum of restraint and we’ll see how I do. Everyone but Haley, and Thomas will ideally remain safe.
And Prof. CivPro is still a great teacher. His cruel truths may be difficult to handle, but not many professors can make you go home and really think about what you want to do with your life.
glad to know you love me, cheif.
First, let me start by saying that Prof. CivPro still absolutely terrifies me, and it's been 4 quarters since I last had to deal with him. If I see him waiting for the elevator, I take the stairs. I see him on the stairs, I detour into the student lounge. WHen I heard he was supposed to take over PR, I seriously considered transferring (I wouldn't be the first who transferred/dropped out to get away from him).
Every class feels like he hates them more than he's ever hated anyone in the entire universe. If you have a blog, it makes you more of a target, usually personally, but I don't think it has that much to do with your classmates, unless you do something crazy stupid like "I saw X student copying the exam and distributing it to all the other students." Or, worse, "I copied the exame and distributed it to all the other students."
After a particularly brutal savaging in his office, I spent two days in tears. If you go into an out of the way corner, especially during first quarter, and come across someone sobbing, "CivPro?" is a good question to ask. (Unless they're not a 1L, in which case the answer is probably "PC.")
His is one opinion, as terrifying and world-shattering as that one opinion is. I think his job is to crack anyone who can be cracked, before they waste their time and money if something they can't do. The first quarter is a learning process. Some people get it really early. Some people don't--I faceplanted spectacularly. But you can pull it together and keep moving. The highest grade I got my first quarter is the lowest grade I've received since, and that's only happened a couple of times.
Anyway, all of this is to say, fix what you've realized you're doing wrong, but don't let him crack you completely. And you can join me in finding sudden reasons to dart into unoccupied classrooms when you see him heading your way in the hall.
I relayed some of what was said during that exam review to an older lawyer that I know from home, who I keep up with, and he kind of chuckled and said he's glad someone like WJC is still around. While you may take what he says personally, it's more personal for him. With all of the elder statesmen leaving, he's kind of the last guardian of the honored profession. He has an "only the worthy shall pass" mentality and he's always been clear about that.
http://hamsterroll.ytmnd.com/
Well, Swanburg, I believe it's unanimous. You MUST continue to blog. Whether or not it has a "modicum" of restraint is your business. You have detailed a part of the Baylor experience that is hard to describe to anyone. "Where fun goes to die" is no longer a catchy headliner, but now it is a chronicle. I never liked that saying, and I really don't believe it's true. I've had fun here. My definition of "fun" has changed slightly, but the people I've met here are good friends and I've had some memorable times. Talk about what you want, and let it entertain the rest of us. I don't think that WJC had it out for you and your class. Ultimately, even if he read this blog every day, he is not out to "punish" the whole class for having fun. He was a Baylor law student too, and he knows what its like. He is also a person, and likes to have have fun too. Don't let him scare you into giving up your hobby (that is the only way you will fall into the 20% for sure). Vicarious partying is all that some of us have. By the Way, the 2L class's civpro tests during the review were described as "tragic." Believe me, mine WAS tragic, but it was OK, and still is. Keep it up, and don't let Baylor kill your fun.
Love,
Matt
WTF you pansy? Knuckle up, you are trying to be a lawyer remember. Just try and count the amount of times you hear the words sympathetic and lawyer together. Doesn't click quite like ruthless lawyer huh?
If anyone is taking offense, let them sue. Oops did I give them an idea?
-Colombian Boss Man
Colombian Boss Man, you are gay.
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