Filed under: self indulgence
Something has been worming its way around my brain for the past few weeks. I had spoken to one of my bosses a while back concerning what I want to do with my life, don’t know, half way done with my BS, maybe grad school?, blah blah…
She, mentioned animal law.
And now I am ordering the LSAT study guide to check it out, reading up on curiculums, and doing general research. I stumbled upon Wikipedia’s description of law school pedagogy:
“Professors generally lead in-class debates over the issues in selected court cases, compiled into “casebooks” for each course. Traditionally, law professors chose not to lecture extensively, and instead used the Socratic method to force students to teach each other based on their individual understanding of legal theory and the facts of the case at hand. Many law schools continue to use the Socratic method–consisting of calling on a student at random, asking him or her about an argument made in an assigned case, asking the student whether he or she agrees with the argument, and then using a series of questions designed to expose logical flaws in the student’s argument. Examinations usually entail interpreting the facts of a hypothetical case, determining how legal theories apply to the case, and then writing an essay. This process is intended to train students in the reasoning methods necessary to interpret theories, statutes, and precedents correctly, and argue their validity, both orally and in writing.”
I am totally stoked. I think spending day and night reading cases, then going in to debate them and master the concepts of logic and precedent is HOT. Like applied philosophy! Holy crap, I wanna go to law school and defend researchers from the onslaught of animal rightists!
Oh, crap. I wanna go to law school…?
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