<p>Hey guys, I'm currently in an Educational Law course on major U.S. Supreme Court cases that deal with student rights (e.g. Tinker, Fraser, Hazelwood, Goss, etc.). We also look at circuit court of appeals cases and try to analyze how justices come to their conclusions (and argue why they are right/wrong.)</p>
<p>While I enjoy the material since education is one of my field of interests, I may have to drop the course. The professor is a former lawyer, and she likes to use the Socratic method. She wants us to think like lawyers. To sum: it's killing me. I never have anything useful to say even if I have read the material. I don't like being called upon when I don't have anything useful to say.</p>
<p>If you are curious, I have taken a prior course on Constitutional Law (without the Socratic method) that focused on race and ethnicity. I did very well in it.</p>
<p>Class participation in Educational Law is 30% (my former class was only 10%).</p>
<p>So, should I drop the course? It would be a bummer (the deadline is this Friday), but I'm queasy about my performance in that class.</p>
<p>At least I know that law school is not for me.</p>
<p>Anyone? Can anyone comment?</p>
<p>I started to write, then my comp crashed - and then CC was offline. Here goes.</p>
<p>As CC's resident law student, I'm chiming in on this. </p>
<p>Your professor sounds like she's on a power trip. Socratic is brutal. Law students find it to be very intimidating. It takes a lot of getting used to until you can see the benefit of it. I just can't understand why a professor - who probably has her own horror memories of law school - would inflict that upon undergraduates. At least in law school, you expect to be confused. At least in law school, class participation counts for, at most, one or two points at the end of the semseter. That's because everyone expects you to be lost for the first 10 weeks of school. </p>
<p>That all said... don't drop a course because you are afraid of a bad grade. Don't drop it because the professor is a head case. If you aren't getting anything at all out of the course, then drop it.</p>
<p>I can suggest hornbooks or outlines - if she's teaching this like a law course, then use the study aids that law students use. Try Gilberts or Emanuel for outlines; Examples and Explanations for a study aid; and the Nutshell series for hornbooks. Get one or two online. </p>
<p>Don't ever think that this experience means that law school isn't for you. Please, sit in on a law school class (which you could probably do, as your university has a law school) and talk to law students before making that determination. As said in Legally Blonde, "If you're going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, then you aren't the girl I thought you were."</p>
<p>Thank you, aries! I decided not to drop the course. I love the court cases (I've taken a similar Constitutional Law course, and did well in it). But the Socratic method gives me the creeps! I don't sound "smart".</p>