A Variety of Thoughts

I once had a girl come in with a paper her professor had asked her to rewrite. He had commented that it sounded like an advertisement and not an essay. Upon reading her paper, I was surprised and a little amused to realize just how right the criticism was. This girl has a successful career in marketing ahead of her, but she simply did not understand the idea of looking at both sides of an issue,or have the ability to recognize weaknesses in her egregious claims.

So I talked to her. Her writing wasn't bad, just bombastic. I asked her what people didn't like about her topic, and why people who disagreed felt the way they did. She looked at me like I was an idiot, and proceeded to explain why anyone who disagreed with her was an idiot. Explaining that it actually helps you look smarter if you admit you have opposition, and can show why you're right, I tried to get her to at the very least include a paragraph starting out with something like "Some morons think that....but they are obviously socialists and hippies." Or something. Anything. The logical fallacies in her paper were begging for attention, but I would have taken any little concession at all.

I can't tell you if her paper had any comma splices, but we did spend a lot of time talking back and forth about her paper topic. By the end she had agreed to do more research and find some counter arguments to put in her paper. I learned a lot about her topic, and I learned even more about the way she thought about the world.


Now on to a slacker subject: I love politics. And it has been fascinating to watch the post-election process on both sides of the aisle. The state constitutional amendments, the senate and house races and now the new power dynamics, Palin's political future, Obama's positions. All so fascinating.

In other news, over the past year, I've been entreated to drop my childhood dream of going to an "ivy league trade school" and instead join the gallant ranks of professorship. Not long ago, one of my poly sci professors asked me to go to his office so he could ask me a few questions. After we'd completed the business at hand, I was surprised to hear what is now a familiar question "Have you ever considered grad school?." I'm not opposed to grad school; indeed, I know I'm just masochistic enough to enjoy it. But I'm fascinated by law and it really has been my childhood dream to go to law school.

Up until a few weeks ago it had only been professors who pushed the idea of grad school. Then, a certain professor who shall not be named here, jokingly recruited a friend of mine to recruit me to grad school. I introduced him to the possibilities that exist with a law degree, showed him a few programs that offer a joint degree in law and French, and watched as his future transformed. I blog about this because Michael and I joke that we really should tell Dr. Rogers that I convinced Michael to go to law school - that is, unless he bombs the LSAT - instead of the other way around.