Update: Education Law

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hey everyone,</p>

<p>My grades are finally up. I got a C in Educational Law. It makes me sad and very angry because I did well in my other classes (1 A and 2 A-s). Had I dropped the law course, my cum GPA would have rise instead of staying the same. Worse, I have 3 Cs on my transcript, including now a 300-level course for my major. I can kiss good-bye the U.S. Dept of Education Internship becuase they would never accept anyone such as myself getting a C in an 300-level Education class. To get an A in Race/Ethnicity Constitutional Law (without the use of Socratic method) and a C in Education Law (with the use of the Socratic method) just looks awful. I can kiss grad school good-bye.</p>

<p>I want to contest the grade so badly (I could use doctor visits since I had episodes of eczema and pityriasis rosea this quarter which I did not want to wake up, dress and go to class). The Socratic method scared me to death to the point I just didn’t want to speak at all due to being seen as stupid. I felt at a complete disadvantage since I never grew up in an suburban school district (i live in the city) and most of the cases applied to suburban schools. I could not share my experiences to anyone because my experiences did not apply, so I could not participate as much as I wanted like in my other classes. And when I did an urban school for my first paper, I still got a C because I didn’t mention the court cases (why should I when the school itself used zero tolerance? the court cases didn’t even apply). I am not a C person, everyone. Just look at my other grades! Sighs…</p>

2

<p>Tenisghs,
I’m sorry that you were afraid to contribute – your insights coming from urban schools would have been tremendously helpful to the class. Thirty years have gone by, but I still have a vivid memory of the day a young black woman in my first year real property class spoke up to contest the professor’s characterization of a case involving tenants unsuccessfully suing their landlords over substandard housing conditions. The professor had a dismissive view of the case (as did the court that decided it)… but the student said, “I LIVED in those tenements, and let me tell you what it was like there…” Needless to say she had the rapt attention of a lecture hall filled with 150 students, and the socratic discussion soon deviated from what the law had been to what the law should become … </p>

<p>In the future, if everyone seems to be talking from one perspective… and you have something very different to contribute, keep this in mind: you are the only one in the group who has anything interesting to say. </p>

<p>Do you want to be a lawyer? If so, then of course you know that all classes at the top law schools are taught by Socratic method – one reason is to help students develop their ability to frame good arguments, advocate vigorously, and be able to think and articulate quickly on their feet. Scary… but those are the skills that good courtroom lawyers need. </p>

<p>Hard to believe, but I was once a painfully shy child afraid of even the most casual social interaction. But I was bitten by the law bug … so I signed up for introductory Rhetoric and Drama classes in college, to get practice speaking and emoting before a group. When I was in law school I signed up for assertiveness training classes (given outside the school). I too felt intimidated, especially as I was a woman in what was then still very much a male-dominated field, but I took it upon myself to do whatever I needed to do to get over it. </p>

<p>I have no idea whether or not the US Dept of Education will deny you an internship based on a ‘C’… somehow I doubt it. You’ll never know unless you apply for the internship. </p>

<p>I certainly know that your C’s will not keep you out of grad school, though of course your GPA may affect which grad programs you get admitted to. But again… if you really want to learn and succeed, honest feedback is the best thing going for you. It sounds from your post that you have a very good idea where you went wrong in that class – use that knowledge to guide your choices in the future, and I don’t mean by picking the easier classes. </p>

<p>I know maybe you are coming here looking for sympathy. I’m not trying to berate you… just pointing out that as difficult as it is to face a set back early on, the best thing you can do for yourself and your future is to continue to challenge yourself.</p>

3

<p>I don’t know what internships in ED you’re applying for, but when we looked at interns for the Office for Civil Rights we did not consider a person’s grades. We also really didn’t consider where they were going to law school. When I was doing the interviewing all I was interested in was if there was anything in their background which indicated an interest in civil rights: volunteer work, courses, school papers, law review articles, or the like. Grades were immaterial.</p>