WOA Woes
Five papers due - about 5 hours each.
Twenty three cases to read - about 225 pages.
Class twice a week - about 17 hours.
Relevance to the "real world" - extremely high.
Moot Court requirement - fulfilled.
Grade - Pass/Fail.
Credits - one.
Shouldn't WOA be worth more than this?
Twenty three cases to read - about 225 pages.
Class twice a week - about 17 hours.
Relevance to the "real world" - extremely high.
Moot Court requirement - fulfilled.
Grade - Pass/Fail.
Credits - one.
Shouldn't WOA be worth more than this?
posted by Bekki at 1:04 PM
12 Comments:
Or maybe all our other classes should be worth less?
In seriousness, Dean O must field this question a lot because I have heard her explain several times that credits are dictated by classroom hours, which, as your list shows, are sparse in WOA.
Here is a better question: why is the accrediting body for law schools (the ABA, right?) so married to classroom hours as a measure of educational progress?
The one credit WOA issue has been brought to the attention of the powers that be since 2004, when I was in WOA.
"Five papers due - about 5 hours each" -- Huge understatement.
Draft 3 alone was at least 12 hours to do all the writing + revising.
But seriously--1 unit? Admin needs to change this pronto.
maybe WOA is just an effort to get us all to get used to spending way too much time on stuff that we really don't care about?
The number of credits a class is worth is predicated on the number of classroom hours that class requires. It is a simple, lock-step relationship mandated by the ABA. That's why "Admin" can't "change this pronto," no matter how badly they want to (and frankly, the way Dean O has talked about it, I think she would love to make WOA a three credit class, if only it was within the school's power).
The one credit WOA oddity is representative of what seems to be a fact of a legal education: you 'earn' a degree by sitting in class, an activity which is not always relevant to the practice of being a lawyer.
Why don't law schools let students apprentice at law firms for their third year? Why do we still use casebooks and the socratic method as tool of choice for teaching? Why do many legal employers complain that first year graduates still have a lot to learn about being a lawyer?
The answer, I suspect, is something like: "For the same reason WOA is worth one academic credit -- the structure of our legal education is a quaint little model that sometimes produces absurd results."
One thing is for sure, this blog has gotten a little whiny since I was at boalt.
Here's the bottom line. Howevermany credits they award you for this class (or howevermany they don't) it'll still look bad if you dont supplement your spring schedule w/ electives and you will still have to do all that work. This my friends, is definitely one of those times you should suck it up.
"The answer, I suspect, is something like: 'For the same reason WOA is worth one academic credit -- the structure of our legal education is a quaint little model that sometimes produces absurd results.'"
Absurd to whom? The current structure perfectly suits some people.
A system can both produce some absurd results, AND suit some people. They're not mutually exclusive.
Just look at the electoral college.
;)
"One thing is for sure, this blog has gotten a little whiny since I was at boalt."
Agreed! I'm only a 2L and yet the whine factor has increased tenfold since I started.
If you reassign the number of units for WOA based on total time spent on classwork, then you would have to reassign the number of units for a countless number of other classes. I'm sure many of us have been in a 2 or 3 unit course that consumes twice as much of our time as some 4 unit courses. The system is what it is....deal with it.
I think WOA should be graded - it'd give some of the slackers in my section a little more incentive to actually read the assigned cases, show up to their presentations and turn in a decent draft on time.
Could WOA be graded like clinical credit, where you track your time and get credits based on your "billable hours"?
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