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Today in History (1862) - The U.S. government forbids all Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, thus effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation. On the same day in 1865, the Confederate Congress voted to enlist 300,000 black troops, granting them freedom with the consent of their owners. Lee surrendered a few weeks later. |
Reported by an acquaintance who is in a different Civil Procedure class:
Professor: Is [blah] what the Court of Appeals is saying?
Student: I think so, yeah.
Prof: (silence)
Prof: Or?
Student: Or... not?
Prof: (silence)
Student: Definitely not.
Prof: Good. The next question is, is it about the facts or the law?
Student: Well... the law.
Prof: (silence)
Prof: Or?
Student: I meant the facts.
Prof: In which case you would be right. Moving on --
(Assuming that the transcript is accurate,) could there be a better example of how poorly law professors understand what it means to teach by the Socratic method?
I much preferred the professors who taught by more usual methods to those who attempted, most often poorly, some mutated form of the Socratic method.
Posted by: Craig at September 22, 2004 10:14 AMStrangely, it looks almost exactly like the transcript from an Abu Ghraib interrogation. (Of course the professor would get more enthusiastic responses if he used snarling dogs.)
Posted by: Mojo at September 22, 2004 03:48 PMMy civil procedure prof tends to outright agree with mistaken things students say before asking if anyone else has a different "opinion."
Posted by: washerdreyer at September 22, 2004 06:38 PM