Socraticized

Well, the first full week of Law School has come and gone. I quite nearly made it through without looking too ridiculous, but if you're reading this blog then you probably know nothing ever goes that simply for us. None of my professors are of the Kingsfield fashion immortalized by the movie "The Paper Chase", but that isn't to say the socratic method prevalent at Rutgers Newark. I was called on to recite the facts and tell what happened below in the Peevyhouse matter. Peevyhouse is a classic little guy gets screwed case about a mining company in Oklahoma in the 60s. I thought I had a pretty solid hold on what was going on, the facts/issues/reasoning/etc. so being called on was a good thing. I was going to have the opportunity to at least look competent, or so I thought. But here's the rub, I started getting quizzed on policy questions in the case. I hadn't read the case from that perspective (hell, I was happy to have understood the rule and the reasoning) and I quickly got lost in the professor's questions. Each of my classes has had this tone. We're constantly talking about the underlying policy and I feel its to the detriment of learning the power and interplay of the rules themselves. I love the material (who knew you could steal land from people legally?), but I'm still not completely comfortable in class because of it. I GET the material, or so I feel every night, but then the profs are firing off questions that I don't see the relevance of or at best think are not nearly as important as larger issues. I'm sure I come to realize more and more what is expected of me at every step of the way, its just hard not to be frustrated right now.