I didn't hear back from the judge. (though I may still -- there are generational differences in how often people check email. I only get my postal mail once a week) The professor ended up agreeing with me on one of the cases in contention. It will not lead to any curricular re-evaluation of the assignment but at least I wasn't smokin' dope.

Some days at law school I get caught in the gap between my curiosity about topics and the whole "don't rock the boat" principle familiar to me and anyone else who has held down a job. I mean, law school is just another work environment, and the people working there have the same motivations -- wanna get paid, wanna get a good performance review, wanna get hired back next year.

I myself don't have anything to lose by making hay out of certain topics, but it doesn't mean it's going to rise to a level approximating interest for anyone else. It would be nice to think professors cared about every allegedly brilliant idea students came up with, but what's in it for them?

It's another application of the principle I used to call "your emergency is not my emergency" back when I was working. The conundrum is, you can't do your job (or your studies or whatever) without the help of other people, but you can't necessarily get them to pay attention either, since whatever is the most important thing to you may rank low on their list.

When I learn about something new, I want to find out all sorts of things about it. But the guy who's been teaching the first-year course for 22 yrs is maybe not quite as fulfilled by the inquiries as I am.

28 Oct 04