I am so excited to get to publish this post.  I’ve been working on this for 3 months and it’s finally time.

I’m in law school.  Even typing that phrase excites me.  I am 3 months into a 4-year, online law degree program.  It’s based in California, and while not ABA-accredited, California allows sitting for the Bar at the conclusion of the program, with full licensure upon passing.

I wanted to give myself the time and opportunity to see if I was going to 1) like the program 2) be able to handle the course load and 3) be certain that it was a quality educational process.  I am happy to report an enthusiastic yes to all 3 questions!

But I also wanted to be able to blog about this undertaking as it is happening, so I’m going to create this post, save it as a draft, and add to it through the weeks until I publish it.

1.11.11  Conclusion of first week of school.  Overall impression:  I LOVE IT.  I love the academic challenge, I love the OCD nature of the daily schedule, I even love the endless, tedious case reading.  The pace is reasonable – the suggested commitment is about 4 hours a day, and I find that pretty close to accurate.  The program is self-paced, and includes reading, lectures, online interactive classes, and quizzes.  I experienced a pretty big learning curve this first week.

Most of my undergraduate studies (back in ye olden day) required taking in information, committing it to memory, and repeating it back in the form of a test or paper.  Law school, not so much.  The first quiz I took:  30%.  Exsqueeze me?  30%?  I don’t even know where 30% lives!  Rattled me a bit.  In this program, if you don’t receive a 70% or greater on the quiz, you must take a makeup quiz.  With a quaking finger, I clicked on Submit, and got my instant results of…100%.  I am harboring no illusion that I have this figured out, but it helped to restore my confidence.

1.17.11  Week 2.  What I have found is the operative word in studying law is the word “reasonable”.  It is part of many tests of application, so to speak.  It’s such a subjective term in an objective study, it makes me smile every time I read it.  We are such a diverse and different society, the reasonable person test is humorous.  In my household alone, the response to the “Would-a-reasonable-person-find-that…” could be different the 6 times you asked it!  Musings on week 2…

1.23.11.  Week 3.  Today’s topic is addressing the portability of this program.  It is probably the drawing feature of Concord Law.  It is so exciting to log on to the live classes, and see the other students’ locations:  Spain, Japan, Indonesia, many US states, several from Tennessee.  We have traditional reading assignments, online lectures, real-time virtual classes, quizzes, exams – and 90% of these are on our own timing.  I can do them anytime/anywhere.  What I’m finding, however, is that I’m most comfortable sitting right at my dining room table where all my notebooks and books are laid out!  I’m currently out in Colorado skiing with my sons, and I brought some of my studies with me.  I find myself reaching for my books and highlighters and supplies that I DIDN’T bring…gotta work on that one.

2.7.11  I think this is about week 5.  Today’s topic:  punishment.  Who knew?  Even as a parent and being familiar with the purpose/reasoning of punishment (current hip lingo for parents instead of punishment:  discipline.  It’s a prettier word).  Reading and studying about the theory and history of punishment – the concept, the application, the purpose (punitive?  rehabilitative?  deterrent?) – it’s just fascinating.  It requires so much more insight into the human psyche and social mores than it appears we give it in our penal system.  I tried finding a TED talk about punishment (my go-to source for think-tank material) but no luck; I hope and expect to go into it more deeply somewhere along the course of study.  So short answer for this week’s musings:  I just love this.  I love being given something new to think about, something to learn, something to question.  Oh, and another quiz…90%.  But don’t get cocky.

2.13.11  I’ve lost track of week numbers – I just know I’m on module 5.  4 subjects, one new module per each every 11 days…which bring us today’s subject.  It goes without saying (but I’ll say it) that time management HAS to be a skill you bring with you to law school.  I don’t struggle too much with this – I raised a large, busy family, I know the value of time, I’m mildly OCD about my schedule, so this challenge hasn’t been too large.  What I am finding, however, is that equally as important as time management in this endeavor is information management.  Books and books of info, cases, reading, lectures – all have to be condensed/assimilated/edited into a reasonable pile o’ crap to study and learn.  There are tricks and techniques that I’m learning, but I find myself once again barely hanging on the wheel on a huge learning curve.  I had a bit of a Helen-Keller at-the-well moment this week on figuring out how to do this – it involves colored pens, highlighters, font sizes, and Roman Numerals.  That’s enough sharing for now.

2.21.11  Studying Crimes of Omission in Criminal Law:  do you have a duty to act?  Do you have a duty to save your child from drowning in a pool?  Good answer.  What if it’s your niece?  Another good answer.  What if it’s a stranger’s child?  What if you can’t swim?  What if it’s your sworn enemy?  Where’s the line?  Is it a legal duty or a moral duty?  Every time I feel like I’m on solid footing I get thrown another curve – good thing I like curves.  I like the whole cerebral challenge, I like the discovery and argument process, and I even like the gray area where these issues inevitably reside.  What I’m learning about the law is that It Is Always The Way It Is.  Unless It’s Not.

3.5.11  Topic of the day:  In law school, which is the bigger advantage – Youth and Enthusiasm or Experience and Maturity?  I’ve been watching my fellow classmates and I see their Facebook statuses and their answers during class and their comments when we do group study and I’m going to say that right now the jury’s still out (see what I did with that?).  I can see that some of the time the younger students (<35) have ideas and vigor and I really appreciate their drive and openmindedness.  I can see that we, the older crowd, have such a broader approach to the workload and time management, and we’re more patient (mostly…a week to grade my essay??  WTF?) and less flexible in accepting new concepts.  I love watching the whole group interact, however; especially our class spread across continents and time zones and cultures.  I am saddened by the loss of a couple of classmates already – I’m not looking forward to the natural attrition that’s just a fact of life with a graduate program like this.

3.20.2011  I love my classmates!  In a program like this you have to be creative and flexible about studying because #1) we’ve all got lives and jobs and families and #2) we live thousands of miles apart!  My class is spread out over the globe so we use a variety of study tools – our go-to is Skype – an hour, two hours, three hours with briefs spread out and books open, talking about the current topic and sharing what we understand about it.  We also use Facebook, and Facebook chat, and of course email (who knew that would be kind of old-school?).

3.29.2011  It’s time.  I’m about 2 days premature on posting this, but I’m ready.  I don’t know that it’s going to come as a surprise to anyone since I can’t keep my big mouth shut about how much I’m enjoying this, but here it is.  I am loving it, I am overwhelmed and maximized on what I’m able to learn and understand, I have no assurance I can get through this over the next 4 years, and I’m going forward anyway.  Every big undertaking involves big commitment and big risk.

Expect more entries regarding this subject, and as always,

Thanks for reading!