I am surprised that I haven’t touched on this before, since it is probably my #1 law school pet peeve, but do you know what really irritates me? Professors who don’t hand out a syllabus.
Dear Law Professors of America,
Let’s put this out on the table right now: Law professor is about the easiest job a JD can get. You teach two or three classes per semester, you write a paper every few years, and you hold office hours twice a week. That’s it. There is no dress code, so if you want to wear cowboy boots, a flannel shirt, or a $2,000 suit, you can get away with it. You get your summers off, unless you feel like teaching a laid back summer class with six apathetic students. You get paid pretty well, especially considering the “rigors” of the job, and once you get tenured, you are set with a cushy job for as long as you want it. Is it too much to ask that you make a word document containing the reading assignments for the semester, your office number and hours you are available, and your email address, and then hand a copy of the word document out to each of your students?
It can’t be that hard. You just sit down with a copy of the academic calendar and the class text book, and devise a list of the reading assignments. Then, make an approximation of when each assignment will be covered, and put that next to the corresponding date of the class meeting. It’s just that easy. And if you have taught the class before, then you know what you want to cover, so making the list of assignments is even easier.
Does that sound too tough? Do you like to go off on tangents or engage the gunners in long discussions that tend to throw the timeline off? Well here’s an idea: Instead of putting each assignment next to a corresponding date, number each assignment. This way, if you get off track, you can just say “We won’t get to assignment number 12 next, so no new reading,” or “For next class, move on to the next assignment.” Doesn’t that sound nice? And it reflects much better on you if you give us a syllabus, instead of taking three minutes at the end of each class, furrowing your brow as you leaf through the book trying to decide what to cover for the next class.
Look, I am not asking for a detailed breakdown of the entire semester. I just want something in my hand, something that I can look at and see what we have covered, and what we will be covering, so when I go to cram before the exam, I know what exactly I should cram. If you expect us to hand in detailed, well-written answers, couldn’t you at least give us a detailed, well-written breakdown of where we can find the information to formulate those answers? I think we both know the answer to that.
Sincerely,
Mike (on behalf of the Law Students of America)
