Open Source and Education

Dana Blankenhorn writes about Open source in the K-12 education system, its difficulties and achievements, and how it copes with Internet restrictions in the education system.

See also the discussion in Digg.

The Law: A Profession, a Trade or Both

[This post is a response to a blog post at the Wall Street Journal]

Legal Education
First off let me start by saying that I am a 3rd year Law student. During my studying I chose to volunteer in an organization that does paralegal work for underprivileged people. My legal education up to that point gave little understanding of what it really means to be a lawyer. True, certain classes are very important (i.e. Labor Law, Commercial Law if you want to work in those fields), but all the classes I've taken so far have not given me direct access to Legal work in the proper sense or to the profession itself.

For these reasons I took it upon myself to choose to volunteer last year in the paralegal work, and this year I chose to work in the Clinics in my Law School. Those were my choices. I am certain that many of my peers, who've not chosen to be part of the Clinics (or do any paralegal work) have not had that benefit. One of the things that I would like to point out about the profession is that many of them DO NOT want this experience or exposure.

Legal education goes a long way in preparing the necessary background for a Lawyer. Many of my peers will probably use that background to fuel their craving to go to the large corporate firms and do the corporate work, unprepared for one of the foundations of our job - the human factor. If you were to ask them whether they feel unprepared they will answer that they are feeling just fine. To most of them, the idea of doing paralegal work, volunteering or joining one of the Clinics seems like a waste of time. "Why would I need to go to a clinic if I want to be a corporate attorney?" they would ask. My answer to them would be that being a lawyer is beyond being a corporate attorney.

In my opinion, being a lawyer is to be an ambassador of the society to which he belongs. The lawyer is the Standard Bearer in all things legal. The term "officer of the Court" has a hidden aspect to it, a second agenda if you will - officer of the society. The lawyer must lookout for the interest of the Court, the interest of his client as he is entrusted with faith and good will from all sides concerned.

We as lawyers are the holders of the Keys to the doors of society as it is the Law that governs society. The legal framework that's been set forth decades ago gives us the keys, the authority and responsibility to use them wisely.

It was Franz Kapka who wrote "Before the Law", where it reads "Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law." We are not the gatekeepers, but rather the key holder and the ones who will represent that man who wants entry to the law.

Whether you are a corporate attorney or a neighborhood attorney, we are all in debt to society to give back part of what was given to us. Empowering the "Man who asked to gain entry into the Law" is part of what we do, and part of our moral responsibility.

I agree with Brandon who said that the legal education needs to incorporate both the current legal curriculum, while adding Clinic work as part of it.

It is my opinion that along these lines, part of our legal training as well as part of our time after graduation should be spent in giving back to society (empowering people by teaching them what is the law, how does it work, how does it reflect them and so on).

Regarding the apprenticeship model suggested, I do not believe that switching to a full apprenticeship model is the key to the issues at hand. Nor is it right or fitting, in my view, that schools will have to find apprenticeships for its students. That will only emphasize the differences between the Law Schools in terms of connections, money and other resources. It could lead to a wrongful situation where only the top schools would get the "good" apprenticeships, increasing the gap between those who studied in the top 5 schools and those who haven't.

Is the Law a profession, a trade or both? I think that the answer is a mixer of both, with a zest of responsibility to give back to society and empower the people you come in contact with*.


*I know and understand that for Commercial lawyers there isn't much empowering to be done in the course of their work, but imagine how better off society will be if every corporate lawyer would volunteer once a week/month for a few hours to help underprivileged people in the ways of the Law.

Quoting Wikipedia as a Source

As a university student, one of the things you look for when writing a paper is supporting sources for your work. You scan and skim through many articles, essays, books and other sources before you can find write one for you.

In the Digital Age, searching has become a tedious job. With a click of a button and a scroll of the mouse we can now skim and brush through so many more sources than ever before. The information age brought with it the opportunity to explore databases and sources that were never before available to us at a very small (almost nil) cost.

I came across this article in Yahoo (by AP News Agency) that tells of how in Middlebury College students are not allowed to quote Wikipedia as a source.

This should not come as a surprise to people, students and teachers alike, since Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales was quoted saying that for Academic papers you should not base your material only on Wikipedia in an event in UPenn.

It is understandable, since Wikipedia relies on user input to generate its knowledge (though there are problems with plagiarism from time to time). There is no scientific research to coroborate the information in the Wikipedia, and also no sure way to verify its authenticity.

The only logical conclusion is that Wikipedia is a good starting source for a project, pointing you in the direction of the quotable sources that'll be academic enough for your university/college paper.