The end of November launches a holiday season in these United States, but for those involved in formal education it is also a season of papers, projects, and examinations. Thanksgiving break does provide a break from classes, but not from work, as our youngest daughter bemoaned on her short trip home from college. There is no rest for the wicked. There are turkey sandwiches, sure, but no rest (yet).
Law school is particularly relentless. The killer combination of a single grade-determining final exam and a pernicious grading curve that pits all-star students against one another for a handful of A’s produces a motivation that is not helpful for proper digestion. If you want to experience stress with all of your senses, visit your neighborhood law library.
During this season of final exams, popular metaphors include heads down, noses to grindstones, shoulders to wheels, and so on, but not much related to actually looking up. Unless looking up information or in desperation count. From my seat in a law school, while I strongly recommend long hours and hard work, I also advocate periodically looking up for a little perspective. Specifically, the following perspective:
Carol Dweck famously teaches the advantage of a “growth mindset” as compared to a “fixed mindset.” For the latter, final exams are personal evaluations (i.e., I am good at this or bad at this; smart or stupid; etc.), but for the former, the exams merely reveal information helpful for growth and improvement (i.e., How can this make me better?). And in case you are wondering, growth mindset leads to greater success than is ever possible with a fixed mindset.
This is a season of giving—professors giving assignments/exams, and students giving their very best effort—but the frenzied effort from the students is misspent if motivated by fear of failure as defined by a letter or number. Instead, everyone is better off if the heroic efforts are motivated by the capacity to grow and learn.
Study hard, my friends, and look up long enough to remember that you are here to learn and not to be graded like cattle. And learn well. A real break will be here soon.
I confess that I didn’t read the instructions very closely, but I’m pretty sure we can stop being thankful now that the holiday has passed. I’m not 100% positive on this, but since we are apparently expected to line up at midnight and explode out of the starting blocks like Usain Bolt to beat our fellow citizens to the hottest deals, it seems that the time to appreciate what we already have has now passed and that we need new things for which to give thanks!
I once heard a speaker say that you could give everyone a sheet of paper with a line down the middle, ask everyone to write all the reasons to be happy on the left side of the paper and all the reasons to be sad on the right side of the paper, and everyone could fill up both sides. The question is: Which side of the paper will you live your life on?
My first Los Angeles Rams game came with a free helping of déjà vu when the crowd transformed its booing of starting quarterback Case Keenum into chants of “We want Goff” in reference to Jared Goff, the rookie backup quarterback hoped to be the future of the franchise. Goff never saw action, but the fans did their best to get him in the game.
I’m not sure that I met the height requirement for this American roller coaster, but I am apparently strapped in and here we go.
I traveled to San Francisco last weekend with my friend and colleague, Ahmed, to represent our dean at the annual conference of the International Association of Law Schools and was humbled to gather with people from all over the world who are responsible for training the next generation of lawyers. It is no exaggeration to say that the world depends on this good work.
Starting to Look Up 