Socratic This!

I would like to think that Socrates was not a repulsive mind-saboteur. But my law professors are making it really hard for me to think otherwise.


The exploitative use of the Socratic method of teaching by law professors nationwide not only destroys the confidence and crushes the soul of every law student, it also single-handedly eliminates all possibility of actually enjoying the law school experience. As if the LSAT (the Life Sucking Anti-Humane Test) was not enough of a confidence-crusher, I am then heartlessly subjected to a perverse technique where an unnaturally-pompous professor randomly selects me to explain an alien concept so that he can proceed to laugh at me and establish my intellectual inferiority. That's just sick and demented.

To make things worse, students are not allowed to respond with violence! We can barely express our discontent verbally without fear of being belittled or reprimanded. Where's the justice in that? I am still mentally recovering from getting reamed in front of a hundred classmates by my civil procedure professor for suggesting that Erie* may have had implications on horizontal jurisdiction as well as vertical jurisdiction. Till this day I cannot even say the word "jurisdiction" without twitching and stuttering. Maybe it's just me, but I cannot see how this uncontestable Socratic system facilitates intellectual growth and/or promotes the well-being of law students.

- I have spoken. Now humor me with a rebuttal.


* Erie R.R. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64 (1938)