Last week in class we discussed the effect of law school on its students. To what effect if any it has on them, even going so far as to claim some sort of brainwashing. Reflecting on the discussion, I guess I do believe law school does in fact brainwash their students. Law is taught to be its own language, in which to learn you brain must be reformatted to understand. This is done as we discussed in class by teaching students in essence how to think like a lawyer. Where initially students came in with their individual and diverse ideas, they are soon trained to be these homogenous “collective-type” thinkers. But is this really a problem? Furthermore is it nay different than say any other profession. Do we not assimilate the ideas, rules, and standards of the profession, whatever it may be, that we decide to pursue. I think it is just simply the nature of become a lawyer that this occurs much like in any other profession, for example a doctor.
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It seems that law school and future lawyers already are "homogenous 'collective-type'" thinkers. Talking about law school, we basically decided that it is a brain washing of their students because you are developed into being a guided thinker by your teachers. I disagree that in other professions the nature of assimilation is there because you are allowed to develop your own ideas and creations to think individually, whereas, with becoming a lawyer you are confined to following regulations, obviously that being the law. This is not really a problem and I do not anticipate it becoming problematic in the future because lawyers are held a high regard where those in society must come to them to find out what is law and therefore guide them as needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree that law is like many other professions in which very specific skill sets and languages are taught. But this does not make law school's brainwashing any better. In fact, I feel that the problem brought up by Kennedy in his discussion of law school applies to those other professions as well. In my view, the problem is that students in technical fields, law included, do not think critically about what they will be DOING with the education they are given.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I am an aerospace engineering student, and the majority of companies in my profession are large military contractors. I hear people all the time talk about just wanting to get a good job, never giving a second thought to what exactly that "good job" entails. I've never heard anyone discuss having reservations about Raytheon employing them to build guidance systems from missiles. Obviously, not all aerospace engineering students view building missiles for Raytheon as a good thing, nor do all of them view it as a bad thing. Instead, it seems, none of them have even given it consideration.
I don't want this reply to get too long-winded, but just as Kennedy argues, the focus on compartmentalized study seems to encourage students to think in terms of neutral, harmless "subjects" (aerodynamics, propulsion, and electronic control systems), without ever asking them to consider the end results (an electronically-guided missile).
I agree totally what you’re saying. The path of your profession is going to adjust your thinking and your values no matter what. You cannot expect to agree with everything a doctor would do or everything a lawyer would do. These preparations are enacted for you to think like a typical doctor or lawyer. If you want to call it brainwashing then do so, but it’s a statue that’s carefully been in place for a reason. You cannot enter these fields of study without proper direction.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that when an individual intends to enter a specific job field their train of thought tends to change over the course of time. This is because if that person is not able to think like rest of the individuals in the group, they are not going to be able to be successful in the field that they plan on going into. It is also a known fact that when an individual spends time around particular group with shared interest, they tend to begin to take on some of the shared thoughts and interest of that group. However, I do not believe that I would call it brainwashing because that individual still is able to think of and voice their own opinion on a particular topic.
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