I was sure it was a late April Fool’s joke when I heard the news yesterday that UofT law school is considering changing its marking system to a less stressful one. Even crazier was the yoga, dog petting & foot massages that the students were receiving on the eve of exams to de-stress.
Now granted UofT (I went to the better law school, Osgoode Hall) does charge the most in the country for their education – $ 25 000.00 per year, not including books. Perhaps then, this is an effort to give students value for their money?
In my opinion after 19 years as a lawyer, this is ridiculous.
Being a lawyer is stressful. If you can’t handle the stress in law school, please give up your spot to someone who can: not eveyone needs to be a lawyer.
If grades are too stressful for future lawyers, will the future be one where there are no Judges (judging somone likely is stressful for the person being judged and their lawyer, so let’s not judge). Perhaps guilty will be replaced by “did something that hurt the feelings of society”?
I fear for the future. Will this silliness ever stop?
I’m all for work/life balance. I love what I do and thrive on the fast paced environment. I also love to do many things after work and I ensure that myself and all who work with me have time to do so.
Stress is part of life. Handling it effectively is a learned skill and an important skill as a lawyer.
I suppose the big “takeaway” from this news is that real lawyers will clearly not come from UofT – I kind of always suspected that anyway. That was a joke. I hope it didn’t stress anyone out.