October 21, 1996 - A Mature Point of View

by Tom DesRochers

Is it just me, or is the term just whipping by? It is just me? Sorry about that. You First Year people are probably finding the term is grinding by a little slowly for your liking. This is just a sign that you are uncomfortable and not enjoying yourself. I guess you didn't need someone like me to tell you that...but just think, you're half done the term ! So lighten up a bit, okay ?

If I've done my arithmetic properly, this article will appear on October 21st. This means that the First Year people will have just written mid-term exams in the subject you think you are the lousiest at.(Am I right?) The mid-term is the first of many hoops you have to jump through to complete the obstacle course known as First Year, and your first LRW assignment doesn't really count. There seems to be a continuing debate as to how much these exams actually count for. If indeed they do count (and I'm not saying they don't!) they don't seem to have a really big impact on final marks. I say this for the benefit of those who think they bombed (don't panic!).

This is not to say that mid-terms aren't important. In fact, these exams provide you with an excellent practice tool, and exposure to the most common means of evaluation at law school. So it's important that you learn how to write them; they're different from the exams you had in undergrad. Don't focus on the final grade you get in the mid-term, concentrate on the criticism. If you do well, determine what you did right, and if you made mistakes, find out how to correct them. You actually have the potential of getting more out of this if you did badly. Consider mid-terms a "dry run" for the finals in December.

Truth be known, I'm not really the best person to discuss exam stress. Nobody had told me, last year, that I was supposed to be all stressed-out about the mid-term, and when I got a Sunday-night, pre-exam call from Donna Gillespie, my mature student advisor, she was shocked to hear that I was watching the idiot box. Apparently, everyone else she spoke to had their faces glued to law books, but not this guy. Having found this out, I think Donna was actually a little pissed off, which I didn't understand at the time (but I do now). I think if upper-year students hear students in First Year say they're actually enjoying themselves, it's like a kick in the shins. You can't please everyone.

Before I sign off, I'd like to say thanks to Sebastien Berthelet et al for their recent article (October 15, pg.3) with respect to the "propaganda" surrounding separatism and anglophone rights in Quebec. Over the past several months I've seen a number of "federalist" articles in the Obiter take a very anti-French slant, as opposed to anti-separatist. As a flag-waving federalist, this bugs the hell out of me. I understand that Quebec anglophones and allophones have experienced the nasty side of the Quiet Revolution, but English Canada, as a whole, won't be in position to accuse Quebec of oppression until it recognizes it's own legacy of cultural genocide and exploitation. Quebec's education and sign laws are certainly wrong, unjust, and politically motivated, but when weighed against what la francophonie hors de Quebec has endured...well excuse me if, as a Franco-Ontarian, I don't get too choked up about it. All that name calling and radical activism will do is provide separatists with more ammunition.

Anyway, enough of that. See announcement for "kids & spouses" party on October 26th, hope to see you there. Stay tuned for "Return of Roberta." Don't take any wooden nickels.