Topic based on Molissa’s comment on Professor Moglen’s discussion of Theo’s health care post.

We were told on day one that 95% of Professor Moglen’s former students are “miserable.” When we thereafter discussed happiness, we were told that happiness was not the topic.

When asked why we don’t speak in class we discussed fear of being berated, fear of being wrong, fear of being embarrassed. But this class is the only one I have had all year where the professor berates the students.

We were told that many of us will be disappointed if we simply pander to our professor’s politics. Then those who write posts challenging those politics are lambasted. We are then told that we are mindlessly responding to the red flag that was waved before us (note the metaphor – we are the bull, under the command of the matador, whose ultimate goal is a knife in the back of the bull’s neck).

We are told that exams are stupid and that we can and should challenge the grading curve, and then that “The more stuff like this you write the lower your grade is going to get.”

We are told to question the traditional signposts of success, then regaled with stories of clerking at the Supreme Court and working at Cravath.

What is going on here?

We were lured into the store by a pitch that promised meaning, fulfillment, joy, and at least some degree of financial security. We are now in the store. The bait has been snatched away but the switch is yet to come. I suppose we’ll see.

-- AndrewCase - 04 Mar 2009