The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

We all have at least one professor (in law school more than anywhere else, I've noticed) that is never prepared for ANYTHING. Now, that wouldn't be bothersome if it were just, say, a lecture class. BUT, the class in which my professor is repeatedly, woefully, chronically underprepared is a class meant to act as a supplement for a clinic. Clinic as in clinical practice. As in clinical practice that will place those of us under this professor's tutelage in front of a judge at some point. I mean, seriously.

We spent 15 minutes staring at walls today, while the professor tried to make copies. I emphasize TRY because there only ended up being two copies. It ended up being a verbal explanation of the facts of the case, which we had to just hope and pray that we remembered. Oh, we also had to either look up the charges to see what the max. penalties were or just make them up. UGH. That, my friends, is no way to teach law students about how to practice criminal law. A solid 75% of the time we're in class there doesn't appear to be either rhyme or reason to the way class is taught. It just sort of happens. Honestly, most of the time I'm not entirely sure what I was supposed to learn. We're also supposed to be taking a sort of provisional bar exam for this course, so that we can go to court under the direct supervision of a senior attorney; however, I say "supposed to be" because the code we'll be practicing under changed about two months ago, and unnamed professor has now been unsure for 3 straight weeks which code we're supposed to study for this exam. NOT HELPFUL. Particularly when we're all frantically studying for finals and most of us will be leaving to be with family for the holidays immediately thereafter.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one who experiences this amount of sheer exasperation/frustration on a weekly basis....actually, right now, it's a twice weekly basis. OH, and at the end of class (which finished over an hour early) my partner (yes, we also have partners for this class) and I were basically told that what we're doing on Wednesday does not apply to us. Talk about a waste of time. I mean, sure, I get that you're a real life practitioner and that stuff blows up, but if you are responsible for teaching a class, and you're NOT in court that day, spend 20 minutes getting your shit together. It would make all of our lives easier, less frustrating, and less mildly homicidal. Also, you pulled me away from my steamy, sriracha-infused, delicious bowl of Pho for that mess of a class. Thanks. Totally made my day better. I didn't need that happiness and pause in the day at all.