Monday, April 28, 2008

Yay for early childhood education!

Governor's wife delivers dose of good news to children's advocates - Breaking News from New Orleans - Times-Picayune - NOLA.com

I'm not a huge fan of the public school system in general. (For New Orleans, at least, I'm skeptical of our current paradigm and am not convinced the 7000 taxpayers per child per year are bing wisely spent).

However, early childhood education gets results!

Thursday, April 03, 2008

A little love for the law

So I have recently had a couple of experiences that make feel optimistic about my future.

1) The other day a friend called with a legal problem. In the end, there were no concrete steps I could take, but just being able to research and possibly help someone with a problem was absolutely invigorating. I think I'm just getting weary of the academic grind and the theoretical stuff that I memorize for the exams. Maybe I just need the sense of purpose that only a problem to be solved can bring.

2) I attended Family Court yesterday, as a part of the Family Law class requirement. I watched the judge deal with ex-couples looking to set child support. It was great because I got to see her apply the law in a human way. She went by the book, but also made a clear effort to show both parties that their concerns mattered. For example, although support could have been set (legally speaking) without the father's presence in one case, she told the attorney for the state that if at all possible, he should get the father in court instead of just sending him a piece of paper in the end. In another example, she told a couple that the situation "was no longer about them" and was about the child. She considered the other factors in peoples' lives but was firm. She was truly a force for good. I was impressed.

Yay! Now, back to the books. Ha.

In the meantime, I'm pretty excited about Raul's recital in the Ridge this Saturday. And about finishing off the second year of law school.