Legal Commentary

At the Chronicle of Higher Education website, there is an interesting column titled "When Students Cry."  Actually, scratch that.  The column is reasonably interesting -- well-written, but you've probably seen it before.  The responses to the column, on the other hand, are fascinating.  I'm not surprised that there are different views on how to respond to a student who cries in your office -- over a grade, usually, although not necessarily.  I am surprised by just how harsh some of these comments are, how resistant to the very idea of feeling bad that one of your students feels bad.  Some of the reactions seem to be as much about the commenters' own insecurities, or about other issues altogether, than they are about the students themselves.  Prawfs readers may also enjoy the commenter who brings in the Sotomayor hearings (remember those?) and points out that having empathy for a crying student is hardly the same thing as altering one's standards.  In any event, both the column and especially the comments are well worth a read -- perhaps especially for incoming profs, who may never before have had to deal with something like this but almost certainly will face such a situation in the next year.

One other note.  In this as in much else, it seems to me that most of the emotional and professional burden of dealing with these kinds of episodes will be dealt with not by the pure "academic" faculty -- although, as the assigners of grades, we also get this from time to time -- but by the often underappreciated legal writing faculty, who have the closest exposure to incoming law students.  (And who also, incidentally, teach them some of the most important things they'll need to succeed in law school and legal practice.  If you're an incoming law student reading this, keep it in mind!)