dis-orientation?
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Let me start with a disclaimer: I don’t intend in any way, shape or form to detract from the efforts of the Orientation Committee. In fact, I commend them for doing a great job in organizing the activities and events for the class of 2008. I think the “Return to Osgoode High” theme was pretty clever in itself, and no one can take away from the leaders’ enthusiasm.
However, I think it’s time we re-evaluate the purpose of Orientation Week and think about the image we’re building for ourselves during this crucial point of our legal careers. Dictionary.com defines the transitive verb “orient” as “to align or position with respect to a point or system of reference,” “to make familiar with or adjusted to facts, principles, or a situation,” or “to focus toward the concerns and interests of a specific group.” The obvious rhetorical question then becomes, “What do wearing itchy leis and yelling incoherent cheers at the top of one’s lungs have to do with entering a prestigious professional programme and commencing one’s legal education?” To what exactly are we orienting these new students?
Law students and lawyers are accused of many things – taking themselves too seriously perhaps being the foremost – but then maybe it’s not such a bad thing to take certain things seriously. There’s a time and place for everything, and I don’t intend that OW should become joyless or soulless. But we still need to distance ourselves from the “frosh week” mentality that pervades OW. As one distinguished professor put it, I can’t imagine that this is how Masters and PhD students would start their academic year (for the record, I have neither, and perhaps those of you with post-graduate degrees who have partaken in such activities will forgive me for my presumptuousness). In any event, I’m taking my cue from other fellow students who have expressed the same reservation about participating in OW activities because – to quote one – “that seems so undergrad.” Pretentious as that may sound, I think it’s a valid point.
The truth is, I like the idea of orientation. I like the idea of having pomp and ceremony about this significant event in our lives. We all worked hard to get to where we are, and it’s nice to have the Dean and all the Professors and even the Chief Justice of Ontario tell us that we’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and doggone-it, people like us. When I was a first-year, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends and to acquaint myself with the faculty. What I truly enjoyed about it, however, was the idea that I was taking my place amongst serious scholars and great advocates, the present and future “movers-and-shakers” of society.
It is that feeling that I hope Orientation Week would truly seek to impress upon each incoming class. This is more than just a diatribe of self-importance, but a serious call to the next generation of legal professionals to understand and accept their place in the community. If each incoming class, as the Committee wrote in the Orientation Guide, is to be instilled with a sense of pride and a sense of purpose, then we ought to examine whether our orientation activities actually facilitate that goal. Maybe it’s Osgoode, not “Osgoode High”, that we should be returning to.
--------------------
Let me start with a disclaimer: I don’t intend in any way, shape or form to detract from the efforts of the Orientation Committee. In fact, I commend them for doing a great job in organizing the activities and events for the class of 2008. I think the “Return to Osgoode High” theme was pretty clever in itself, and no one can take away from the leaders’ enthusiasm.
However, I think it’s time we re-evaluate the purpose of Orientation Week and think about the image we’re building for ourselves during this crucial point of our legal careers. Dictionary.com defines the transitive verb “orient” as “to align or position with respect to a point or system of reference,” “to make familiar with or adjusted to facts, principles, or a situation,” or “to focus toward the concerns and interests of a specific group.” The obvious rhetorical question then becomes, “What do wearing itchy leis and yelling incoherent cheers at the top of one’s lungs have to do with entering a prestigious professional programme and commencing one’s legal education?” To what exactly are we orienting these new students?
Law students and lawyers are accused of many things – taking themselves too seriously perhaps being the foremost – but then maybe it’s not such a bad thing to take certain things seriously. There’s a time and place for everything, and I don’t intend that OW should become joyless or soulless. But we still need to distance ourselves from the “frosh week” mentality that pervades OW. As one distinguished professor put it, I can’t imagine that this is how Masters and PhD students would start their academic year (for the record, I have neither, and perhaps those of you with post-graduate degrees who have partaken in such activities will forgive me for my presumptuousness). In any event, I’m taking my cue from other fellow students who have expressed the same reservation about participating in OW activities because – to quote one – “that seems so undergrad.” Pretentious as that may sound, I think it’s a valid point.
The truth is, I like the idea of orientation. I like the idea of having pomp and ceremony about this significant event in our lives. We all worked hard to get to where we are, and it’s nice to have the Dean and all the Professors and even the Chief Justice of Ontario tell us that we’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and doggone-it, people like us. When I was a first-year, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends and to acquaint myself with the faculty. What I truly enjoyed about it, however, was the idea that I was taking my place amongst serious scholars and great advocates, the present and future “movers-and-shakers” of society.
It is that feeling that I hope Orientation Week would truly seek to impress upon each incoming class. This is more than just a diatribe of self-importance, but a serious call to the next generation of legal professionals to understand and accept their place in the community. If each incoming class, as the Committee wrote in the Orientation Guide, is to be instilled with a sense of pride and a sense of purpose, then we ought to examine whether our orientation activities actually facilitate that goal. Maybe it’s Osgoode, not “Osgoode High”, that we should be returning to.
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posted by þΛųL jØŋαŦhΛŋ @ 21:45
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