(That's a bit dramatic, but we are, after all, a small group of strangers from different backgrounds thrown together to work toward the same goal, so it seemed apropos.)
The students
When I say we're a small group, I'm not kidding:
there are seven of us. No wonder MUPP wanted to "allow more time for
people to register." Many fewer and they wouldn't have covered our
instructors' salaries. Since I don't want to get sued (and this would be the
crowd that would do it), I'll not name names, but rather use generalities in
describing our happy band. To wit:
Two of us are taking paralegal classes as "law
school lite," and intend to go on to the real thing in the future.
Two of us have jobs in the legal profession or deal
with lawyers daily and want to be Real Paralegals.
One of us is demon lawyer spawn on both sides.
Three of us are not (very) gainfully employed, and
think being a paralegal beats the heck out of whatever we're doing right now.
Two of us are looking for a career change.
(The mathematically astute among you will notice that
this adds up to nine, not seven. Very good. Some of my classmates fit into more
than one of these categories. Told ya I'm trying not to get sued...)
The instructors
I don't want to go too far out on a limb as I've only
have had one class with each instructor so far. Here are my initial
impressions.
The Essential Skills instructor, who will be with us
for the whole program, is bright, bubbly (in a non-annoying way), chock full of
helpful real-life tips, and is going to challenge us to do our best. She's not
adverse to keeping things light and having fun, but I can see her cracking the
whip if we start getting behind schedule.
The Torts guy, who will be with us for four weeks --
what can I say without getting myself in trouble? He's had a long, successful
career in litigation, and has some terrific war stories to tell. And he tells
them entertainingly. Were I looking for a lawyer to handle my problems, I'd put
him high on the list, because he obviously knows his stuff. As a teacher,
though -- not so good. He didn't cover anywhere near the material we needed to
get through the first night. What he did do with us was skim through some of
it, and tell us where he disagreed with the textbook's author. I really hope he
improves, or we're going to be in a world of hurt come test time.
The venue
As I mentioned before, the office building in which
our classes take place is at the intersection of two very busy highways (one of
which has just entered a five-year construction program), and within about a
mile of a third one. Class starts at 6. Anybody else seeing a potential problem
here? As somebody in class put it, "Obviously the person who chose this
location doesn't live in the City of Large." No kidding. A wreck on that non-intersecting highway just before Tuesday rush hour tied up the other two
highways, and all of the surrounding surface streets. It took Spousie nearly 45
minutes to get me from the train station to class - a trip that should take
about 15.* So I'd say the location is a fail. A geographically centrally-located
fail, but a fail nonetheless.
The classroom itself is fine. Comfy chairs. Lots of
space for the Magnificent Seven. But it's in a suite of offices, the rest of
which is Totally Off Limits. This means no vending machines, no sink, no
microwave, and no restrooms. There are restrooms around the corner in the
building's lobby, but that's the end of the amenities. And again, class starts
at 6. Dinnertime. Oops.
Now this one has me baffled. The centerpiece of the
program is a very-well-appointed, user-friendly,
no-learning-resource-left-behind website exclusively for the use of the
program's students (and there are lots, under the auspices of several Major
Universities - yup, I'm in a franchised paralegal program). Seriously, the
website sold me on attending. It's that good. It's not just an add-on,
it's an integral part of the program.
And there is no wi-fi access in our classroom.
No, I'm not kidding.
I don't know how much an 8-user wi-fi hotspot would
cost, but it seems to me that it would be worth the price. (I did a quick
search and found an offer of $299 for setup and $29 a month for month-to-month
service. That'd be $420 plus equipment, and surely a Major University would
have a compatible wireless router kicking around somewhere. I'd kick in another
$50 bucks to have wi-fi.)
Of course, an all-around better solution would be to
hold classes at Large's satellite campus of Major University. I'm not sure why
the Mothership couldn't get space for a little bitty class like ours. Hopefully,
subsequent classes will get better accommodations.
So that's the way it is, as the few, the proud, the
Proto-Paralegals launch their tiny boat into the dark, scary ocean that is The
Law. Let's hope the Kraken stays asleep.
-----
*Did I mention there's been a logistical change? Instead of driving myself to class, I am leaving work, schlepping my school accouterments to the closest light rail station, and training it to the closest station to Spousie's place of employ. She leaves early, picks me up, carts me to class, drops me off, spends a less mentally exhausting three hours elsewhere, and then fetches me home again. This gives me a chance to snarf a sandwich in the car (or at the train station), to arrive less stressed-out, and doesn't put me and others on the road in danger of my driving home at night. (Trust me; this is a good thing.)
