How To Explain A Low Grape Point Average

I was interviewed the other day for a publication, Inside Higher Ed, about the Lisa Dan Rittenhouse case that I had blawged about hereThe piece comes out today to discuss the conflict between inclusion for learning disabled students and the role of law schools as gatekeepers of the profession.

My concern is less with the specific individual involved as it is with the inherent conflict and how schools understand what their role is and what it should be.

My experience is that both sides in this situation tend to have a “take no prisoners” perspective.  The LD side demands free access and accommodations regardless of its implications for the future.  The schools, on the other hand, can’t be bothered looking outside the box to understand that nature of learning disabilities and what they can do to educate students who may make great lawyers but have some problems with the nature of law school.

One of the questions that I was asked, but never made it into the article, was whether an inability to perform well in law school indicated that the student would be unable to make a good lawyer.  My response was, what makes you think the skills needed to survive law school have anything to do with being a lawyer.  It may be what we do, but it’s a huge and unwarranted leap to assume that there’s any real correlation between the two.

3 thoughts on “How To Explain A Low Grape Point Average

  1. agraham

    Are you telling those with a low grape point average to stop wining? As the Brits might say, law school doesn’t determine if you’ve got the bottle to be a good lawyer. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)

  2. Mark Bennett

    Agraham,

    You brut! That’s a vine way to respond to this post, which is vintage Greenfield. In sherrying his thoughts with us, Scott is raisin a pressing issue; the riesling is that, from the west to the yeast, students with low grape point averages are currantly being stomped by the job market; they are finding no port in a storm. While those with high GPAs are getting vat and happy, the rest are left high and dry. You should blush.

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