In the words of the gre–of Janice Dickinson,
Published by Sid December 20th, 2006 in paycheck, beefcake, bitchery. Tags: No Tags.my recent temp job is about to be “O-V-O-VER!”
Hush. It didn’t make a lick of sense when she said it, either.
Late-ish nights, long hours, long commute, all about to end, for now, anyway.
I’m a little sad. I actually really liked the people I was working for/with. It paid half what my old job did, but hey, trade-offs.
It has been very similar, in some ways, to my old job, though. There’s been a good bit of bloody hand-holding for people who should know better. Of needing to spell everything out to the eensiest, bittiest detail, so no-one comes back whining later about how they weren’t warned or didn’t know better or “you never said (insert the painfully obvious AND already delivered in printed format–twice–here)!” or they were *eh, eh, cough* too sick to do anything they were supposed to.
I tell you, this is why I don’t want to head into education. I could. I could very easily just set up camp at a university in some capacity or other, wander into a doctorate, stumble into teaching at some point down the line. But god help me, as of right now, I’d rather claw out my own…well, I won’t be dramatic. Let’s just say I’d rather never.
In the course of my assignment, I have…interacted with several students, adults all, who have made it through undergrad, and are well into what should be promising graduate careers. These students, incidentally, have various disabilities. Disabilities which not only interfere considerably with their ability to flourish in an academic environment, but which are pretty much going to make their lives in the professional path they have chosen a disaster in the making. They can’t spell to save their lives, or need double the amount of time other students need to complete an assignment, or simply shatter–have full-on melt-downs–under the pressure of exams.
None of this makes them bad people. We all have bad days and little character foibles. It would, however, make me hesitant to take them on as legal counsel. The scary thing is, refusing to hire them on for that reason would put me in violation of discrimination laws. But somewhere, someday, these people, provided they pass the bar and are hired on at some firm, will be discreetly plodding away and melting down and fobbing transcriptions off on underlings, and their clients will be none the wiser, until/unless something goes horribly wrong.
Sorry. My inner conservative is rearing its panicky, horned, judgmental head. But sometimes I just think, when did all these ADD/ADHD people spring up, and why is it a “disability” worthy of extra-super-special treatment? I can be distracted and flaky and really have a tough time dealing with pressure. Do I have ADD? Have I been entitled to double-time assignment allotments and special treatment, and missing out? Instead of calling the aforementioned disability, I’ve called them character traits that make me better suited to some things over others. I mean, can I suddenly decide my inability to focus on maths means I am disabled, and I should in fact be able to pursue a career as a statistician, just because, well, I really want to and like the sound of it, and it isn’t my fault I can’t concentrate, I just need more time?
On the other hand, I know people with illnesses like ADHD who have managed to function just fine with the help of meds, more or less, so I feel a bit like an asshole just expressing all this. Sigh. I do so hate when I go all conservative bitchass. Especially when it comes to issues of disadvantage and accomodation. The truly asstarded would love to draw a parallel between accomodation for the disabled and affirmative action or gender equality issues, I’m sure.
Bugger it. I can’t even consider this properly anymore. I have to work early. I’m going to sleep. More later. Maybe.
You know what would be a nice diversion?
Happy Wednesday!
Right. Because landing yourself into the bowels of academia, working away at a doctorate while attempting to mold young minds for the better, publish, and expand your horizons while actually becoming someone worthy of the title “teacher” is a cake walk.
Nah. Too easy. Why bother?
Divine: (edit–I rephrase. My initial impression of your comment was as an extension of prior conversations.) That opinion of academia? Not about you. SitC is about me. You describe your own intentions, perceptions and experience as a teacher. Not everyone who ends up doing it meant to, or goes into the endeavor so starry-eyed.
Some people do go into academia with pure and lofty intentions, but not all of them do. Sorry to be arrogant or self-centered about it, but no, I have absolutely no doubt I could go work at a university, plod away at a doctorate, fall into teaching. *shrug* I didn’t get through Yale being stupid or incompetent. I have a master’s degree. I could start teaching at a community college tomorrow. I wouldn’t like it. It isn’t what I always wanted do. My heart would not be in it. I would half-ass it. I don’t really want to be responsible for molding young minds. I don’t have the patience. Maybe one day that will change. People keep telling me it’s inevitable that I end up in academia. We’ll see, I guess. But right now, it is not for me. All that would make me a shitty teacher, which is why I really don’t want to do it.
Good for the world that you do.
Mehreaorwr. “Don’t tangle with an Irishman in an Irish bar” and don’t mess with Sid on her blog. But I didn’t mean to tangle, really I didn’t. Sarcasm has never suited me. Sorry to offend. I’ll get out of the way!
Not to say that some people with the type of psychological/mental/physical disabilities won’t succeed, but many more of them will — they just need a little bit of leeway.
Realize that placing someone — anyone — in a limited time multiple choice/essay environment isn’t really testing what the real world of being an attorney is all about. Yes, some people will need more time to complete tasks (or need spell-check), but that is why firms give associates time to learn (and time before paying them the $$$) and have others check their work — for YEARS!
And meltdowns — everyone has them, especially in law. There isn’t a bar exam that someone who has already graduated from law school and studied doesn’t get up and walk out. And many of those aren’t disabled.
The range of disabilities is great — as are the possible additional skills one can bring to the profession — great courtroom skills, great interpersonal/interviewing skills, great research skills, etc. These skills can help prevent a “disaster in the making” as you put it.
These students realize their limitations — they’ve been facing them for many years — and likely will lead them to choose the type of legal career that is right for them.
And about whether you have a learning disability yourself — that I cannot judge, but a proper diagnosis erases the possibility of malingering and is based on more than a standard deviation difference in skill level. This isn’t to say that some people don’t game the system, but would you say that bipolar disorder doesn’t exist because the possibility of faking is present?
One last point — you or others would not be forced to hire any disabled lawyer (as a hiring partner) if the person could not perform the job with “reasonable accomodation” (which has a smaller scope in employment than in education) and you would NEVER be forced to hire a disabled attorney as a client — you can make your own choice.
R: on your first point, agreed. There were some students who really were fully prepared to the best of their abilities. Those students came in, they sat down, and they got to work.
I was more disturbed by the students who came in unprepared and complained about everything in hopes of additional accomodation (having already been given separate rooms and additional testing time). For those students, everything was someone else’s fault or responsibility–they could hear students in the hall, the room was too hot or cold, they didn’t know they wouldn’t have spell check and were distracted by their own typos, etc.
To be fair, perhaps their disabilities will result in failed bar exams or poor interviewing skills which would serve to select them out of the profession, anyway, and the point is moot. Students like that are also probably inclined to “game the system,” as you note, regardless of underlying disability.
As far as hiring goes, I’m not concerned about being forced to hire counsel that has some disability; of course no one is forced, but initial consultations don’t end with counsel saying, “By the way, I have ADHD. Please ignore any missed deadlines or pill-popping during negotiations.”
That is highly unlikely to be the behavior of a sucessful attorney, I know, but I watched a student fall apart–popping pills, yelling at herself and me, weeping, etc. Then, at the end of her test time,I had to feed her platitudes when she said she hoped her earlier behaviors weren’t indicators of future “real life” failings. I wondered the same. “Real life” doesn’t always come with built in OT.
I believe ADD/ADHD exists, absolutely. I do wonder if as many people have it as claim to. I went to school with and worked with a lot of privileged people, and some of them had accountability issues and no scruples. And I likely have outdated or sensationalized information regarding the prevalence or ease of feigning symptoms–though, on paper, and at least as far as the research goes, it seems easier to fake than bipolar disorder.
I’m cynical. I’m working on it. ADD/ADHD is one of those things tied up with politics and class and perception. Give me homosexual one-legged dyslexics and I’m ready to bend over backwards to accomodate. Give me a rich boy with connections, an attitude and an apparent entitlement complex and I get tetchy. It’s one of my biases, I admit, probably because I’m a poor minority girl with no connections who doesn’t stick up for myself enough when I deserve a break, let alone when I just want one.
:-/
I do hate poor spelling, full stop. I especially hate it when I misspell words. You should see me when I catch my own typos on this damned blog. I correct them, but am embarrassed for days.