The Semester

• Author: Ramsey All/Daniel Batista/Koker Christensen/Ian Cooper
• Pages: 45-71

The

SEMESTER

UPPOSE

our

three protagonists have

decided

that they want

to

become better basketball players.

How do you

think each

approaches

the

task

of

improving

his or her

skills?

Since Billie

sees

sweat

and

perseverance

as the

lifeblood

of

achievement,

it

should

come

as no

surprise that

he

takes

a

disciplined

and

workmanlike

approach.

He

stoically arrives

at the gym

each

morning

at 5

a.m.,

whereupon

he

commences

his

routine:

100

laps

around

the

court

and 200

free

throws followed

by

eight

sets

of

calf

raises.

While

all

this

undoubtedly leaves Billies body fitter than

it has

ever been,

it is

con-

siderably

less

certain that

his

basketball

skills

will markedly improve,

even

after

several months

of

following this regimen. Sadly, such

a

demanding routine also

has the

effect

of

making Billies mornings

the

darkest part

of the

day.

Charlie's

routine

likely looks similar

to

Billie's,

at

least

at

first.

Charlie

too

assumes that acquiring

the

skills

he

needs

to

succeed

at

this

new

endeavour requires

him to

exert considerable

effort.

Accordingly,

for the

first

several

days

he too

will arrive

at the gym at

5

a.m. ready

for

shooting drills

and

laps. Unfortunately, Charlie

is

not

nearly

as

confident

as

Billie.

Thus,

when

he

finds

that

he is

labouring around

the

track

and

bricking

free

throws,

he

soon gets

discouraged.

He

shortly foregoes

his

trips

to the gym

each morning

in

favour

of a

more

indolent

lifestyle that includes adequate sleep.

Although Charlie's mornings will

thereafter

be

considerably more

fun-filled,

he is

obviously

not

going

to

improve

as a

basketball player.

Of

course, this will

cause

Charlie

no

great concern

at

first.

Indeed,

45

two

S

THE

ABCs

OF LAW

SCHOOL

he

will

probably mock

Billie

for

sacrificing

so

much

in

pursuit

of

what Charlie

now

considers

to be a

senseless

goal. Unfortunately

for

Charlie,

it is

Billie

who

will

have

the

last laugh.

For

when

Charlie

takes

up the

pursuit

of

basketball

again—and

he

inevitably will,

given that

he has not

always

found

it so

"senseless"—he

will

find

that

he

does

not

have

the

fitness

to

keep pace

with

Billie,

who

will

run him

ragged

up and

down

the

court.

Andie's approach

to

improving

her

basketball

skills

is

very

differ-

ent

from

Billie

s

and

Charlie's.

For

starters,

she is not so

accepting

of

the

premise that sweat

and

toil provide

the

most direct route

to

improvement. Thus, rather than adopt

a

brutal workout regimen,

she

chooses

one

that

is

strategically engineered

to

improve

the

skills nec-

essary

to

being

a

good basketball player, Andie realizes that while

accurate

shooting

and

physical conditioning

are

important, they

do

not

exhaust—nor

even

get at the

essence

of—what

is

required

in

order

to

excel

at

basketball. Basketball involves

a

unique

set of

skills

—

dribbling

in

traffic,

reading

the

play,

rebounding—that

can

only

be

honed

by

practising

the

game

itself,

not

some isolated com-

ponent

of it. In

other words,

she

recognizes that

the

most direct

way

to

become

a

better basketball player

is to

play basketball.

In

addition

to

being

the

shortest road

to

success,

playing basketball

also

happens

to be the

most enjoyable

way of

honing one's skills. Andie

takes

full

advantage

of

this happy convergence

of

interests,

for it

offers

her the

best

of all

possible worlds:

she can

develop

the

requisite

skills

while enjoying

her

life.

The

beginning

of a law

school semester

is not

unlike

the

first

day

our

characters arrived

at the gym in the

preceding hypothetical scen-

ario.

Law

school

is a new

endeavour

and

requires

our

characters

to

develop

a new

skill set.

As in the

above analogy, each character

will

respond

to

this challenge

in his or her own

way,

with

varying degrees

of

success.

Moreover,

we

will

see

that

the

most

effective

approach

involves directly engaging

with

what

is at the

core

of

this

new

endeavour. Just

as the

best

way to

succeed

at

basketball

is to

play

bas-

ketball,

the

best

way to

succeed

at law

school

is to

"play"

the law

school

"game."

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