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Dream of: 23 May 1982 (4) "Leadership"

I was taking a three hour test for a class which seemed like my law school "bills and notes" class. I was sitting on the left side of the back of the room. The test consisted of three essay questions. The professor, an older woman, had never taught the class before. This was the first class she had taught at Baylor Law School, and it appeared this might only be a temporary assignment for her. About half way through the test the professor called out the time. The test had started at 8:20. It sounded as if she said it was ten till ten, but I was unsure, so I asked Elder (a fellow law student) who was sitting to my right. He said the professor had said ten till ten. I continued writing, realizing my time was half over.

I wrote for about another half hour, then began going back over one of my answers. I had made numerous grammatical errors. For example I had written "in" instead of "it." I began correcting the errors.

I had finished two questions, and still had one complete question to answer.

Suddenly, the professor walked over to one of the students named Trish, an older woman with bleached gray hair, who was sitting on the right side of the front of the class. Some commotion ensued. It looked as if Trish had borrowed some paper from the person next to her. The professor was upset by that, and it sounded as if the professor was telling Trish that Trish wouldn't be able to turn in her paper. I asked Elder if he could tell what was going on. He was clearly on the side of the professor and with a smirk said Trish hadn't had the right paper.

When Trish stood up to leave, I also stood up because I didn't understand what was going on and I wanted to know what had happened. As I walked toward Trish, Elder followed me. I could tell the other students in the room were also upset and didn't know what was going on.

Finally, I understood that Trish had been using yellow paper instead of white paper, and the professor had told her she couldn't use yellow paper. When Trish had borrowed white paper from her neighbor, the professor had told her that wasn't allowed. Finally, the professor had told Trish to take her paper and leave.

The students settled down and began working again on their tests. I noticed a couple people writing their answers in Russian. That seemed interesting to me.

But I couldn't take it anymore and suddenly shouted out, "Wait a minute! This isn't right! She didn't know she couldn't take her test on yellow paper. Nothing was said at the beginning of the class."

I saw another woman who looked like Thornton (a law student). It looked as if she were taking her test on yellow paper and nothing was being said to her. I continued arguing for a while longer, finally grabbed my paper and said, "Well, if that's the case..."

I crumpled up my paper and said, "There's my paper."

I threw my paper in the middle of the floor. Elder was still standing close to me, and seemed offended by what I had done. He seemed to be astounded, as if he thought I were doing something terrible. Obviously he was only interested in making a good grade. But I heard several people say, "Way to go Steve. Yea, that's right, Steve."

A couple other people crumpled up their papers and threw them down. I noticed Gray (a law student) crumple his paper and throw it into the pile. As the papers kept coming I began counting, "There's six. There's seven. There's eight. There's nine. There's ten."

The pile kept growing. I knew the course was for three or four hours and everyone who was joining in would lose those hours. That showed courage on their parts. But Leah didn't join in. She just sat there. I thought to myself, "A lot of these people won't do it. They just want to get the advantage of the test. That's all they care about."

I felt good because I had spoken up. That was also what I was learning in law school—to speak up on somebody's behalf. I felt it had taken some leadership quality to do that.

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