"Brazil's lawyers have been shocked to find that a boy aged eight has managed to pass the entrance exam to law school.
The Bar Association said the achievement of Joao Victor Portellinha should be taken as a warning about the low standards of some of Brazil's law schools."
Hmmmm....Gee. Ya think?
"If this is confirmed, the Education Ministry should immediately intervene ... to investigate the circumstances of this case," said the association's president in Goias state, Miguel Angelo Cancado.
Joao Victor is still in fifth grade, two levels ahead of normal for his age, but his mother says he is not a cloistered genius. "He is a regular boy," she told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. "He is very dedicated, likes to read and study, but he has fun and makes friends."
The Universidade Paulista, a multi-campus private university, said yesterday that the boy would not be enrolling any time soon: he still has to graduate from high school.
Still, the school said the "student's performance, considering his age and level of education, was good, especially in the essay test, which revealed his good capacity to express himself and handle the language."
"My dream is to be a federal judge," the boy said, according to Globo TV's Web site. "So I decided to take the test to see how I would do ... it was easy. I studied a week before the test."
Brazil requires every student to take an entrance exam before being admitted to college. Each university administers its own test, and the exams from private institutions are usually considered to be easier than those of public universities, which are free and attract many more candidates.
University officials said they could not release figures on the number of people who pass and fail the law school entrance exam."
Tribeca coffeeshop in Downtown Manhattan. Used to meet with a friend nearly every morning for a wake-me-up slug of the best java in town, and during the summer, a dawning bitch-fest about the Yankees.
I cannot remember how many times he failed the Bar Exam, but a lot of it had to do with the pressure his family placed upon becoming a lawyer. John would study his ass off then draw complete blanks when the time came to strut his stuff. Now, even though he was a friend, John WAS pretty near as dumb as a box of claw hammers and all the fancy ass private tutors alive weren't going to help him until he was ready, REALLY ready to pass the damn thing. I always felt that deep inside he was too much of a nice guy to be a lawyer, and that his inner man rebelled at lying, cheating, and stealing for a living. Coupled with not being the sharpest knife in the drawer and old John surely had a hard time making the family happy.
John finally made it, but never spent a day as a practicing attorney. The law degree was resume padding for future endeavors. He passed on a few years back after his tiny little plane took a header into very deep water, and those who knew him always reflect back on his struggles to pass the Bar each and every time one lawyer or another makes the headlines. Such as my doing so now. Too bad John wasn't born in Brazil. He'd have Ace'd those simpleton exams and maybe, just maybe some of the pressure to always do what his family and his wife and yes, even his friends always expected him to.
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