The Most Quotable Man at the College

This past semester I took an Express Course with the Honorable Judge Alex Sanders, former president of the College of Charleston and South Carolina Supreme Court Justice. The course was Law and Society and beyond the information covered in the class (primarily contracts) Judge Sanders provided life lessons and a bit of hysterical commentary on everything from Chinese cuisine to a website that allows students to rate their professors. Throughout the duration of the half-semester course I compiled only a small collection of his most quotable moments and would like to share them here chronologically as the course progressed, along with a brief description giving the context of each of his enlightening thoughts and tid-bits.

Judge Sanders missed the first two meetings of the class because he was abroad visiting China. Upon our first official meeting with him he described an exchange between him and his state-appointed guide, where Judge Sanders inquired about the caged dogs on the back of rural Chinese bikes. His guide simply replied with, "We eat everything with four legs except the table."

Continuing our class' introduction to Law and Society, Judge Sanders went through the requirements of the course. The most important being that all students MUST attend each and every class. At this point he drew upon the motto for football team of little-known college in North Carolina by the name of Slippery Rock College. "We play hurt." In regards to our class, this meant we were expected to be in class even if sick or suffering from some other ailment. Not sure how conducive this is to keeping Charleston's student body healthy, but no one missed a class.

A couple class meetings later Judge Sanders offered his first of two life-lessons. His "Guarantees for Success in Life."

1. Show up every time

2. Show up on time

3. Show up ready to work

These steps to success were given their due attention by me and the others as there was rarely a late student to our twice-weekly meetings with Judge Sanders. Ironically, on the rare occasion I wear a hat, let alone backwards, he offered this unofficial guaranty, "Don't wear a hat backwards." I promptly turned my ball-cap around for the rest of this particular course, and retired it for the rest of the semester.

Part of the course required us to write a ten-page "Issue Paper," which we were assigned topics like abortion, the legalization of marijuana, universal healthcare, and my topic the death penalty. In the class periods leading up to our paper's due date Judge Sanders held class discussions on each topic. Judge Sanders' comment on this exercise is as follows, "This is not tiddilywinks, this is hand-to-hand combat." Particularly because no matter your position on any topic, the Judge would rip you to shreds by offering a razor-sharp counterpoint, easily demoralizing most students, including myself. Practice law for a couple centuries and you probably get pretty good at finding flaws in any reasoning.

This semester the College made the green decision to rid itself of paper course evaluations and offered them exclusively online. Judge Sanders cared little about our completion of the formal, College administered evaluations, as he prefers the informal evaluation system knows as ratemyprofessor.com. "Rate My Professor, I wish y'all would use that one...add to my collection of chili peppers." Since I've never made use of the site, I'm assuming chili peppers mean a positive course evaluation and that the Judge has acquired quite a few of them.

Here are Judge Sanders' "Three Things to Do to NOT Be Poor."

1. Graduate from high school

2. Don't get married until you're 21

3. Don't have a baby until you're married

I appreciate the advice given by Judge Sanders as I can cross two of these off the list, but I feel some of these requirements can be updated. But he did mention these are simply things to do to not be poor, not being poor does not mean being successful or rich.

Considering Judge Sanders is an older fella' he had quite a lot to say when it came time to discuss universal healthcare and how it applies to senior citizens. He offered this personal sentiment on healthcare in general, "There is a certain indignity in going to the doctor." Apparently he proscribes to a personal wellness program in spite of Medicare and Medicaid. However, as an after thought he gives particularly funny example of American healthcare's offerings to the elderly, "You need a scooter? Call and get ya one, its FREE...I ought to get me a scooter."

Despite his requirement to be at class for each meeting, Judge Sanders told one student who couldn't make a post-Thanksgiving session because of a flight cancellation, "You didn't miss a damn thing." Well, if thats how you feel, Judge, why have such a strict attendance policy? He favors females, and under a similar circumstance for a male student, I feel this quote could have easily been, "You missed everything, come back next semester and try again."

Although this last quote happened only three-quarters through the course, I feel it bears the most importance as the class-time with the Judge was by far the most pleasurable I've had in my three and a half years at the College. "Remember everything I told you, you'll be better off."