Must have had a full box of Crayons

[Guest guest]

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.

" 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, 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 o newspaper. " He is very dedicated, likes to

read and study, but he has fun and makes friends. "

The Universidade ista, 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.

As a former colony, Brazilian civil law is largely based on that of Portugal

with statutes derived from the Romano-Germanic legal tradition, but has been

amended to include some precedent-based common law.