Editorial

A Good Teacher

Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D.

N Engl J Med 2006; 355:1374-1375September 28, 2006

Article

Earlier this year, I learned that my high school chemistry teacher had died. This was not surprising, since he had been my teacher in 1961. What was rather astounding was the outpouring of appreciation from his former students that followed. All of us mourned the passing of a man who had motivated us in a way that no previous instructor had been able to do, but each of us had thought that we alone had been so imprinted. This self-described “simple Kansas farmer” somehow knew how to leave a mark on his students for the rest of their lives.

I was fortunate to have such motivating teachers not only in high school but also in college and medical school. In college, the inspiring figure was a professor of electrical engineering, who taught me to use my reasoning ability to solve problems and how to use the solutions to improve our understanding of physical processes. I learned that if I did not really understand the problem, I could not find a true solution to it. In medical school, I was lucky enough to study with a professor of physiology who taught me that the search for truth meant accumulating an understanding that would let one reason from observations to root causes. All these teachers were nurturing in that they demanded the best from us and would not settle for less; they had the gift to motivate their students.

In this issue of the Journal, we introduce a series of articles on medical education. In the various articles that will be published in the months to come, Drs. Malcolm Cox and David Irby, who were responsible for identifying the topic areas and authors, provide a snapshot of the issues that confront medical educators today. The problems are important, varied, and complex and range from the teaching of the elusive quality of professionalism, to training in surgical skills, to the evaluation of student performance.1

Although each of these considerations is important in clarifying and assessing how we teach medical students, in my heart I wonder whether what is really needed is a way to identify people with the gift for teaching and then to give them free rein. In the coming months, you can evaluate the issues and decide for yourselves.

References

References

1. 1

   Cox M, Irby DM. A new series on medical education. N Engl J Med 2006;355:1375-1376
   Full Text | Web of Science