Schooling a Failure?

Australia is lucky to have such doctors. Cheers.
Tullio

I second that thought.

I work part time in a local area hospital as a security guard.
Their entire reason for existence is profit, profit and more profit .

Let’s encourage the elderly ( or any age group for that matter ) to take as many drugs
and, to have as many MRI’s and unnecessary surgeries as possible.

What kind of ‘neat’ new drugs has Glaxo Smith Kline developed in their secret labs
that we can get them hooked on ?

It’s starting to come out with recent reports that the whole
“Lower your cholesterol drug push†is nothing but a giant scam
as, it has little effect on whether you develop heart disease or not.

The company making this phony swine flu vaccine expects to make a cool 60 Billion
in profit from it. ( US or UK billion ? :-)

I personally haven’t gone to doctor in over 20 years. The other day
I actually walked by my former doctor in the hospital and, he didn’t
even recognize me. ( Good ! )

If I need a doctor__ I will travel to Australia and see Mike !

Best Regards,

Bill

Blush ..... :-)

I think it is that I look at these children and I see myself. Not that I ought to practice so egocentrically, but having personally found success despite a schooling system is valuable knowledge one shouldn't leave unused.

The mentoring idea is terrific. When I was about twelve a teacher took me aside and let me know that I had 'The Dreaded Disease' ...... dreaded because if you don't have it, you fear it. But if you have it, you don't mind. After a bit of banter it dawned upon me that said disease was simply nonconformity. I am certainly not alone for not being within the pack, but probably very lucky to have that perspective granted to me at that age. She was perhaps passing on a similiar favor she had benefited from when younger. My greatest worry with the labelling business is that it breeds insecurity and poor self esteem within the child. The exception being The Dreaded Disease ...... ;-)

I knew a boy of about eight years old who had 'attention deficit disorder' ( the phrase deserves quotes ), however could at any tick of the clock spend many happy consecutive hours completely disassembling his push bike, clean and adjust the components, and then re-assemble in perfect working order. No trouble with prolonged concentration on a single task then .... The parents just couldn't find enough things for him to tinker with. He was well mannered, sociable, ate and slept soundly, but alas the school couldn't cope with his drive to physically manipulate stuff - while labelling him to cover that. So he was bored and thus mucked about alot in class, to the teacher annoyance. Thus perhaps we need a suitable 'school insufficiency syndrome' label. I don't blame the specific teachers, as they work within their job constraints, but their suggestion of applying medication to him was an absolutely crap idea. And if I don't say no, who will? I don't know what has become of him since ( moved away ), but at least a major disaster was averted by advising no amphetamines. He'll probably wind up as a brilliant mechanic or engineer. Design the first interstellar warp drive or something. Indeed he has many behaviour parallels with Richard Feynman, say. With any luck he'll mention me during his Nobel acceptance speech .... :-)

I graduated in 1985 ( in the lower half of the class that makes the top half look good ), but since then more than 2/3 of the top 10% of my year have subsequently been removed from the medical register, and virtually no-one else. It's the usual reasons - sex, money and drugs - but illustrates that the medical course certainly wasn't selecting the right set of qualities for the subsequent tasks at hand. Fortunately nowadays there is a strong element of psychological screening, plus a pre-med year, to at least encourage less suitable applicants to look elsewhere for a lifetime career. This of course benefits not only these students but also their future/erstwhile patients, families, employers and not least the workload of the Medical Board that licenses us.

[ It's an old chestnut of 'making the patient fit the bed'. So we have 'erectile dysfunction' to sell Viagra, for instance. One recent UK study examined the broadening of guidelines for inclusion into the 'diabetes' category had resulted in increased mortality and morbidity of those treated who were 'just inside' the new margins. Those adversely affected were predominantly elderly people whose alleged benefit for treatment was well outweighed by the effects of medication induced blood sugar drop : falls, injuries, heart attacks etc. Investigation is ongoing but notably this is not funded by the drug providers ].

Cheers, Mike.

Ah, no. To stay sane with such a focused job as mine one needs to have (a) a hobby, and (b) a clearly contrasting hobby, and (c) fun. So I would be loathe to mix up medicine and flying, though I sense your point. However it will make my 'Human Factors in Flying' exam rather a doddle though .... :-)

But with our Royal Flying Doctor Service, nowadays, flying and doctoring are separate jobs done by separate people.

I might enroll to be certified to do flight crew medicals for the Civil Aviation Authority though - they are a nice earner I'm told! Could fund my hobby .... as a thorough medical lasting an hour covers about an hour of plane hire! :-)

As regards Unschooling this has pretty well happened by default for many. Initially there was some bureaucratic resistance, until it was realised it was cheaper for the state to 'unload' these kids to private care. Let the square pegs wander away AND remove the need to alter the round holes .....

Cheers, Mike.

Nasty. Certainly the choppers are unrivaled for close-in work, but there lies the risk. Most crashes and fatalities Down Unda are in similiar terrain/circumstances, however elsewhere we have any amount of billiard-table-flat expanses where the worst one ought do is prang the landing gear in a rough 'paddock'.

Alas I will probably miss a share of piloting early next month in a long haul trip to Birdsville and back, which is way outback. They hold a well known traditional horse race meeting annually and their local airfield rapidly becomes a parking lot for hundreds of light planes, as flying is far cheaper/quicker than a road trip for most. So my flight school has an annual weekend away to that, with about seven of their eleven craft going. For the type of plane I may fly ( supervised ) it's about a 12 hour ( wind dependent ) flight one way. So no one minds if the students get some drive time ...... :-)

Cheers, Mike.