Outcome

In our department board meeting a few days ago, a representative from Pluto presented the courageous project (according to the definition of Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Prime Minister) of our faculty to put up learning objectives and outcomes for our students.

This is the first time I realize the language of Pluto - although nothing of which I could understand - also consists of 26 alphabets.

Oh, I did comprehend a little. For example, one of the expected outcome of back pain for a (I think) year 3 student is to be able to locate where the pain is - by history taking. (Well, Euterpe - my 15-month-old daughter - is learning the word "where" at the moment.)

No doubt I am thoroughly impressed by their meticulous attention to details - and to cover every aspect of medicine needs gigantic effort. Well, it probably serves one purpose: the hard copy of this "objective" may be thick enough to bridge Pluto and the Earth - so that those extra-terrestrials could come back and take a look on what's actually happening.

PS. For those who wish to have a glimpse on great work of this kind (which summarizes what should happen when and where), I would recommend the classical work of Shào Kāngjié (邵康節) in Chinese mythology: 皇極經世書.