Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Good

(My conversation with L continued.)


“What do you mean?” I was slightly alarmed.

“I mean the brilliant students,” L remained serious, “My friend, let’s face it: In spite of the effort that we put up for the borderline students, all we achieve is having a handful of extra graduates each year – as compare to doing nothing but terminate their study and kick them out of the medical school. From a societal point of view, we may have saved a small sum of taxpayers’ money, but we run the risk of allowing inappropriate persons practice medicine!”

“Em… you may have a point, but we should not discriminate borderline students.” I tried to speak for the other side.

“Alas, I suppose you know perfectly well your argument doesn’t hold water,” he chuckled, “For obvious reasons a medical school should provide an equal opportunity to each and every student – bright ones as well as others who are slightly dense. But what we are now doing is providing extra opportunities to the bottom layer. In other words, we are discriminating against the crème de la crème – maybe our students as well. And, I remind you, it is this small group of top students who are our future. Ten or twenty years later they should be prolific researchers, eminent clinicians, or holding key positions in the administration hierarchy. It is our responsibility to find them out and nurture their strength. After all, this is to the advantage of the medical school!”

I was speechless.

1 comment:

JW said...

Some of our great administrators, clinicians and professors were repeaters or borderline students. Their excellence stand out only when they can focus on their interests with full utilization of their strengths in their personality.