Russell Williams
Well-Known Member
Here is a set of thoughts that may start some discussion. It was in response to an article I had been sent. The article discussed people saying that teachers should follow the medical model. One of the key quotes was, "Doctors, Stigler claimed, are all informed on the most recent research and training and all have the best information in hand to pass on to their patients? Why, he asks, aren't our teachers up on the best research, and why don't they have the best information about what works with kids at their disposal?"
My response included some comments about doctors and dieting.
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In one of our board packets there was an article titled Debunking the Medical Model.
After reading the article Russell Williams had the following thoughts
The people arguing that schools should follow the medical model apparently have never heard the warning, "If you go to a hospital, takes someone with you who is able to think clearly. Otherwise, in the hospital, they will kill you."
The suggestion that the medical world is full of a common body of knowledge that is agreed to and respected by all physicians could only be held by people who must be relatively clueless about medicine and its history.
We could start with, "What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to treatment of schizophrenics?" We could follow with, "What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to interpreting the results of the Rorschach test?" ? What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to hammering an ice pick into a patient's head when doing a prefrontal lobotomy? Then they could go to websites and look at the differences in circumcision rates from country to country and the different views that the doctors in different countries have about this procedure.
Then we get into the subject which I have more knowledge about. What is the best method of weight loss surgery? What is the long-term effectiveness of weight loss surgery, and by long-term I do not mean six months?
Doctors can often tell within an hour or a week if a procedure has been a success or a failure. Educators do not have this opportunity. If a school system was to start a dropout prevention program, and one week later claim it was a success because the dropout rate had gone down compared to the week before the program started, such use of data to justify a dropout prevention program would be roundly condemned.
There is an example of doctors refusing to draw the obvious conclusions from widely available data. As I have said repeatedly, for the last 35 years the average American has been spending more and more money on diet plans, programs, and equipment. During that same time period the average American has been getting fatter. Thus we have 35 years of hard evidence that dieting does not work. Why then do doctors keep telling patients to go on diets? If the patient really wants to push the doctor they should ask the doctor, which is the best diet program and where are the statistics proving that that program's long-term effectiveness is greater than the long-term effectiveness of other programs?
Why are so many seemingly clueless people so quick to attack the public school system?
My response included some comments about doctors and dieting.
---------------------------
In one of our board packets there was an article titled Debunking the Medical Model.
After reading the article Russell Williams had the following thoughts
The people arguing that schools should follow the medical model apparently have never heard the warning, "If you go to a hospital, takes someone with you who is able to think clearly. Otherwise, in the hospital, they will kill you."
The suggestion that the medical world is full of a common body of knowledge that is agreed to and respected by all physicians could only be held by people who must be relatively clueless about medicine and its history.
We could start with, "What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to treatment of schizophrenics?" We could follow with, "What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to interpreting the results of the Rorschach test?" ? What is the universally agreed-upon best approach to hammering an ice pick into a patient's head when doing a prefrontal lobotomy? Then they could go to websites and look at the differences in circumcision rates from country to country and the different views that the doctors in different countries have about this procedure.
Then we get into the subject which I have more knowledge about. What is the best method of weight loss surgery? What is the long-term effectiveness of weight loss surgery, and by long-term I do not mean six months?
Doctors can often tell within an hour or a week if a procedure has been a success or a failure. Educators do not have this opportunity. If a school system was to start a dropout prevention program, and one week later claim it was a success because the dropout rate had gone down compared to the week before the program started, such use of data to justify a dropout prevention program would be roundly condemned.
There is an example of doctors refusing to draw the obvious conclusions from widely available data. As I have said repeatedly, for the last 35 years the average American has been spending more and more money on diet plans, programs, and equipment. During that same time period the average American has been getting fatter. Thus we have 35 years of hard evidence that dieting does not work. Why then do doctors keep telling patients to go on diets? If the patient really wants to push the doctor they should ask the doctor, which is the best diet program and where are the statistics proving that that program's long-term effectiveness is greater than the long-term effectiveness of other programs?
Why are so many seemingly clueless people so quick to attack the public school system?
