Skippity Do Da

The Portland weather has finally shifted to gorgeous 70 degree days with minimal wind.  It is my favorite type of weather, for sure.  These nice days are taking a toll on those of us who want to be outside running through the hills or surfing in the ocean.  Instead, we must suffer through boring lectures about scientific mumbo jumbo that none of us really understand until the day before the exam.  Interestingly, I have fallen vulnerable to skipping class these past few weeks.  You can call it selective skipping.  Only once have I skipped an entire day and I can't say it was worth it.  

Our physiology class is taught by an instructor who tries really hard to make things more interesting for us.  He dances around all goofy and puts together slide shows that would amaze the designer's of Microsoft Power Point.  The material, for me, is already pretty darn interesting.  In fact, I sometimes read my physiology text for FUN!  Yes, I love knowing how things work.  But for some reason, when I sit in his lectures I lose interest quickly.  It isn't the material that is causing the loss either.  The sad thing is that he doesn't realize how his teaching style affects his students.  It is like he has been teaching this way for decades and doesn't care if we aren't getting it in his class.  Yes, you have nice power point presentations but your style has most of us so annoyed by the end of the lecture that we obtain nearly nothing from staying.  So, what do we do, we skip his lecture and he lectures to about 1/4 of the class.  There isn't much anyone can do to help make it better because he believes it is perfect how it is.  Whatever.

Here's to sunny days and skipping class!  It isn't about being in class and stroking the instructor's ego, it is about how well get the material down - not just for exams but for the long run.  When I think back to how much time I have wasted in class, it makes me want to puke or ask for a refund.  Not everyone learns by sitting in class, why force it upon us to be there?  In my opinion, if we do better at home or any other method of studying, by all means focus on what works.  I understand there is a workday component to having things structured like this.  This is because many of the students who go to our school haven't ever had do actually work for a living, so the program is focused on getting us used to a regular work week rather than helping us learn and become competent doctors.

Blah, blah, blah.  The opinionated mouth is fired up today!  Tomorrow is one of three final gross anatomy labs.  Oh, how exciting is that!  

Thanks for reading