“Quality, not quantity, is my measure.”
- D.W. Jarrod, 19th century writer
Monday afternoon, we strike the set, as the cycle of teaching anatomy and physiology (A&P), to which I have become accustomed, ends once again.
It's one of those deals where there is a process like in theatre. The audition, the rehearsals, the performance, the striking of the set, and in the end, exiting stage right. In this case, it's submitting a syllabus for review, assembling the material (quizzes, tests, and labs), rehearsing the flow, and stepping into the room or virtual room for the performance to begin.
The typical semester run for this course is sixteen weeks. That's a convenient because there are sixteen chapters of material for students to review and absorb. Nonetheless, it comes with considerable speed, as these chapters cover nearly six hundred pages of content-dense material in the text.
In the summer, courses don't generally follow the sixteen-week path but rather five or eight weeks.
A year earlier…
Last summer, I taught this course's pre-nursing level. It included four lectures (4hr 25min) four days a week. It was a mind-numbing experience for all involved – teacher and student. Twelve of the twenty-five who started dropped the course in the second week. They had the impression it would be easier and less content rich in the summer than in the sixteen-week semester. They were wrong!
The students that stayed quickly understood success would come from eating, drinking, sleeping, peeing, and pooping anatomy and physiology. Daily labs, daily quizzes, and exams every week. It was a load! The ‘galloping horses' that did remain performed remarkably well. I was amazed at what students could do when they understood what was required, put their heads down, and got it done. I was equally impressed their teacher survived the punishing ordeal.
‘Survived’ was the operative word. I vowed I would never teach that course again!
This summer…
Once again, I was offered a five-week summer course, but this time it was entry-level needed by students interested in ancillary health care (e.g., x-ray tech, pulmonary tech, social work, etc.) or public safety work (e.g., police, firemen, border patrol, etc.). The five-week course required a minimum of six students for it to run, with a single two-hour thirty-minute lecture per week.
Two weeks before the start date, there were six. The week before, there were five.
When I pray, I ask God to stop me if I lean in on something He doesn't want me to do. I had agreed to teach the course, but it looked like it would not have enough students to go. I was already planning what I was going to do with the time.
I dropped a note to the Dean just to confirm my July and early August would be free. Much to my chagrin, Friday ahead of the Monday start, she indicated she was willing to run the course with five…WHAT!!??
The day cometh…
“Hey,” I suggested to the Creator of the Universe, “I thought we had a deal. I was moving forward, but there weren't enough students…how come, this?"
Resigned to my fate and a little bit grumpy, I headed to class on Monday afternoon to meet the five students who had enrolled. I might not have been hap, hap, happy about this, but I wasn’t going to let them know.
Let's get on with this...
There are three things I do at the beginning of each new class.
First, I ask my students, "Who is better than you?" They always hesitate like, for some reason, it's a trick question. I give them about fifteen seconds and say, "You waited too long! NOBODY is better than you." I remind them they are not better than others, but belief in themselves is an essential ingredient for success in life. It's surprising how few positive messages my students have gotten in their lives.
Every day, a slide goes up with a header asking the question: Who's Better than You? Additionally, on that slide, each day is a different quote. For example: "Don't believe everything you think…." "Beware of simple solutions…." "You should have strong opinions, loosely held…." "Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better…."
Second, they are asked to share a little something about themselves - which in this case, didn't take long. Did I mention there were only five students?
Third, I learn their names on the first day and always greet them by name when they arrive. Names are meaningful icons. Mentioning them provides an unconscious level of respect and familiarity – in this case, not too hard with five students...yeah, I think I mentioned that.
Another thing I like to do is play fifteen minutes of music before class starts. Once they know this will happen, I ask them to recommend what they would like to hear. Over the past few years, I have been introduced to interesting music selections and artists from various cultures and countries. Thanks to these students, my playlist has been expanded considerably.
Another one bites the dust…
Two weeks in, one of the five dropped the course, and now I was left with the smallest group of students I have had. Okay, I grumbled a little more. But then something began to happen. It wasn't purposeful because I still harbored the loss of five weeks of freedom.
But in an homage to the Three Stooges, “Slowly I turned, step by step, inch by inch…” I found I was looking forward to seeing these young people. The formal slide, discussion, and slide format turned into systems discussions. I wasn't instructing them; they were letting me teach. They cared about the material and engaged in dialogue.
The course I didn't want to teach…the class I was confident God had canceled because of too few students, turned out to be one of the best teaching experiences I have had. I had pulled a cognitive trigger, thinking not teaching was what God wanted...you know, because it was what I wanted.
This week, I will spend the last couple of hours with these young folk for whom I have developed affection, as I always do. We'll review for an hour in the classroom and strike the set in a local pizza parlor.
I hope they will think they got something from me, and I suppose they have. But what they don't know, nor will they fully appreciate, the gift they have given me.
Four indeed!! Note to self, "Don't believe everything you think."
- ted
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