Abstract
Being in an administrative position in a healthcare-based higher education university, I am routinely invited and hence had the fortune of attending an inaugural of a specialty conference which was completely unrelated to ours. The lamenting of senior members caught my attention, purely because of the familiarity of the grievance. Basically, how the present generation is not attentive, not focused, unsound in the basics, blah, blah, blah. Blah, because the rest was exactly the wailing which is periodically heard in our specialty. There is nobody listening to lectures in most conventions/conferences, and only the banquet is completely full. The other side of the coin is you see dedicated youngsters at 9:30 PM (program starts at 8:30 AM), listening and learning intently from the speaker in an exam review program in God’s own country. Social media teaching and learning are becoming a separate university with an FB group run by an authority on growth and development, a particular favorite for many students. The interaction and enthusiasm have to be seen to be believed. Speaking about social media and teaching, I cannot help but recollect the scene in Grey’s Anatomy (season 7, episode 15) where young graduates are tweeting live during the surgery in the OT. The chief surgeon gets cheesed only to realize that Twitter helps to successfully complete a complication developed during the surgery.
So, Quo Vadis? As a famous opening line in a novel goes, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The novel is appropriately titled (A tale of two cities). The teacher and student are Yin and Yang. But Yin and Yang are not complete opposites with each side having a little bit of the other. While I personally believe in generation gap, I am also a firm believer in secular trends. Simply put, secular trends are that the next gen is better than the present gen. The average height of a population is a simple example. It keeps increasing. A real-life example—My eureka moment as a senior (?) happens at 5 AM, while for most of the youngsters it is at 2 AM. Not exactly secular trends but you get the drift of Yin and Yang.
Who should change is the subject matter of the Editorial. The senior generation or the youngster, that is the teacher or the student. As Horace rightly said, change the name and the story could be about you. Today’s student is tomorrow’s teacher. It’s a blessing to be a teacher/educator. We will always be remembered. For good or for worse is up to us. To paraphrase the inspirational Prof. Nikhilesh Vaid (President of the World Federation of Orthodontists), mentoring is like a small lamp. It need not show everything but give light for the next step to be safe. We educators need to follow that simple rule and not expect one to know everything.
Take the case of a Class II Division I malocclusion. As reported by Jerrold, the treatment could be headgear in any of its avatars, implant and nonimplant distalization appliances, extractions ranging all the way from second molar to first premolars and many more, including the flavor of the season, Clear Aligner Therapy. 1 This, without even considering the mandible—imagine a more complicated case. A student giving any one of the above treatment plans would be mocked by proponents of the other philosophies. Can we really pride ourselves on the fact that each orthodontist has a different treatment plan? And then expect to be good educators? Food for thought. Speaking of food, the President also introduced me to the Japanese concept of Omakase where the chef decides the food you eat. Surely, it should not be the case in healthcare education.
Going back to the conference. As it was rightly concluded, among the multiple reasons why this issue should be resolved in favor of the student especially in medical education is as follows: Today’s medical student is tomorrow’s doctor and more importantly will be the doctor who will be treating our children. Hence the correction to the title. This course correction will ensure that it’s definitely the best of times.
Hope the articles in this issue adds more knowledge and generates critical thinking.