Learning as a Way of Teaching

Every morning on the way to work I drive by our local community college.  Actually, it is the nursing school attached to our hospital, but that is not important. What makes me laugh is the gaggle of students who stand out on the curb and smoke.  I think smoking is disgusting so my opinion might be a little bit skewed.  But isn’t it ironic that the future of our health care system is willing to stand out in the rain, shine, cold, and wind to practice a habit that everyone knows destroys healthy bodies?  And how will their patients react?  “Sir, you need to exercise and follow this diet if you want your heart to work properly.  Now if you will excuse me, I am going to suck on a cancer stick.”

But as my finger wags at these nursing students, I realize that I am just as guilty.  How many times have I told a student, “Why did you not bring a pen to class?  Did you not think you were going to need to write today?”  Students do not need that humiliation any more than I need the checkout clerk at the grocery store to say,” No, you cannot borrow a pen.  Did you not think you were going to have to write a check for your groceries?  Did you think we were just going to bag ‘em up and say, ‘Have a nice day’?”

Parenting is just as tricky.  The same mouth that tells my children how to speak nicely to others also yells at the idiot who didn’t take his turn at the four way stop.  Yikes.

So, irony is everywhere.  Walking the talk is not the easiest habit to maintain.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 10:12 am and is filed under Personal Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.