Lucky y'all- you get the text of my comments from the Early Career Teaching Awards today. Enjoy!
It is both an honor and profoundly humbling to be a recipient of the University Early Career Teaching Award. I find that particularly true in light of my understanding that I am the first recipient who has teaching responsibilities that are entirely clinical in nature. Thank you to my colleagues- who are fortunately also my friends- and to my father for taking time from their schedules to come celebrate with me today.
I’ll admit that my presence here as a teacher of adults and a surgeon is remarkable for two reasons. First, my start in teaching was a bit unorthodox. My first students, not counting my stuffed animals that I would line up and teach things in my early childhood, were 3-years-olds in Vacation Bible School when I was a high school student. This led me to a part-time job teaching preschool when I was in college; I spent every weekday afternoon with 3 and 4 year olds during my sophomore year. I’ve often commented that having learned to teach and manage 10 children in that age group provided me with more transferrable skills than any other job that I’ve subsequently held. Perhaps most meaningfully, it impressed upon me the impact that a creative, kind, and supportive teacher can have on the learning process. My learners now express their enthusiasm for learning and appreciation of my efforts very differently than “my” kids did- I can’t say I’ve been buried under a pile of medical students or residents who were all trying to hug me at the same time, and that’s probably okay- but I am easily able to see how many similarities exist in the learning environment of my preschool classroom of 1986 and my clinical classroom of 2009.
The second reason that I consider my presence here as a surgical teacher to be somewhat surprising is simply because when I started medical school I had absolutely no intention of a career in surgery. Academic medicine, yes, likely in a pediatric subspecialty. But surgery? Absolutely not. After all, surgeons are often viewed as intimidating- and that’s an adjective I’ve always tried to avoid having associated with me. Perhaps more influential in that thinking process was the urban legend that surgeons eat their young- an idea of which I was happily disabused by several surgeon-teacher-mentors who took me under their wing. I found out the truth was and is that most surgeons aren’t intimidating and do not derive joy from predating on their trainees. I also discovered the joy that comes from working with the human body in a way that few are privileged to do. Sharing that joy in an educational manner has become my constant challenge and one of the most undeniable pleasures of my life in academic surgery.
When one of our students or residents starts a clinical rotation with me I always tell them three things. First, they’re going to work hard. Second, we’re going to work together to insure a good learning experience for them. Third, I expect them to have fun while working hard and learning. My belief is that by trying to include that element of “fun” that we create a safe place to learn, one in which creativity isn’t stifled and one in which learners feel safe to ask questions and explore ideas. I find that in this type of environment that I often am able to learn as much- or more- than those whom I am charged with teaching.
The Talmud asks four questions of us that can and should serve as guideposts for our lives.
• Have I lived honorably on a daily basis?
• Have I raised the next generation?
• Have I set time aside for study?
• Have I lived hopefully?
In my role as a surgical teacher, and in all of our roles of teachers, we are given the opportunity for each of these things on a consistent basis. I delight in the recognition that I’m succeeding in these things in the early stages of my career, and I aspire to continuing to use these markers as I move forward on this path.
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