Good Teaching — Good Testing

During my many years of schooling, I realized that good teaching included good testing. In other words, theory must find its home in application. Theory is often learned in the classroom, sitting in rows in a controlled environment. However, application becomes messy....

Following the King

Everyone is a follower. A speaker once told me that even leaders are followers. The critical issue is asking the question, "Who or what am I following?" Increasingly, people have begun to refer to themselves as followers of Jesus rather than Christians. I am...

Get the Right Diagnosis

"What is wrong with my child?!" Parents with much pathos and pain often posed this question to me in the emergency department. A child's symptoms such as fever were easily treatable but the question still remained, "What is wrong – what is the...

Test Day

During my 23 years of education, taking tests was a regular activity. These tests evaluated my aptitude and knowledge. As I moved into medical school and emergency medicine, testing increasingly assessed not only my knowledge base but also my skill level – my...

Taxi Cab Wisdom

I hopped in a taxi to discover that my cab driver was from Kosovo. Knowing the turmoil of that region I said, “Isn’t it sad that there is so much difficulty and suffering in the world?” The cabbie gently rebuked me with these words. “If there...

Not Learning My Lesson

The importance of learning lessons well was impressed upon me in my freshman year of medical school. A junior medical student told me, "Everything you need to learn you will hear ten times. Just learn it once!!" He also implied that failure to learn might...