Atul Gawande is a surgeon in respected Massachusetts hospital. His book, Better (Picador, 2007) is a deep reflection on medical practice as a whole and on his own practice as a physician. He explores the challenges of being a doctor, including human fallibility and the threat of malpractice, doctor efficiency and the mountains of paperwork, the highly specialized yet bureaucratic state of medicine in the Western world contrasted with the adaptability and talent-growing challenges of practicing in under-developed countries, of the need for the personal touch in medicine, and much more. Recounting his personal experiences from being a new doctor to controlling an outbreak of polio in rural India to fighting to get his own patients into surgery in an overbooked hospital and interviewing doctors who assist in court-ordered executions, Gawande’s stories are gripping and provocative. He has no doubt made both friends and enemies in his own profession in calling for greater transparency and a relentless pursuit for the profession as a whole and for individual doctors to do better, get better, and be better. He calls upon doctors to share without kvetching, to continually gather data to learn how to provide better healthcare, to be creative, to be reflective, and to continually change as necessary. He coins a phrase which guides his conclusion – to be a positive deviant.
This inspiring book, which is a gripping read, could have been written about any profession which touches and impacts people’s lives. Indeed, as I read this book I could not help thinking about its easy translation into the world of education, filled with highly motivated professionals operating very much in their own spheres, who can significantly impact on the lives of many individuals, who function under often highly stressful situations in less-than-optimal situations.
I’m interested to hear from Lookjed readers:
• What data do they think they can collect about their work which might have an impact on what they do in their classrooms?
• What changes would they be prepared to make in their own teaching if they thought that it would make a difference? Are there red lines that they would not cross even if they thought it would make a significant difference in how their students learn?
• Which teachers (or schools!) are prepared to be transparent and non-defensive about their practices and outcomes, sharing their mistakes and what they learned from them as well as their successes?
Kol Tuv,
Zvi Grumet
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/16/2016 03:54PM by mlb.
