Teaching the Teacher

I will be traveling out of town for a bit as an invited speaker in Minneapolis, MN on he application of pacing techniques for the treatment of congestive heart failure, specifically biventricular pacing. At these engagements, I used to think that I was the one doing the educating – one likes to think they’ve got something brilliant to say. But as the years have passed, I now find that such engagements tend to do more for the speaker than for the student. The time spent organizing a talk, updating outdated slides, and preparing for an onslaught of thoughtful questions – or at least trying to anticipate those questions – improves my understanding of the challenges we face every day and the gaps in knowledge yet to be understood.

“Sixty years ago I knew everything; now I know nothing; education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

-Will Durant

Hmmm. It seems teaching and blogging are strikingly similar in this regard.

"Thought flows in terms of stories - stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best story tellers. We learn in the form of stories."

-Frank Smith

--Wes