Saturday, September 19, 2020
I remember very well Dr. Whittier’s lectures in pulmonary physiology in medical school and have taken what I learned there to my teaching of 100s (or more?) students. I especially remember him throwing down the gauntlet if anyone wanted to take the final exam as an oral exam. In other words, you prepare for the whole thing then go to the office where he throws hard questions at you and you explain the answer in front of him on the whiteboard. In real time. Talk about stress! When I finished he asked me to write what grade I thought I had earned on a note card. More stress! In the end he graded me higher than I graded myself and I know I had learned from a true teacher.