Perspectives & Opinions
Our faculty are known as the "teacher of teachers."
However, given the opportunity, what college course would our highly educated University of Chicago faculty chose to attend if they had to do it all over again? Third year medical student Steven Bachta asked four faculty members to respond to the following question:
If you could go back to college for just one course, what would it be?
Their answers are below:
Linda Druelinger, MDAssociate Professor
of Medicine
Clerkship Director,
Emergency Medicine
"A Humanities class without a doubt! It is a welcome change to think about college since lately my focus has been on the curriculum encountered in second grade as my seven-year-old struggles to learn the fact families (mathematics) and cursive! I enjoyed the idea of mulling over college curriculum and selecting a course that allowed me the opportunity to read and write for the pure joy and enlightenment. In preparation for medical school, my college days were filled with chemistry and biology courses with little time to ponder other cultures, the arts, or music. Since then, the emphasis has shifted to the well-rounded student. However, I attended Jordan Cohen's lecture on the 21st Century Challenges to Medical Education at the Department of Medicine Grand Rounds and have started to rethink my initial response. As we are challenged to educate our students with an ever increasing breadth of scientific knowledge, it seems an even greater emphasis may need to be placed on science courses at the undergraduate level in preparation for a career in medicine. We will see! For now though, my answer remains the same."
Linda Druelinger, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Clerkship Director, Emergency Medicine
Will Harper, MDAssistant Professor
of Medicine
Course Director,
Clinical Skills
"Public Speaking. I was a biology major in college, so felt well-prepared for studying the science of medicine. While anatomy, biochemistry, pathology and the rest were no walk in the park, I knew how to study science and learn what I needed to learn. But as we all know, being a doctor is much more than that. It is a gift that enables us to interact with people in a powerful way. It is unique, for example, to meet with someone for the first time and ask about sensitive topics such as their sexual practices, domestic violence issues and recreational drug use. It is likewise a challenge to advise patients about complex issues such as end-of-life care, delivering bad news and counseling for behavior change. No matter the kind of physician we become, we need the skills to perform these tasks effectively. To do these tasks well requires us to be self-reflective. We have to be aware of how we present ourselves to our patients with cues such as our body language and tone of voice. I suspect that a course that introduces one to public speaking would begin with skills such as this. If I had taken such a course, I think that I would have been better prepared to interact with my patients. Should we ask all of our students to take an public speaking class prior to matriculating? I don't think that's necessary, but I do think it is essential that doctors and doctors in training be continually self-reflective, and recognize that our patients' perceptions of us and their willingness to comply with what we recommend is influenced not only by what we say, but how we say it."
Will Harper, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Course Director, Clinical Skills
Stephen Meredith, MD, PhDProfessor of Pathology
and Biochemistry
& Molecular Biology
Course Director,
Biochemistry
& Molecular Biology,
and Cell Pathology
& Immunology
“Classic texts. I don’t think I appreciated “the classics” as I should have, and I’ve spent much of my postcollege life repenting this. Part of this “repentance” has been to teach courses on authors I should have spent more time reading when I was in college. In order to prepare for the courses, I had to read a lot of works by the authors, and then secondary sources. So, in a sense, I have taken the courses I either didn’t take, or took and didn’t spend enough time on. This would include courses on Aquinas and Augustine, especially. For my recent project, I’m going through Shakespeare in a semi-systematic way, so maybe I would take a course on Shakespeare or several courses (how can one really “cover” Shakespeare in a quarter or semester?) I would like to get to the point where I could read Homer and Aristotle in the original Greek, so that might be another set of courses to take. Other authors I’d like to spend more time with are late 19th and early 20th century American writers (Melville, Dreiser, Dos Passos, Faulkner, among other). You didn’t ask this, but a related thought is that I regret having taken courses on subjects that seemed very topical at the time. Some of these were just silly—wastes of time. On the other hand, I also wish I had taken more math courses. And biology classes would be right out!”
Stephen Meredith, MD, PhD
Professor of Pathology
and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Course Director, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, and Cell Pathology & Immunology
Maura Quinlan, MDAssistant Professor
of Obstetrics and
Gynecology
Clerkship Director,
Obstetrics and
Gynecology
“Comparative World Views. This was a classic course at my college. I am embarrassed to say that I actually DID take that class as a 20-year-old undergraduate, but this time around, I would really pay close attention and read all the great classics that were assigned! I would take this class because I think I (we) could use a time when we step back and, over many sessions and in great depth, see the rich differences in the cultures in our world. In my profession as an Obstetrician/Gynecologist, I am fascinated, and try to respect and encourage, the cultural traditions surrounding the childbirth experience of my patients. But I wish I had a better grounding in the history and important components of different cultures. It would certainly help us all to better understand the political discord in the world as well. (But I bet I have the course syllabus from 20+ years ago. Maybe I can find it in the basement and try to audit the course from home!?) Thanks so much for asking.”
Maura Quinlan, MD
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Clerkship Director, Obstetrics and Gynecology
