Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery - Dental Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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. . . has no connection with a hospital or a school, other than belonging to the PTA where his children went to school. Another has stated that In the public ' s eye, (the dentist) doesn ' t provide community leadership, doesn ' t support community activities with either time or money ... So far as the public is concerned, (dentists) all could be members of Anonymous Anonymous. By the time a student starts to prepare for his professional career, his major personality characteristics, sense of values, and behavioral attitudes probably have been determined by his parents, prior schooling, and his peers. The main factor in determining the extent to which the student will acquire the character- istics of social sensitivity is his nature at the time he enters dental school.

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The problem for the dental school therefore becomes how to develop graduates who can contribute significantly to the optimum well-being of a changing society. Dentistry has to adapt to new conditions and different demands. This is best accomplished by devising an entirely new curriculum and adhering to a philosophy more in keeping with the changing times. The primary sources from which a curriculum in the health professions should be derived are the needs of society in toto and its members in particular, and the aspirations of the individual or future practitioner. These factors are perhaps epitomized by the two quotations at the beginning of this essay. In the first, Hesse expresses the basic values, importance and uniqueness of every human being that truly makes him worthy o f every consideration. The second describes man ' s own search for his significance, his attempt to find himself among all the many characters he portrays, roles he fulfills, and paths he may tread throughout life. A curriculum in keeping with these tenets should provide for an increased awareness of mankind and have a content fertile with opportunities to achieve a sense of self-fulfillment as an individual in the dental profession. One of the goals of dental education should be to train practi- tioners in unique approaches and ideas with regard to diagnosis and treatment. This cannot be accomplished by instructing all stu- dents identically. The curriculum should be built on individual interests, potentials, capabilities and desires; it ought to make the four years in school relevant to the individual ' s ultimate goals and how he wants to accomplish them. This can only be done by having flexibility in dental curriculums, rather than a fixed, rigid, traditional dental curriculum.