University of Michigan Medical and Nursing School - Aequanimitas Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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Dr. fiarl lferinga is at a teaching institu- tion because he likes to teach. He believes that if a person is primarily interested in research. he should go to a research center and not a teaching hospital. Dr. lferinga emphasizes the distinction between memorization and learning. Nlemorization. used most heavily in the basic sciences is deprived of continuity with relevant learning by lack of clinical patient contact. 'l'he system of attempting to communicate with two hundred students at once inevitably tends to emphasize role memorization of material. Under these conditions. he believes it is difficult for both students and instructors to maintain enthu- siasm. a valuable precondition to learning. He feels that the new curriculum is prog- ress towards solving these problems and improving teaching. since basic science is correlated more with clinical applications. This and the fact of smaller groups should ignite more enthusiasm in both students and staff. Although aware that teaching at Nlichi- gan can stand improvement. Dr. Feringa thinks the staff is often falsely accused of poor teaching. He feels that the students who complain the most are the ones least willing to teach themselves. He thinks they want to be on the receiving end all the time. whichqiust is not lifel Presently as Chief of Neurology at the Y..-X. Hospital. he sets limited objectives for students on his service. Realizing that they are there for a brief time, he does not shame them if they cannot place a lesion precisely after having the history and seeing a physi- cal. His expectations are rather a decent neurological exam and a development of the knowledge required to refer patients to a specialist for further evaluation and ther- apy. He also believes in treating students as part of the ward staff and emphasizes that they are not to do scut or secretarial shores, but rather to spend time with patients or in reading. One of the most valuable assets is that students regard him as a friend as well as instructor. lt is easy to communicate with I8 him as he does not appear to place himself upon a pedestal. Although he feels the fac- ulty disapproves. he can often be found at student functions. Yet he is aware that some distance most be kept in order to maintain the professor-student relationship on rounds stating that 'fit is often very difficult to draw the line between familiarity and respect. 7f1f!lf1.I-t'f1t'Ifg llr. Feringa's thoughts on teaching tabovel are professed by many staff mem- bersg the significant uniqueness of this out- standing teacher is that those principles form the nidus of a truly remarkable per- sonal modus operandi. He brings those ideas to life whenever he finds himself in a dialogue with students. Briefly. this is how Dr. Feringa achieved his astounding popu- larity in such a short period oftime. tSenior .-Xward 1966. llonorary Cialens membership 1967. and Knight of Shovel .-Xward l968j llis trather high quality and excitingj research and other commitments limit his contact with students largely to his lengthy rounds. at which time students present all the new patients. In this thrice-weekly ritu- al. Dr. Feringa performs a complete neurol- ogic exam on each patient. all the while tossing a valuable, yet humorous, shower of pearls over his shoulder. lt is marvelous to watch him encounter the nearly uncontroll- able schizophrenic. for Ur. l eringa's quiet mastery soon exerts its influence and the patient invariably co-operates perfectly. Amazed and delighted, students watch intently for clues to the secret of his subtle technique of handling patients. Clearly. he becomes a model to emulate. After the examination, symptoms are coalesced and Dr. Feringa gives the differen- tial diagnosis. His verbal delivery is fluent. flawless. and shaped with the rigorous logic and organization of a textbook. Indeed. one gets the eerie notion that whole paragraphs and even chapters are stored away in his memory. ready to be rattled off. Students on Ur. Feringa's service are not trainedg they are educated. -Tint liurlofz

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First Senior: Itprobably does. I'm afraid to look. Second Senior.' I'm depressed enough as it is. Premedical Student.' Well, I have to go. Need to look at other medical schools, you know. Thanksfor a most enlightening discussion. fDeparts, with a shake ofheadj. First Senior: One hundred and twenty-two teachers just in internal medicine. Where have they been the last two years? Second Senior.' Maybe they were teaching residents or interns or something. First Senior: But the residents and interns complain ofthe same problem-little teaching. Second Senior: One hundred and twenty-two teach- ers . , . First Senior.' Goddamn! and as another author sees it: The Galens Shovel Award, pictured here, is presented annually to that member of the clinical faculty judged most ejective as a teacher. The Crosby Award is presented for similar achievement to a member of the basic science faculty. In fact, we do know what's wrong with medical school, but we haven 't been able to articulate the basic frustrations behind the petty gripes they give rise to, the basic inad- equacies that are the source of our very real resentment, or the dynamics that tum us into second-class citizens at this medical school. The meeting made two objectives very clear,' we must understand ourselves, what we think and what our experience has been, and then communicate these insights to the faculty, because in some important ways the faculty did not understand what we were driving at. For example.' To the criticism of boring lectures the faculty asked if we felt that we should be entertained. They said we felt we should be exposed to all types of men, dry as well as dynamic, that people have different tastes in lecturers, and that much of the subject mat- ter is intrinsically unexciting. And if we were really complaining of boredom in the sense that they understood us, their com- ments would have been relevant. But we aren't really complaining of boredom. When I wash dishes at home I am certainly bored but I don 't resent doing them because they are my dishes and I am engaged by the clear necessity that the dishes must be washed. Many medical students long for even this simple sense of engagement with their work. Lectures make us feel shujled down an assembly line from one subject to the next. The only part we play in our own education is to drag our bodies in every moming-not to debate, not to discuss, not to raise issues or explore possibilities, but to shut up and listen, one anonymous face among 200. Does this get any closer to what we mean by boredom? To the student criticism that there is no personal student faculty contact, the faculty said there were Phi Chi parties and besides you can 't build personal relationships into an institutional sturcture, that they grow individually and spontaneously. The misun- derstanding here was that we all wanted to be assigned to a big brother M.D. when we entered as freshmen, but this sort of institu- tionalized personal contact is not what we are talking about. We would like more contact with the faculty and we know that the institutional structure provides neither space nor the time for it. When Ijirst came here I tried to find out where people go to hand around, to exchange gossip and drink coffee until I realized that from my vantage point as a freshman and now as a sopho- more, it was nowhere. One student said, What am I supposed to do, walk down a hall and introduce myseU' to the first long white coat I meet? But the traditional walls between stu- dents andfaculty will not crumble by setting up a cofee room, a tutorial program, or anything else, so long as the overwhelming attitude toward the student is that they are the trainees, the uninitiate whom thefaculty has the responsibility to whip into shape in four years. So as far as I'm concerned, Phi Chi parties are token integration. We don? want to be pals with the faculty. We have our own friends. But we think of ourselves as responsible men and women who have taken Medicine to be our life's work and therefore essentially as colleagues of the faculty. We pnd this elitist attitude of theirs humiliating and feel that the boot camp philosophy of medical education died with Arrowsmith. We feel that the student- teacher relationship can be seriously built only on mutual respect, not of pals or big brothers, but of man to man. Does this clar- Uy what we mean by student faculty contact? We do not mean to say that any of the aforementioned problems here at Michigan are due to deliberate intention. Rather, they stem from simple neglect while attention has been directed to the pressures of research, publication, and getting ahead. But society--and students as its representatives' -are once again demanding that more attention be paid to both the process of medical education and its end product. With this in mind, the staff of the Aequanimitas would like to present some of those few who have been selected by the student body as good teachers, evidenced by the award of the Galens Shovel or the Crosby Award. We have tried to show just what it is that makes each effective. We have fotmd them each individuals as teachers, with no consistency of systems or styles. But there is one thing consistently characteristic of each and every one-a deep concern for medical education, and each has done some- thing about it in his own way. In short, this section is dedicated to those it portrays, and a few others-those who really give a damn. 'Why do we blithely make students representatives of society ? Do students have some special claim? We think perhaps they may Medical students in particular, as not yet fully initiate, have a foot in both camps, and remain involved in the problems of both the medical and non-medical worlds. But more basically, recent college graduates are supposedly the finished product of our system of education, and should therefore be brimful of those values which society seeks to inculcate in its young. If you think they are not-then where has your educational system gone awry? 17

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if Eff Earl Feringa Born May 30, 1932 B.S., Calvin College N1.D., Northwestern University Intern at Philadelphia General Hospital Resident at University of Colorado Galens Shovel. Senior Award YW , YY7 EARL FERINGA -1.