The manual life

When I applied for a surgery residency, only one professor asked me questions about my manual dexterity. He asked if I played a musical instrument (I had but not well) and whether I worked with tools. I had been working with tools since I was a child. One of my earliest memories was smashing my thumb with a hammer. When I was a medical student, we had real labs. In Physiology and Pharmacology we would inject rabbits with drugs and measure the effect. Sometimes we constructed preparations with a frog’s leg and its nerve. Sometimes it was a heart beating in a dish of nutrient solution.

In recent years, some students have begun to complain about the use of animals in research and in biology labs. The lab benches have disappeared from medical schools. Students don’t even use microscopes anymore. I wonder if an applicant to a surgery program is asked about manual dexterity now.

This essay discusses the disappearance of shop class in high school (my Catholic high school didn’t have shop) and the decline of the manual arts as vocational choices. A Mercedes mechanic can earn $150,000 a year in a dealership position but college graduates earning 14 dollars an hour will look upon him as a “blue-collar worker.” The essay points out that many of the people described in the book, “The Millionaire Next Door” are in fact the products of such technical trades.

It has been said that India was for many years held back in its development because the British educational system had left a tradition of contempt for such manual trades. India had plenty of doctors but few auto mechanics. I wonder if we are headed the same way?

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12 Responses to “The manual life”

  1. Eric Blair says:

    I know that predental students get asked about manual dexterity. So there is hope for common sense.

    I’m tender hearted about animals, too, but I would like to believe that medical students have practiced surgery on living things before they get to me!

  2. Dana says:

    This post and the linked article so clearly reinforce what I see working in the public school system – there are a vast number of kids simply not college bound but this reality is an anathema too many *educators* who must remain in denial as it does not meld with the necessary PR machination of the public school rubric.

    Its unfortunate because if there were more hands-on opportunities there would be greater educational success. But our very narrow definition of what constitutes *educational success* severely curtails reaching all students.

    My parents were smart – they saw early on my older brother was a mechanical whiz with an insatiable need to know how engines work. They always provided him with old engines to dismantle and reassemble. His teenage years were mostly spent in our garage. Today he is an independent specialty mechanic who has people from around the country make appointments for him to work on their race boats or foreign sports cars. He is a comfortable millionaire who only works when the challenge is big enough. I’ve lost count of how many homes he owns. For him a great day is sitting in a parked boat in his 7,000 ft garage, contemplating how to invent a more efficient component in whatever engine he is working on. Oh, did I mention he also invents mechanical gizmos for race boat engines?

    Manual arts are the answer to tactile geniuses who would wither in a classroom.

  3. cassandra says:

    My husband can do anything. He can fix most anything on a car, or at least knows exactly which motorhead to call for advice or which tool to borrow..he can fix electrical and plumbing, frame walls and do drywall, plus he does heavy-duty sewing! He didn’t have shop where he went to school, and he said his father didn’t teach him much of it either. He was frugal, and learned from books and other hot-rodder friends and employers in odd jobs. His sons weren’t much interested in learning what he knew, maybe because they knew he’d take care of everything.

    What’ll we do without these guys? I just don’t see the level of interest among today’s youth. Everything is done for them, and they see no need to be frugal.

  4. Eric Blair says:

    There is no right answer, but I do know that public schools are messing things up terribly, based on the students I get in college. Why, some of them complain that I present material that doesn’t appear on the test—that is, they don’t know what a test is for!

    I’m not good at repairing or building things. My wife is. People are different.

    I think that the secondary schools ought to teach basic “life skills” as well as academics. And one of those skills is finding out the things at which you are good!

    Dana, imagine if you brother had been forced to go to law school!

    I don’t like putting people into boxes, but deciding that everyone needs to go to college is a kind of box, too.

    Your mileage may vary.

  5. qdpsteve says:

    Hey everybody, since some previous links I posted on an earlier thread to some funny ‘Motivational Poster’ pics didn’t work, here’s a link to the source website:

    http://blog.jimmyr.com/Best_motivational_Posters_Ever_18_2008.php

    The posters I was linking were the ‘Unique’ and the ‘Natural Selection.’ Hope you enjoy all of ’em, however.

  6. Eric Blair says:

    Hi Steve:

    Many of those remind me of the cool postcards and posters at:

    http://despair.com/viewall.html

    Check out the ones for my favorites:

    “Ambition”
    “Idiocy”
    “Intimidation”
    “Meetings”
    “Potential” (that one stings!)
    “Sacrifice”
    “Wishes”

    I have “Wishes” and “Sacrifice” on the lab door.

    I also like The Pessimist’s Mug.

  7. Eric Blair says:

    Oh, and the shirts are funny too:

    http://despair.com/viewall1.html

    I like the “I > U” shirt idea. A couple of my students wear them.

  8. qdpsteve says:

    Eric, you oughta send you-know-who at the Swamp the “More people have read this shirt…” shirt. 😉

    Or the ‘Arrogance’ poster.

  9. Eric Blair says:

    Well, I don’t want to fling any mud. But perhaps you and Bradley can share a chuckle over this quote.

    “Nobody can be so amusingly arrogant as a young man who has just discovered an old idea and thinks it is his own.”
    -Sydney J. Harris

    And who knows? Some people who have strong beliefs—things with which I disagree heartily—also give up time, effort, and money in support of those beliefs. I always have great respect for such people. They walk the walk, rather than urge others to do things that they are not willing to do themselves.

    Or as my late grandfather actually said: “Talk is cheap; whiskey costs money.”

  10. Eric Blair says:

    Hey, Dr. K….

    Your post reminded me of something. Where I used to teach, there was a very “old skool” anatomy and physiology professor (he had earned his PhD in the early 60s, and was then edging toward retirement). He was big, gruff, and brooked no nonsense (even when it wasn’t always nonsense!). Needless to say, students who disliked dissections and surgery on animals did not receive much understanding in his courses.

    Anyway, he taught a very old fashioned physiology course. I observed one of his labs on a particular day. Fourteen students. Professor, in a blood spattered smock (a la Sweeney Todd), standing at the front of the lab, with a rabbit opened up. The bunny was anesthetized, and an EKG machine attached. The professor was showing how different bioactive agents introduced into the bloodstream could slow or speed the rabbit’s heart in real time.

    At one point, the rabbit stopped breathing. Cursing a bit under his breath, the professor produced a soda straw, and began doing the rabbit equivalent of artificial respiration.

    One of the students giggled at the spectacle of this big gruff older man bent over the little bunny, trying to get it breathing again.

    The professor heard the giggle, straightened up suddenly, and threw an angry glare at the room.

    “This animal is *dying* so you can learn something useful!’ he thundered. “Give this animal the respect it deserves!”

    I remember that story when I hear reports such as the one you write above. Modern techniques appear more humane. But are they? I don’t work with animals, so my opinion is limited.

  11. Wait until the bacteria liberationists get to you. Then you’ll be sorry you laughed at us vivisectionists.

  12. Eric Blair says:

    Here is a great short story that will amuse you on that subject, Dr. K.

    “Tuberculosis Bacteria Join UN.”

    http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v405/n6790/full/4051001a0.html

    “Prokaryotic Pride!”