Who to blame? This trend of quick short attention span, serving silver bullet solutions that cure diseases
Posted by: adonis49 on: August 29, 2018
Who to blame? This trend of quick short attention span, serving silver bullet solutions that cure diseases
Mirvat El-Sibai posted on FB. August 28, 2016 at 12:27 PM · Beirut
When i was doing my PhD i used to start my day in lab around 10 a.m. and on many days stay till 3 or 4 in the morning with a couple of hours break during the day..
i routinely sat on the microscope 8 hours straight throughout the night till i developed a permanent slouch.. and still couldn’t wait to go home to analyze the data..
If i came home early it was to catch up on some papers or to prepare a presentation write a paper or my thesis etc..
We used to work weekend, holidays, and we were always in the business of learning and never questioned our advisors and were happy to pay our dues..
Our students today ask for more grades even if they don’t deserve it and i find that lack of self worth very troubling..
it is a sweep under the rug mentality that aims for cheap lazy results…
Students today learn a technique and produce a figure and start asking about publications..
They teach a lab and start asking about a permanent position.. they read a paper and start questioning models..
Ambition is great but humility and patience are paramount to actual learning, particularly in science..
I don’t blame it all on our students though..
It is the culture that pushes for readily packaged success stories and quick short attention span, serving silver bullet solutions that cure diseases..
It is also social media…
Note 1: For reasons, Not all of them fully justifiable, the medical students undergo harsh schedule and procedure that punish the students more than other fields of study. For example, focusing on a microscope for hours on would turn me blind. And this habit of waking up earlier than birds.
Note 2: I suffered immensely during my PhD program, particularly how to pay the tuition and trying to circumvent a few rules by auditing courses. You may read my uneasiness in my Autobiography category. In my teaching experience in Lebanon I was very disappointed: I had to invent and change my teaching methods, even, during a semester, to excite and give intensive for university students to study, read and do meaningful research. You may discover my methods in my Human Factors in Engineering category on wordpress.com
Note 3: Social platforms may contribute to laziness in students Not motivated in the first place. But these platforms are wonderful resources for reflective minds.
Adonis Diaries 
Leave a Reply