Winter 1996
"I feel that the greatest challenge in teaching is to show the relevance of the classroom to the bedside. Making the class material practical and useful for optimum patient care, regardless of the particular health profession, is critical. Pathology is fascinating. It interfaces with all medical specialties and pathologists help solve the mysteries of diagnosis. I'm really lucky to be a teacher. I try to teach by encouragement, not by intimidation."
"I continually remind myself of that time in my career when I lived through the initial clinic jitters. There is no time when a student harboring self-doubts is more sensitive to criticism, warranted or not, implied or actual. This is where (Junior Dental Outpatient Clinic) hands-on dentistry begins, and where the instructor should be most sensitive to the students' feelings of vulnerability."
"It's not hard to motivate students. You just have to be very organized and show them that you respect them. Students come first at a university. Teaching is always challenging. I believe it is important to integrate theory and research into clinical teaching. And real-life experiences in the community are important to help put the students' nursing skills to work. I also believe that students must learn to work together on projects, even though it may be difficult at first."
"Teaching helps keep me going because I know that we are helping to create new advocates for children. I teach medical students and residents in pediatrics, family practice and psychiatry, and other physicians and nurses statewide about how to deal with child abuse. It can be very difficult for students to face the issues related to abuse and it often brings out strong emotions in them, including rage. I try to get them past that stage to be able to act as strong but professional advocates for the children. This working through of their own emotions is part of their education."
"I care about the students; their successes are my successes. "The goal of graduate education is to teach students to think and synthesize (instead of memorizing). Thus, my approach is to present experiments from the current literature and allow students to see how important scientific advances were made. My exams are challenging, but always fun. For example, I may describe a contrived situation and ask students to provide the appropriate experiments to address the question; this forces students to think and is good training for their future research endeavors."
