On July 3rd, I wrote about the perfect storm of suffering and loss that some of my cousins and their families have experienced this spring and summer. My cousin Becky died on Wednesday, and on the way to her funeral, I began thinking about how her doctors had failed. They had gone up against cancer and lost Becky. Where’s the public accountability for the medical profession? Do we have articles in the newspapers condemning doctors and hospitals when patients die of cancer? No. Are doctors paid the same whether their patients get well or not? No. Are hospitals that treat cancer patients forced to close and reopen under new management with new physicians and medical staffs when patient death rates do not drop with each succeeding year? No. Why not?
I think there are several good reason why these things don’t happen. First, we understand that the vast majority of doctors are highly trained professionals who have their patients’ best interests at heart, so they conscientiously do their best for their patients. Unfortunately, cancer is a highly complex set of diseases, and our understanding of it is limited despite years of research and clinical developments. We understand that more research and development must be completed before we understand the myriad complicated relationships that cause some cells to become cancerous.
If we call all of medicine’s knowledge of cancer and the available modes of treatment our profound knowledge of cancer, then Becky’s death and those of millions of others must cause us to conclude that our profound knowledge is seriously lacking. The important point is that everyone acknowledges (doctors, patients, and the community in general) that the medical profession is unable to cure all cancer patients. The goal of defeating cancer remains fixed in the headlights, but the medical profession is still an indeterminate distance from reaching it, and people in general seem to know and accept the fact.
Now consider public education where accountability is so popular with politicians, the media, and social critics. Schools are ranked on test scores, and failure to reach achievement goals result in the closing of schools and their reorganization. The situation is very similar to cancer treatment. In both cases you have dedicated individuals working at the limits of their knowledge to achieve clear goals, e.g., cancer survival, improved student learning, and dropout prevention. Both the medical and the educational professions have failed to meet their goals, but in the case of education, there is much public uproar. Why?
I believe the difference lies in the education community’s inability to acknowledge that its profound knowledge is inadequate to the expectations of political leaders. Everyone knows that cancer it tough to beat, but no one seems to acknowledge that “high levels of learning for all” is impossible with our current knowledge. Until educators are willing to say, “We don’t know how to bring the achievement of low-income students to the level of the better-off peers;” until educators are willing to say, “We don’t know how to keep students in school until they graduate;” until educators and the public are willing to acknowledge that the profound knowledge in education is just as inadequate as the profound knowledge in cancer medicine, teachers and principals will continue to be inappropriately bullied and punished in ways that doctors are not.
David
PS: I realize that this post strayed from our cancer treatments, but I never promised to limit myself to that topic alone. DD
