That wasn’t my take-away from the article at all. TFA is not at all asking lower level schools to provide students pre-trained for any specific need. Quite the opposite.
Anecdotally, this Professor believes that increased focus on exams and computer use is leading to a generalize dulling of dexterity and specifically tactile sense / fine motor skills.
This isn’t something that you can prep for like an exam. It’s specifically the exam focused mentality and the idea you can cram or prep for this that is the root of the problem.
The untested theory behind the article is that children and adolescents need long term and broad exposure to all sorts of varied tasks which challenge their fine motor skills to develop the pathways that will shift the bell curve back to where it was, and lead to a greater number of students who are ultimately capable of achieving an ‘elite’ level of surgical skill.
In the absence of these programs and with the arduous focus on exams/testing, that the nervous system development and motor pathways for an increasing number of otherwise perfectly qualified students are simply stunted. Those students will have a much harder time developing the necessary dexterity and fine motor skill required for even basic tasks like stitching and suturing. But more likely it’s not that they won’t get the basics, but an increasing percentage will never even be capable of approaching the skill level of an elite surgeon.
Now, the whole things smacks a bit of generational prejudice and seems totally anecdotal. It certainly seems like it is something quantifiable that could and should be more rigorously studied.
Anecdotally, this Professor believes that increased focus on exams and computer use is leading to a generalize dulling of dexterity and specifically tactile sense / fine motor skills.
This isn’t something that you can prep for like an exam. It’s specifically the exam focused mentality and the idea you can cram or prep for this that is the root of the problem.
The untested theory behind the article is that children and adolescents need long term and broad exposure to all sorts of varied tasks which challenge their fine motor skills to develop the pathways that will shift the bell curve back to where it was, and lead to a greater number of students who are ultimately capable of achieving an ‘elite’ level of surgical skill.
In the absence of these programs and with the arduous focus on exams/testing, that the nervous system development and motor pathways for an increasing number of otherwise perfectly qualified students are simply stunted. Those students will have a much harder time developing the necessary dexterity and fine motor skill required for even basic tasks like stitching and suturing. But more likely it’s not that they won’t get the basics, but an increasing percentage will never even be capable of approaching the skill level of an elite surgeon.
Now, the whole things smacks a bit of generational prejudice and seems totally anecdotal. It certainly seems like it is something quantifiable that could and should be more rigorously studied.