Power to the Doctors | The Village Green

Power to the Doctors January 18, 2008

Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Opinion.
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The New York Times published a story about a group of doctors who were concerned about an email that is making the rounds that includes questionable medical advice. They could have deleted the email as spam like we all do, or they could try to do something about it. So they crafted their own response to the original email with clarifying information.

Now Dr. Parker has decided to wage his own Internet campaign. He and two colleagues have crafted their own missive and released it onto the Internet. Their hope is that the same forces that propelled the first message to popularity can also be used to debunk it.

The idea here isn’t that we should be teaching our students the correct information (a good idea) but that we should be empowering them to make a difference in the world. There are limits to what each of us can do, but those limits are greatly diminished when we help our students find their voice and forum to join in the ongoing conversation. By engaging them at the level of their own passions, we provide them with the opportunity to persuade, dissuade, convince, and to be convinced by others. That’s when education makes a difference.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/doctors-take-on-a-notorious-e-mail/

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