Random House, 2004
Precis of Chapters 5-6: Doctor Farmer had quite an adventurous and unusual upbringing. His father, known to many as "The Warden" because of his strict ways toward his children led a ship of six kids, Paul being the second youngest. Paul turned out to be very gifted in his intelligence, and even after having a considerably rowdy college life became the very successful doctor and writer he is today. He was able to flourish in an otherwise challenging environment, and eventually Paul came to realize that his true calling was not to simply heal others, but to transform the healing of the less fortunate in Haiti. His studies of Virchow and Haiti culminated in a 6,000 word article about Haitians laboring near the college campus, entitled "Haitians without a home."
Best Line(s):
"Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community."
"The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them."
Thoughts/Questions:
-"P.J." must have truly been gifted, I honestly cannot imagine such a brainy kid coming out of that upbringing otherwise.
-I was really surprised to hear that Paul tried all of this crazy stuff and failed to get straight A's (especially him) for his early college career. I would have thought he would have already been making great strides.
-It sounds to me like this is somebody who really cares about helping people. I hope this doesn't sound offensive, but I wouldn't go to Haiti if you paid me. Paul sounds like someone who is not afraid to get their hands dirty, and that his only satisfaction can come from healing and changing other's lives.
-This is not really related, but I wonder if this were a mandatory read in medical school, if there might be an ethical change on the "dominant" side of this social practice.
Evan,
ReplyDeleteI thought you precis was accurate, but I don't know how trustworthy I am because I read that chapter some time ago. I thought your line, "PJ must have been truly gifted" was an interesting thought, but I wonder what you meant but "truly" gifted? that line makes me think that you feel that someone is falsely gifted if those around them influence them...I'm not sure that that is what you meant to communicate. I don't think this post was quite alligned with the assignment; You were supposed to post responses to the quotes you provided, and then write about how the book has related to you own experience in a later paragraph. However, your format was effective as well.