Response

Recently someone anonymously wrote to me on my other blog saying, "I live in Poland and I can't believe you chose to study here. Education sucks here." and another also anonymous person pretty much chewed me out for "being lazy" and "throwing your school under the bus" (haha this person obviously doesn't know me and throwing my school under the bus is kind of hard to do since I don't ever mention where I go to school, I change the identities and specialties of all my professors, and the pictures I post from inside Poland are other cities and events I have visited... so even if you think you know where I am, trust me you don't-unless you know me personally.)

Anyways, I'm getting off topic. I wanted to share my response to the first comment because I think it best sums up how I feel about my school and my education as a whole. Something that I have obviously not made clear enough on this blog.

My response:

"I have very mixed feelings about saying that any type of education sucks. You take out of everything what you put into it. 

It all really depends on the person in question. Are certain parts of my education better than others? Well yeah. I’d be lying if I said everything was hunky dory. I think my blog is evidence of that.    

People have different styles of learning and Poland’s primary strategy of medical education is you teach yourself or you don’t learn it. Despite this, certain parts of my education have been really great. 

Some teachers have really gone above and beyond to make sure that myself and my classmates get the information we need. I think for the most part (there’s always an exception) most of the Doctors want to help us learn and they do a great job at it. 

If anything the faults in the system have made me a better student. I have to work twice as hard to be as good as my US counterparts. I’ve had to teach myself, which makes learning more difficult but also keeps me on my toes. I can safely say I’m eager to learn, I want to learn new things, yes I get annoyed when people who are supposed to help me learn don’t. But, I can deal with that. I can learn on my own if I have to.    

There have been amazing and world renowned doctors who have come from my school. Doctors who have been pioneers in their specialty, so to say that the education sucks would be a falsehood. I have learned so many wonderful things from my teachers. 

The point of an education is to learn, and I’m learning everyday not only about medicine which is important, but also about the world and about the plethora of different cultures that populate it. I’m learning how to work with others who are not the same as me, how to communicate effectively, and most importantly I’m learning about myself and my ability to overcome life’s hurdles.  

So no the education does not suck."