[ RadSafe ] (no subject)

[scottbob at cox.net]

I thought y'all might like to see this letter published by "Dear Abby" in today's newspapers.  Congratulations to Larry Friedman!!!


DEAR ABBY: You printed a letter from a student who received detention for "respectfully disagreeing" with her teacher during a discussion of world events. In your reply, you suggested that the writer's comment may have been "disruptive," justifying the detention, and advised that it would have been more "diplomatic" to have voiced the disagreement in private. I take exception to your answer.
I am semi-retired now, but as a manager I had tremendous difficulty convincing subordinates that it was not only safe to disagree with me, but that I needed their frank opinions. I trace this to a situation described by John Holt in his 1964 book, "How Children Fail," in which he points out that the education system kills creativity, teaching students to anticipate what the teacher wants to hear and to feed it back to him/her.

I am currently co-director of the Master's in Health Physics Program at the Illinois Institute of Technology, engaged in the training of radiation safety professionals. It is essential that a safety professional be prepared to challenge his/her management when it proposes to do something that's contrary to law or regulation, or prejudicial to safe operation. The type of education described by Holt produces individuals who go along with management no matter what is proposed.

It is despicable that a teacher would conduct a "discussion" in which she entertains only opinions that agree with her own and punishes those that don't. The result for the students and our country is tragic. You should have supported the student. -- LAURENCE F. FRIEDMAN, PH.D.

DEAR DR. FRIEDMAN: You're right; I should have. And thousands of readers wrote to tell me so. (The e-mails, when printed out, weighed more than 15 pounds.) 

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My own post-script:  I served as RSO in two hospitals in the north-east prior to my own semi-retirement.  In both places doctors and management put pressure on me to bend the truth, or adjust reports, or not place the institution in a bad light in certain circumstances.  In one case, I almost lost my job because of this mentality.  And honestly the whistle-blowers acts (legislation) are hated with extreme passion by management, and in some jurisdictions are also made ineffective by biased judicial persons (which of course is vehemently denied).  Too bad.

Bob Scott, CHP
Westerly, RI