I am in the middle of reading a book called Killer Germs which gives an account of the history of microbes and diseases that have threatened humanity and I came across this story of an unbelievable medical practice for delivering babies from the mid 19th century:
In some hospitals as many as one in four women who gave birth died of childbed fever, which was also known as puerperal fever an epidemic disease caused by a specific agent of unknown origin, like small pox.
Ignaz Semmelweis noticed something very puzzling at the Vienna General Hospital, where women were routinely delivering and dying. In those wards where obstetricians and medical students delivered the babies, an average of 600 to 800 mothers died of childbed fever each year. Where midwives delivered a similar number of babies, the annual death rate was 60- less than one-tenth! Mothers who delivered their babies at home had an even lower mortality, nearly zero...eventually he realized what was happening. Childbed fever was not caused by a mysterious epidemic or by miasmic air. It was a wound infection of the uterus caused by the contaminated hands of doctors who were performing autopsies and then delivering babies. As they left the autopsy rooms- the death houses- they carried with them the “cadaver particles” of corpses they had handled and transferred these deadly particles to the torn and infection-susceptible wombs of postpartum women (disinfecting their hands was not common practice at the time)…. Semmelweis ordered all obstetricians and their assistants to wash their hands thoroughly in a solution of chlorinated water until they no longer smelled the cadavers (on their hands)....the results were dramatic...one year after this practice the death rate plummeted (from 1 in 4) down to 1.2%...leading to childbed fever no longer being a threat to women giving birth.
Astonishingly, this was not the case...the “elder statesmen” in the medical profession carried great political clout. They were conservative in their view, were slow to accept change, and most important, were loath to admit that but for a simple act of washing their hands countless women had suffered and died….In the end Semmelweis’ practice of antiseptic hand-washing to prevent childbed fever was stopped, and the incidence of the disease rose to record levels (Zimmerman & Zimmerman, 2006, pp. 25-27).
Even though this was over 150 years ago, I found this blatant disregard for the evidence/data at the time along with the refusal to follow best practices and ignore colleagues “in the know” to be equivalent to medical malpractice and wondered how someone, who took an oath not to harm, could be so blind at the cost of their patients. These doctors could have changed their practice and, as a result, could have literally changed the lives of the women and their families forever. However, soon after reading this story, my mind started to drift to how we teach today and I began to wonder if 150 years from now people will look back, shake their heads, and question how so many educators in the early 21st century could continue questionable practices in school in spite of the evidence/data.
There is plenty of research out there for what works and what doesn’t in education. John Hattie’s meta-analysis of much of this research (see his short TEDTalk on successful teacher practices) does a great job of spelling out what works in schools and what doesn’t. So, in my mind, it is not the lack of information or knowing what we could do that is the reason for many educators, like the doctor’s mentioned above, continuing to follow traditional practices. Then I wondered if perhaps the educators are somehow not aware of the changes in pedagogy.
In “A More Beautiful Question” Warren Berger points out that, “One of the many interesting and appealing things about questioning is that it often has an inverse relationship to expertise- such that within their own subject areas, experts are apt to be poor questioners” (Berger, 2014, p.13). I wonder if 21st century educators who “believe they have arrived” fall into the same trap of 19th century doctor’s? Berger warns “In a time when so much of what we know is subject to revision or obsolescence, the comfortable expert must go back to being a restless learner” (Berger, 2014, p.23). My mind immediately goes to the Red Queen Effect and the importance of continuous improvement through professional development. As soon as we stop asking questions we begin to fall behind in our practices.
The third trap we can fall into if we are not careful is summed up in a word...pride. How could those 19th century doctor’s ignore the research and not follow best practices? In short, their pride got in the way of their practice and impacted the lives of those women and their families forever. As educators in the 21st century I would caution us not to do the same. The Hattie video from above also discusses collective efficacy, which I mentioned in this earlier blog, and how the power of this practice comes from learning from each other. The “experienced” 19th century doctors were not open for input from another colleague because it would indicate that what they were doing was not best practice and actually causing harm. There is a quote by an unknown author (to me anyway) that states, “What we learn today doesn’t make yesterday wrong, it makes tomorrow better”. I would modify this to say that “it makes tomorrow better IF we change what we did yesterday”. To err is human, and as educators we should honor errors, but to continue to err out of pride as educator is malpractice and I would caution any of us to be mindful of our pride.
I suspect you noticed that I have been very general in my examples lest I inadvertently accuse myself. I would hate it if 150 years from now someone reading about educational practices from the early 21st century were to wonder, “How could they not see it?” or make accusations of educational malpractice based on our inactions. I would instead encourage us all to take a deeper look at the research, always be open to improving our teaching, and capture the power of collective efficacy through conversations with our colleagues (i.e. PLCs). Because, the positive changes in education we make today, could very well change our students’ life for tomorrow.
References
Berger, Warren (2014). A More Beautiful Question. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Zimmerman B., Zimmerman D. (2006). Killer Germs: Microbes and Diseases that Threaten Humanity.
Chicago, IL.:McGraw-Hill..
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