For those of us who have a driver’s license, education is what we got to pass the written exam; training is the actual lessons in a dual-control car. And the difference is that we can drive after being trained, but not after being educated.
What this has to do with a pediatric blog is to understand why we don’t have all the answers.
This lesson was recently driven home to me in a most impressive fashion. I drove my son to a weight-reduction camp, and returned a month later to pick up a much different person. 16 pounds lighter, yes, but that’s the least of it. I picked up someone who learned responsibility, self-respect, self-reliance, confidence, and strength. I picked up someone who was trained in all the values I had tried to teach, by precept and by example. And I picked up a lesson in what pediatricians can and cannot do.
