So I take teaching very seriously. I always say that my school, the CAO, is a family and I mean that in every sense of the word. I have my students’ backs not only in the program but after the program. I’m watching for their safety and security. Many of my students come in here oftentimes angry and disappointed that things haven’t gone their way. They’ve done the very best they could in college or university, they’ve achieved all of the marks necessary to move on and yet they find themselves having a difficult time being successful in life. This can sometimes make them a little bit prickly for the first year at the CAO until they recognize that I care for them deeply and I believe that without them, there is no CAO.
These people become part of of my family. Its a very special environment. Although there’s a lot of students, they’re taught in smaller groups. The students see me on a day-to-day basis if they are at the Hamilton campus. I help them not only with osteopathy but with their personal skills. How to focus and how to create discipline in themselves. How to create a routine and how to how to prepare to be the best version of themselves possible. It’s easy to say “be the best version of you – live your best life” but who reaches out and helps them through that? I try to. I do it very gently and I do it carefully because not every student is open to this. To me, they’re not just students in a school, they’re students in a program that I created. My character is in the environment all day long. I work with them, I mentor them, I teach them, I support them, I encourage them. I do whatever I need to do to get the best out of them because once they see what they’re capable of it’s remarkable. In their past educational experiences many of my students were required to jump through the hoops and get the highest grades. I try to teach them that there’s so much more to education than just getting the highest grade or the academic award. The essence of education is to humble you and to ask you to be a little bit better each and every day. It’s not about what we know, it’s about being cognizant of what we don’t know.
On the first day of class welcoming new students to the school is like inviting them into my home. It’s no secret that the CAO is not publicly funded, it’s a privately owned and operated institution and when the students come to the school I say “welcome to my osteopathic living room”. As in anybody’s home there are rules and customs. Good behavior is important, I demand it of myself, I demand it of my faculty and I certainly ask it from the students because I’ve invited them into something very personal. It’s not a nameless faceless institution where you’re a number. We get to know these people over the years. We spend time with them and as we work with them and they learn the house rules, we all seem to do much better together. For some students that is a difficult thing to do because they’re used to being in an institutionalized environment where conduct, behavior, and presence is completely ignored. But here at my school, the CAO, we get to know the student. They become part of something bigger. They are representing the values of the school and representing the school publicly as highly professional people. People who understand how to be kind and courteous to all and most importantly people who are focused, caring, and deeply interested in the profession of osteopathy and helping their patients regain their health.
