The Dead Cow Lecture

[madmick]

This is the best example for paying attention that I have ever heard.
First-year students at the Purdue Vet School were attending their first anatomy class with a real dead cow.

They all gathered around the surgery table with the body covered with a white sheet.
The professor started the class by telling them, "In Veterinary medicine it is necessary to have two important qualities as a doctor.
The first is that you not be disgusted by anything involving the animal's body."

For an example, the professor pulled back the sheet, stuck his finger in the butt of the cow, withdrew it, and stuck his finger in his mouth.
"Go ahead and do the same thing," he told his students.
The students freaked out, hesitated for several minutes, but eventually took turns sticking a finger in the butt of the dead cow and sucking on it.
When everyone finished, the Professor looked at them and said, "The second most important quality is observation.

I stuck in my middle finger and sucked on my index finger.

Now learn to pay attention. Life's tough but it's even tougher if you're stupid."

 

[kashmir]

Good one! Thanks for the chuckles.

 

[nsfisher]

Hahaha, now dat's some funny shit right dere.

 

[hodirty]

:rofl: Good one!

 

[kcghost]

A oldie but a goodie.

 

[pstlpkr]

Ugh!.... :?

:rofl:

 

[trailspike48]

I'm glad I wasn't a vet student.

 

[foggymountain]

Great story.

 

[boudreaux]

About that chocolate pudding I *was* going to make...

 

[brian64]

Amusing...but I think there is a greater lesson on human nature involved here.
These students actually failed a much more significant test than just not paying close enough attention. They demonstrated that they were willing to violate standards of reasonable and sane human conduct. Believing the instructor did what they thought he did, they should have refused to follow the orders to do likewise, even if it meant expulsion from the class. Going along to get along...just following orders...is one of the primary reasons why institutions degenerate over time.
I’m reminded of the Stanley Milgram experiments, which truly shed disturbing light on human nature:
“Controversy surrounded Stanley Milgram for much of his professional life as a result of a series of experiments on obedience to authority which he conducted at Yale University in 1961-1962. He found, surprisingly, that 65% of his subjects, ordinary residents of New Haven, were willing to give apparently harmful electric shocks-up to 450 volts-to a pitifully protesting victim, simply because a scientific authority commanded them to, and in spite of the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve such punishment. The victim was, in reality, a good actor who did not actually receive shocks, and this fact was revealed to the subjects at the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants.”
http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.php