High Stakes and High Anxiety

I have long thought that health care and education have much in common, and that we in the education industry can learn from parallels in health care--especially about what not to do.  For example, the power of third party payers to drive medical practice is a good case study of what we might expect under a voucher system, but that's not the focus of this post.

Instead, I am struck by how closely the medical decision-making process from the patient's view parallels the decision-making that parents do when selecting schools for their children.  I am concerned about subjecting my nearly 90-year-old parents to unnecessary or unhelpful medical interventions. At the same time, they are acutely concerned about the exact opposite; that they will be denied treatment or tests precisely because of their age.  Yet few of us, especially the elderly and their families, have enough information to make rational choices in these high-stakes situations. Absent a grounding in data, we fall back on gut hunch or superstition or paranoia, none of which helps make good medical decisions.  

Likewise, parents picking an independent school make choices for their young children with very little in the way of data to rationalize decision making.  No wonder that recommendations by friends and relatives, image in the local market, university admission lists, or even curb appeal of the campus takes on so much significance.  Absent good data, every enrollment decision starts to feel like a roll of the dice.  

Yet, mere data alone is not enough, given that 100% certainty is impossible in medical and social science research.  Some, though not that many, physicians are skilled at helping patients and families make good decisions despite the fact that some variation in outcome is inherent when treating real people.  What heads of school, admissions counselors and teachers need to understand is that an large part of their work is about helping parents do the same.  We are all working with highly anxious people just about all the time.