Less is More???

Less is More???

by Jacky Vaniotis

Published in the Winter 2003 edition of the Maine EMS I/C News

Ever notice that students feel they are getting something extra out of a class when the teacher lets them out early? And what do people almost always choose to do when given the option of either staying and doing unstructured review or going home early? They almost always choose to go home early!

In my 10⁺ years as an instructor, both of licensure courses and continuing education programs, I’ve noticed a clear pattern: many students seem to think they are getting more if you give them less. Now, think about this. If the same students went to the grocery store and ordered a pound of hamburger, paid for a pound of hamburger, and got home and discovered they had only gotten three-quarters of a pound of hamburger, they would feel cheated.

Imagine these same people spending a couple thousand dollars to go on a Caribbean cruise. The cruise is supposed to be 14 days long. Imagine that the cruise director gets on the PA system as the ship is pulling away from the dock, and announces, “Welcome to Enchanted Midnight Seas Cruise Lines. We’re going to try to get you out of here in 12 days instead of 14, so you can get home and go on about your lives.” If they booked a cruise that was supposed to last 14 nights, paid in advance for their 14 nights, but were told in the middle of the cruise that it was only going to last 12, they would be up in arms. Even if the cruise director said it was “so they could get home early and get on with their lives,” which is how teachers often phrase their intention of ending the class early, the cruise-goer would still be upset.

So why, then, do so many students feel that they are actually coming out ahead of the game when they pay for a full course, and the teacher “lets them out early?”

Look at the controversy that was generated recently when it was discovered that ice cream manufacturers, rather than increase the cost of their product, had shrunk the volume of product given for the same price. People claimed they were being ripped off, that it was unfair, the big companies are taking advantage of the little guy, and so on. But when you think about EMS education as a product similar to ice cream or hamburger or even a Caribbean cruise, you would think students would expect and possibly even demand that they get what they pay for.

I went to a very well-attended conference recently, with a number of speakers lined up. During the introductory comments the program director said he was hoping to “get us out early.” There was a murmur of approval that went through the audience as they anticipated getting less than what they paid for.

And it happens all the time: class is supposed to end at 9:30, and at 9:15 there are three people who have closed their notebooks, have begun putting on their jackets, and spend the remainder of the class with arms folded waiting to fly out the door as soon as the instructor dismisses them. It doesn’t matter what the topic is, it doesn’t matter if there’s a guest instructor, it doesn’t matter how engaged the rest of the participants seem to be, there are just some people who feel that they are getting something for nothing if they are allowed out of the class early. And when the class runs until the scheduled end-time, they don’t do a very good job hiding their displeasure.

As a student myself, I have always had the opposite mindset. For me, if a teacher’s stays 15 minutes late for a class that’s scheduled for three hours, I’ve just gotten the equivalent of almost 10% free education time, almost like getting the class on sale for 10% off! But imagine if an EMT basic class, supposedly 120 hours long, about 40 three-hour sessions, were to end 15 minutes early every night. That would be ten hours of missed class, the equivalent of missing 3½ entire classes—ten hours of class that the student has paid for but isn’t getting. Does that make any sense? I know some classes regularly end as much as even a half or ¾ hour early with some regularity. That sure adds up! Why, it even exceeds the number of absences that most programs allow their participants!

So why do some people feel that, with their education, less is more, but with anything else in their lives, getting less would be considered being cheated. It makes no sense to me!