Thanks for your nice words and thoughtful response Michael! I appreciate you taking the time to read the article, hear me out, and deliver genuine compliments about my work. I definitely see myself working as a physical therapist again (even here locally in Mexico, or elsewhere abroad). I’d like to have the capital to start my own clinic.

More than anything else, I missed the “down-to-earth” realness of “we are teaching you all this just for the test.” In massage school, we were told that Chinese 5 element theory was going to be on the test, but not used in practice. There were many things like that in PT school, but the instructors took everything very seriously.

I think substituting lecture for more quizzes, pre-testing, and spaced repetition (based on learning research) would keep exam pass rates the same while allowing more time for manual skills & exercise instruction. I genuinely think deadlifting should be part of the curriculum, since it’s the fundamental motor skill allied health professionals use at work. Class sizes are prohibitive, but with the explosion in number of PTs there may be an opportunity for programs to bring in more adjunct instructors with a focus on real-world instruction. Thanks again!