In Defense of Maitland Jones

I took “Organic Chemistry” with Maitland Jones in 1981. I got a C. My average in my major of classics was an A. I applied to 22 medical schools, got interviewed at 11, and got into 6. Needless to say, everyone said, “Wow you are smart if you got a C in his class” and “He is really famous.” Yes, a rare few people did get A’s. He did not believe in curves. 

I learned humility from my C in 1981. As a physician for 28 years, I know there is always a doctor smarter than me. If I need to consult Mayo or Baylor-MD Anderson, I call them. I am not the be-all and end-all of medical knowledge. Anyone who ever had his class would have learned good science is hard and you do not always get an A. There is no curve in trying to save people’s lives. You need humility to consult someone who may just be smarter than you. His class was disproportionately hard, but med schools knew a C from Maitland Jones was an A+ from someone else. 

At the rate things are going, we would have fired Einstein!

I think he saved a lot of lives by knocking back premed egos just enough so that MDs learned to ask for help.