As a clinical student, I never felt I gained much from didactic teaching. The greatest exception to this was a lesson taught by Peter Ellis, Consultant ENT Surgeon at Addenbrooke’s hos- pital. He had the daunting prospect of taking an uninspired group of students for the whole afternoon in a small, stuffy lecture room. He made us take our seats, then, sitting on a table at the front, he announced, ‘I am going to teach you something today that you are never going to forget. Any patient with hoarseness of the voice for 3 weeks has carcinoma of the larynx until proven otherwise. Right, off you go.’ The lesson.
