TY - JOUR T1 - EDITOR’S CHOICE JF - Practical Neurology JO - Pract Neurol SP - 279 LP - 279 VL - 7 IS - 5 AU - Charles Warlow Y1 - 2007/10/01 UR - http://pn.bmj.com/content/7/5/279.abstract N2 - Back in the very old days, a bag of potato crisps contained a small blue packet from which salt could be sprinkled onto the crisps. No longer. The wicked purveyors of salt now realise that if they sprinkle their product onto the crisps before they go into the bag we, the eaters, will have no choice but to consume their blood-pressure raising product with the crisps. Neat. Why then do so many medical schools teach some traditionally unpopular and yet important subjects—such as ethics, public health and epidemiology—so often in classrooms while the bees gently buzz and the students gently doze? It is all too easy for the students to throw out the little blue bag containing the boring subject; better surely to sprinkle it—like salt—on to the drama of real patients with real problems, … ER -