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In our country, the vast majority of people take for granted access to clean water, abundant cheap food, medical care everywhere, schools and colleges everywhere, abundant books, a telephone network that almost always works, a generally honest police force, and a good supply of electricity that doesn’t incorporate rolling blackouts. All these things don’t just happen. They also don’t happen by exploitation of others. Rather, they are the result of the hard work and dedication of many men and women over many years who had a vision for these things and the intelligence and determination to cause them to exist. Sometimes they are even started with the vision and leadership of one person. Keeping these modern facilities marvelous is also a consequence of the hard work of many public servants, which is also crucial work.
The Doctors Mayo by Helen Clapesattle tells the fascinating story of a doctor and his two sons who worked in rural Minnesota in the late 1800s. Dr. William Mayo came from England and settled in Minnesota in the 1850s. His sons, William and Charles Mayo, also became doctors and further developed the practice and invented innovative medical treatments. The two brothers gradually changed this practice, with the help of others, into a hospital that eventually became the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which is still a world-leading medical research and treatment institution that has helped millions of people. The story of the Mayo family will give the reader an inkling of what went into the development of the world-class, even with all its faults, health-care system that we have today. The good things that we take for granted in the United States, and in particular the excellent medical facilities we have, didn’t just happen. If a reader understands how they came to be, perhaps he or she will be inspired to follow in their founders’ footsteps to preserve and extend these wonderful aspects of our country. The reader might also become determined to keep this medical establishment focused on what it was made to be – helping people be healthy in all aspects of their lives.
The reading level of The Doctors Mayo is a little hard to determine. I would say high school level, but I was fascinated by it in middle school, so I think a middle school reader could also handle this book.