Analysis Of Midterm: The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down

Makenzie Griffith

EDSE 460

Denise Hitchcock

1 March 2018

Midterm: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down It is a story about a family who shows so much loyalty to their traditions and cultures, but it clashes with the strict American “norm” and creates conflict for their most prized possession, their daughter. Young Lia’s health is at risk when the doctors are trying to treat her epilepsy, but the culture barrier between them and her parents put her at risk. Lia’s parents, Nao Kao and Foua Lee believe that their ancient traditions and healing is what Lia needs in order to get better, but Lia’s doctors prescribe her with many prescriptions to help with the seizures and her parent’s inability to read or speak English to communicate

Over the progression of the book the view points and relationships between the Lees and the doctors develops slightly. The medical staff was not prepared with a translator or a cultural understanding of the Hmong and how their beliefs would not match up with their medical practices. “Not only do the Hmong fail resoundingly to improve the payer mix- more than eighty percent are on Medi-Cal- but they have proved even more costly than other indigent patients, because they generally require more time and attention, and because there are so many of them that MCMC has to hire bilingual staff members to mediate between patients and providers” (Fadiman 25). This theme in the story was immensely eye opening for all of the cultural gaps that exist throughout the United States. The solution to this problem is for both sides standing on opposite sides of the gap to take the time to bridge the gap together. In order for this to work both cultures need to first build the relationships and establish a sense of trust between each other. Then, they need to be empathetic towards each other. In this case it is not where you are sympathetic for someone who does not understand the new culture around them, but you put yourself in their shoes and try to understand the difficult circumstances that are in front of them to help close the gap and not make it

After reading it I do not view our society the same, and I most definitely do not view our education system the same. I will take what I learned from this story and apply it in my classroom as a teacher. I will be empathetic towards each and every student and their family and where they come from. There is value in every culture and if we take the time to understand it we will build more relationships than we could ever imagine. It will be incredible to see the way student’s lives are impacted when one person takes the time to try and learn and be a part of their culture and values it no matter