The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down

Excerpt

"Nao Kao Lee, who couldn't read a word of English, had passed his driving test, in precisely the manner John McDoniel had described, by memorizing where to place the X's on his answer sheet. He had been asked to make a set of prescribed pencil marks; he had done so. In fact, his success on the test - which seemed to him a purely technical challenge, not an assessment of his ability to drive safely - was a triumph of intelligence over bureaucracy. However, it never would have occurred to him to go to so much trouble if he had been able to pass by conventional methods (Not long after my conversation with John McDoniel, the California Department of Motor Vehicles instituted oral and written tests in Hmong, and the rate of cheating among Hmong applicants declined to a level comparable with that of Merced's other ethnic groups.) Nao Kao viewed his driver's license as a matter of patent necessity: how else was he to visit his relatives? The family came first, then the clan, then the Hmong people, and everything and everybody else ranked so far below those three that it would have been blasphemy to mention them in the same breath. I believe that Nao Kao, like most Hmong, would rather die than deceive a member of his family or clan." (Pg. 243-244 Anne Fadiman, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down)

Context of Excerpt

This excerpt is from the chapter, “Why Did They Pick Merced?” Anne Fadiman contemplates the problems that local residents of Merced complain about. Among complaints, the most common were regarding kidnapped underage brides, smuggled opium and fish and game violations. She goes on to discuss that there always seem to be reasons for these strange legal violations that go back to religious and cultural activities or simple misunderstandings. The most frequent accusation she heard of Hmong were that they were terrible drivers. She researched this stereotype with the Department of Motor Vehicles and was advised that the Hmong violate pedestrian’s right-of-way, run stop signs, violate the speed limit and to top it off, they cheat on their written driving exams. Since most adult Hmong could not read English, they answered at random and then took the corrected tests home to share with their friends. In order to pass without really learning English, they would simply memorize the dots of the page. With five different tests, forty-six questions and three answers they would have to memorize a total of 690 dots. Those who could not memorize all the dot patterns would sew them into their clothes. This led Fadiman to ask the question, are the Hmong ethical or unethical, and what she determined is that they are ethical, just in a different way.

Americans say U.S. schools don't teach needed skills By NANCY ZUCKERBROD AND TREVOR TOMPSON - http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/368768_education28.html

This example is a little more generalized than the excerpt, but shares a similar concept that is becoming a major issue in the U.S. That issue is the issue of standardized testing and how important and/or effective it really is as a measurement of our education system. In the story, the tests are obviously a failed measurement device, as even the people who could pass the test had no knowledge of what the questions asked or what the correct answers were. In fact, the whole system was flawed, simply because not only were the test takers not properly prepared for the exam, but even if they were the language barrier made it impossible for them to properly be tested.

In the newspaper article, Larry Michalec of San Diego called the testing a waste of time. He argued that the tests are standardized, but people are not. "Children get taught to the test. They get taught to take the test. They don't get taught to learn."

The American children, similar to the Hmong are put in a situation in which the article implies they are not properly prepared. Furthermore, even with proper preparation for the exam, it is not clear whether or not students are actually learning the subject matter, or whether they are simply learning test taking strategies or memorizing test answers.

The problem with children spending so much time memorizing test answers is that test answers are not practical for use in the real world. A child can be a Jeopardy expert, with enough trivia knowledge to astound any school board of directors, but when they graduate and are sent head first into the job market, these skills do not properly prepare them for what they encounter. Employers argue that the burden of education thus fall on them, which puts the legitimacy of the entire U.S. education system into question.

Whether we are talking about a kid who knows calculus, but cannot use math practically outside of school, or a Hmong refugee who received his driver’s license but does not really understand the rules of the road, there is seemingly a disconnect between the education system and reality.

Fadiman argues that in the case of the Hmong, it is not that they do not want to properly follow the rules society lays out for them, but it is in fact a dedicated and righteous desire to walk the thin line of regulations created by the state and become functioning, upstanding citizens that drives the Hmong to do whatever it takes to pass the drivers exam and get their license. They have a need to drive in order to maintain their own culture and thrive within the American one, and the only way to legally drive is to pass the drivers exam and get a license. Similarly, American students must now pass the standardized school tests in order to advance in grade, graduate and become functioning members of society. Since the Hmong could not speak English, they worked together to memorize question answers and thus respectfully pass the exam. Similarly, American students do not necessarily want to cheat on standardized tests, but not everybody learns the same way and some in fact have learning disabilities that make these kinds of tests difficult. The system has thus adapted to encourage both students and teachers to memorize questions and answers, creating a system that nurtures students to have a very minimal amount of practical knowledge.

In Fadiman’s book and the article, the solution seems to be that different tests need to be given to different people, focusing not on how to properly answer the questions but how best to learn and present ones knowledge of the subject matter.

In the end, Hmong versions of the drive test were created which enabled most Hmong to be able to pass without cheating. If America is going to keep up with the rest of the world in terms of education, alternative teaching methods will have to be implemented. The other alternative is simply that, metaphorically speaking, we are going to have a LOT of bad drivers