A Case of Culture by Snigdha Nandipati
Author:Snigdha Nandipati
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63730-952-0
Publisher: Snigdha Nandipati
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00
Chapter 7
The Art of Teaching
âEducation is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think.â
â â Albert Einstein
Dr. Hla Thein grew up in Burma, where he was taught by monks for most of his early education. He later attended medical school in Rangoon, then moved to Thailand to work for the United Nations where he provided medical care to Khmer Rouge refugees. Eventually, Dr. Thein settled in Fiji, where he lived for eighteen years with his theologian wife, Florence, and his pro-golfer son, Ederil.
However, this peaceful life in Fiji wasnât enough for Dr. Thein. He wanted a challenge. So, he decided to move to Pukapuka, a small isolated three-square-kilometer-wide part of the Cook Islands, to focus on the treatment of chronic conditions among Pacific Islander populations.
There had not been a doctor in Pukapuka since 2005. Doctors signed two-year contracts to stay on the island and provide care for the 450 people who lived there, but many of them would break their contracts early. Pukapuka was notorious for its boredom, isolation, language barriers, and difficulty of disease management. Naturally, no one wanted to be the doctor there. Other doctors would even try to discourage Dr. Thein from taking the position. He didnât heed their warnings. He wanted a challenge, and this seemed like the perfect one.
The islanders of Pukapuka traditionally followed a healthy diet that included taro, crab, fish, pumpkin, and other locally sourced foods. But over time, the islanders grew to develop an unhealthy dependence on canned, processed, and fast foods. As clinical psychologist and local islander Amelia Hokuleâa Borofsky inquires in her Atlantic article, âHow do you get a Pacific Islander who, thanks to WWII, loves canned corned beef, Spam, and rice, to start eating arugula?â
This was precisely the question that had stumped every doctor who had previously been in Pukapuka. How were they supposed to treat the islandersâ hypertension, obesity, and diabetes if they could not even convince the islanders to change their eating habits?
Dr. Thein understood early on that his patients would not heed his words if he simply educated them with facts and science. Facts meant nothing to these islanders whose eating habits had become entrenched in their daily lives. In fact, studies have shown that mere knowledge does not produce behavioral change, especially in the early stages of intervention. While people may know the facts, they exempt themselves from the consequences because of their tendency to believe they are the exception to the norm (Raynor, 2007).
So, Dr. Thein decided to use two different techniques:
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Navigation and Map Reading by K Andrew(4887)
Spare by Prince Harry The Duke of Sussex(4785)
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom(4395)
Cracking the GRE Premium Edition with 6 Practice Tests, 2015 (Graduate School Test Preparation) by Princeton Review(4041)
Machine Learning at Scale with H2O by Gregory Keys | David Whiting(3612)
What It Really Takes to Get Into Ivy League and Other Highly Selective Colleges by Hughes Chuck(3551)
Never by Ken Follett(3520)
Goodbye Paradise(3444)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) by J. K. Rowling(3108)
Pledged by Alexandra Robbins(3045)
Kick Ass in College: Highest Rated "How to Study in College" Book | 77 Ninja Study Skills Tips and Career Strategies | Motivational for College Students: A Guerrilla Guide to College Success by Fox Gunnar(2997)
Fairy Tale by Stephen King(2942)
A Dictionary of Sociology by Unknown(2849)
Sapiens and Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari(2842)
The Social Psychology of Inequality by Unknown(2759)
Reminders of Him: A Novel by Colleen Hoover(2752)
Graduate Admissions Essays, Fourth Edition: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice (Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way Into the) by Asher Donald(2733)
Get into Any College by Tanabe Gen Tanabe Kelly(2628)
Zero to Make by David Lang(2624)
