Week 2 Journal Entry - Intelligent learner or skilled reproducer?

A reflection about intelligence.

All of my school life I would hear that I was extremely intelligent, above average. Many thought that I would go on to win a national scholarship (the top students sitting the Cambridge exit exams for secondary schools called A levels are awarded government-funded grants to study abroad, in addition to all the local prestige showered on the winners). I grew to understand that this “intelligence” was usually equated to “grades” or “marks”. Acing school tests meant you were a whiz kid, in other words, the focus was on cognitive or linguistic or mathematical intelligence. 

Giving it more thought though, most assessment instruments like tests end up showing how well a student executes the tasks therein, instead of giving an insight as to what each student is capable of. Success in these tests was based on memorization and compliance; creativity and innovativeness held little sway.     

 My being “labeled” as intelligent drove teachers and parents to pressure me to study more and more, to keep the top marks so as to land the national scholarship. I remember my father and some of my teachers strongly advising me to drop extra-curricular activities like football and basketball, two sports that I excelled at and played on the school teams. 

If I had stuck to at least one of those sports, I might have had a chance to excel. Even colleagues saw me as “brainy kid” who was an all-rounder with the national scholarship in the bag. For the record, the much sought after grant didn’t come, but my grades were the school’s highest in the ten to fifteen years that preceded my candidacy.

Luckily, I “stuck” to these extracurricular activities with lesser intensity than needed to become a top player. All that time, I was a boy scout, which helped me work on spatial, kinesthetic and musical intelligence. The experiences gave me ample chances to learn and collaborate with others. Experiences for which I am eternally grateful.

I consider myself a learner for the simple fact that observation, experimentation, application, and reflection are fundamental to be able to deal with new and not so new knowledge.