These are the questions and answers for Week 2:
1. During
your own education, how has your "intelligence" been assessed?
The
approach I have been more exposed to/subjected is quantitative assessment. Basically, you are exposed to some input that,
in most cases, you are supposed to either memorize to then paraphrase in a test
when it comes to an academic subject, or just perform the desired behavior if
it is an observable skill. In the
former, feedback and/or ongoing assessment are usually absent. In the latter,
even though sometimes there is immediate feedback, the stress is put in the result
and not the process.
2. How
has this affected the educational opportunities you have been given?
Because
of my academic success, I was able to access what people traditionally call a good
public secondary school and a good public university. I learned to play the
academic game as it was presented to me.
Public
education, to some extent, provided me with some tools to play the job market
game. I landed a good job and was able to pay for a Master’s at a private
university. Just like in any other country, a lot of people still believe that
getting a diploma from a renowned private university means you have been
properly educated. I know I did.
Currently,
I feel technology has democratized education. We get to learn whatever it is we
want to learn online, in most cases, for free.
The question now in not that you don’t have access to education, but how
to use your time to turn your life project into a reality by means of turning
learning into action and vice versa.
3. What
judgments have people made about you that have been affected by an assessment
of your "intelligence"?
I
was explicitly/implicitly taught that good grades meant intelligence. People
would tell my parents that I was intelligent because I did well at school. My
parents would proudly nod. I felt then the responsibility a.k.a. pressure of
studying hard to get good grades. That was the name of the game. I kept doing
well while my passion for learning faded silently. I was told I was “intelligent”
and I believed it. People would say that I had been born with a “gift”, that I
had a lucky academic star, an Aristotelian intelligent essence of sorts. It
never occurred to them that my academic success was the product of my passion
for learning.
4. Do
you consider yourself to be a "learner"? why?
I
consider myself to be a lifelong learner. It is a concept that has been around
for some years now and I like it. It
means we are an ongoing process whose dynamism depends on our hunger for
learning and learning how to learn. It is an empowering and humbling endeavor
that allows me to navigate the oceans of uncertainty we all live in. It is a
kid of self-actualization game tied to something greater than ourselves. It is
your passion put to the service of the betterment of the different communities
you are part of.
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