Néstor Galarraga - The Power of the Warrior

When I was a student, the children who were considered smart where those who had developed the capability to conduct a logical analysis. Intelligence was considered to be innate and immovable. You were either born intelligent or you were not, and education could not change that fact. Intelligence was linked to the unique capability of gathering other specific skills, like math or linguistics. These thoughts were the basis of intelligence, regardless of the ability or inability to solve a vital problem. Thus, under this context, we could say that a frustrated intellectual in every aspect of his or her life was considered to be intelligent and a successful painter was deemed to be a lucky talented person, but never an intelligent one. Crazy, isn’t it?

In this sense, education has not changed a bit. The educational system has an enormous number of tools; yet these have not helped in a positive transformation. On the contrary, it has lost some fundamental matters, like the teacher-family encounter and the teacher´s authority. And this is the result of a teaching method linked to the idea of fellowship or nepotism and, evidently, demands have been replaced by what we could call permissiveness. There is not even a methodological demand at school, since kids that feel too pressed will simply abandon it. Half the students leave high school unfinished. And the half that finishes it cannot interpret texts.

Public education is today a true failure. It constitutes a bleeding wound to the enormous number of distinguished professionals who were educated within the public system in our country. Disciplinary sanctions are impossible to impart because teachers are at risk of being beaten by students or their parents. One more detail: teachers of today are not educators, they do not educate, they are someone who simply passes information. This happens because they do not have the tools —and when they do, these cannot be applied— or because their image is tainted or ruined by society, but fundamentally by themselves. Teachers stand today at a real crossroads; they have no tools, because schools do not provide them; the conditions are not met and there are no social guidelines to give answers, since there is no North to follow. We face many issues that are still being discussed, which are unresolved, and children and adolescents are aware of this…

Personally, I was good at sports. I was able to take up any type of game or sporting activity, even without knowing the disciplinary rules and just by naturally imitating or by relying on my natural capabilities. I had developed an understanding of my body but I was far from meeting the requirements of that concept of intelligence. That capability was reserved for only a few mates, who were always identified as models. However, as time went by, life ended up showing other issues about these examples that I, of course, do not take them as the general rule. I simply believe that the development of a specific capability, no matter which one, does not constitute any guarantee.

Intelligence, from my viewpoint, is closer to Howard Gardner´s idea, which developed in the 90´s the theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner criticizes the idea of one type of intelligence alone and it defines that kind as “the ability to solve problems”. I love this definition. It has everything it needs; it is plain and to the point. Intelligence should not be considered a capability but a group of capabilities that, as a whole, gives us alternatives, means of escape and solutions, to face the inconveniences and problems arising from the issues of living in society. We should see intelligence as a group of capabilities, acting individually or jointly, depending on the circumstance, including different abilities in the intellectual, emotional and physical field. Also, intelligence should be linked to the capability of relating with each other, of interacting and associating with others to accomplish any type of plan.

My father, Francisco, from whom I learnt the most, was a daily philosopher and one of the most intelligent people I ever knew; he had no academic education of any kind. His thoughts were ironic, he was always blunt in a very sharp way, and he was so clear that it was confusing. When he talked about intellectuals, he asserted that, in this society, with time, all illnesses will be cured, even cancer, but “if you are born a jerk, you will die a jerk”. He always stood by this definition, unacademic, by the way, yet quite interesting. He would hear someone say, for instance, “What an intelligent boy!”. Immediately, his remark would be that something was wrong, not the subject in question, but the social form of intelligence being pointed out; the counterpart of which would be an educational form of intelligence. My father defended his views about those considered to be socially intelligent. In other words, he said that the exacerbated development of one ability neutralized others. Thus, it is common to see individuals who are considered to be extremely intelligent with a paralyzed capacity for doing. They see life alchemically, with a capacity to analyze and comprehend practically everything, including how their own life goes to shit, without being able to do anything about it, because their ability to react is numbed. Regarding my father´s thoughts and perspective, I will continue telling you about it, later on, in this book.

When I was young, it was impossible to be considered intelligent for having special abilities regarding music, painting or sports. These people could be considered talented or, even, gifted (those who had a very special skill), but never straightforward intelligent. Those of us who pass on physical or artistic knowledge notice that, when people talk about special talents or gifts, they are referring to a kind of specific and unconventional intelligence and, most commonly, one that is unrecognized by the educational community. Moreover, it is devised to keep other forms of intelligence unregistered and, of course, to undervalue other types of teaching. However, people learn, express themselves and use knowledge in many ways. These differences challenge the educational system in general; a system that suggests —in an outdated manner— that we should all learn the same things the same way and that, in order to do so, we only need a standardized, uniform and universal method. This entails that we all have the same type of intelligence. As a result, we are all conditioned to learn the same things, the same way, based on a unique criterion of universal capability and intelligence. It looks like the goal of educating subjects is to turn them into objects or products that fit in with this consumer culture. In order for society to be a safe place once again, the starting point should be the school and the home. Schools should teach basic things, logically. How to handle these lessons, and the learning system for students to learn how to learn, will always depend on the model chosen to transmit values, one that parents of the students from that educational facility should agree on. In order to save time and energy, we need to go back to the school that teaches, not the school that conveys information about certain subjects, but values that are taught to embrace, live and share; children who learn how to interact with adults and who respect them; kids who speak at school with teachers and with adults outside school a certain way; students who are taught to speak with respect and, fundamentally, to listen. The result of all this should be reflected in the learning capabilities but, fundamentally, in society. As parents, we should stop demanding schools to take over our responsibilities and we need to take matters in our own hands… To put it clearly, I chose this topic: teachers at school who do not educate, but I might as well have talked about the police failing to look after people in the streets; doctors failing to heal at hospitals; politicians failing to pass on policies that benefit Common Good, instead of favoring themselves and the interests of their families for generations to come. These people are mostly responsible for the world we are forced to live in, and let us not talk about justice: nothing is less just than our justice.