Intelligence: Build-in or Acquired?… From Zero to Hero
Accordingly, the debate of Intelligence has been raging on for more than century. It is a hotly contested topic debated by psychologist and scholars. One school of thoughts emerge and then challenge by another but we must admit it, recent understanding or theories of intelligence is anchored in previous theories. The funny thing is that these scholars or psychologists debating intelligence are using their intelligence to discover or find meaning of intelligence.
Many factors affect Intelligence. Is it build-in or acquired as we mature. Is it dependent on physical development or maturity? How about the environment that we lived in? Does environment plays a factor on its development? How about heredity? Does heredity have bearing in our intelligence? How about our quest for knowledge? Does our eagerness to learn contribute to us acquiring intelligence?
Last May 19, 2019 the Golden State Warriors (GSW) and Portland Trailblazers played Game 3 of their Western Conference Final. The Warriors won game 3 and GSW improved its standing to 3 wins and zero loss, the game is best of seven of format, that is, the team who wins 4 games wins the contest. During the media interview, Stephen Curry, the GSW superstar said that his teammate Draymond Green has high “Basketball Intelligence”. “Draymond Green knows when to attack the basket, when to pass the ball, who to pass the ball, he knows the spacing of players in the court, he knows where his teammates, he knows how to position himself”, according to Curry. The stats or production of Draymond Green in Game 3 was 20 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists, he had a triple double. Triple double means a player in a game scores double figure in Points, double figure in Rebounds, and double figure in Assists, hence triple double. A player credited with Assist when he successfully passed the basketball to a receiver and the receiver score a basket without dribbling the ball. The panel of game commentators after the game commented that in the franchise history of GSW during the Play-offs, so far only Draymond Green has highest Triple Double production at 7 games, while the closest was 4 games, the combine Triple Double of other players was only 7 games same with Draymond Green. Head Coach Steve Kerr commented during the media interview that what Draymond Green did in the court was like a “wrecking ball, he destroys everything in his path” (not the kind of wrecking ball that Myle Cyrus sings – emphasis added). Draymond Green is not a superstar player in the NBA, he was not selected as part of NBA All Star game players this season but his court acuity was commended by a superstar teammate Stephen Curry who is a 2 time league MVP. Eventually, GSW won game 4 and they become Western Conference Final Champion. Draymond Green stat was again unbelievable triple double at 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists.
Where and how did Draymond Green get his “high basketball intelligence” as described by teammate Stephen Curry? There are more than 20 players in the 2 teams, 10 players are playing in a given time and only 1 player exudes that kind of performance. What contributed to his excellent performance?
In our church service last May 19, 2019 we had a visitor from a Badjao Community in Matina, Davao City. For a short background, Badjao are sea dwelling people, the English description of them is Sea Gypsies. They are living in a community among themselves but most of the time they are on the move depending on fishing opportunity. They source their livelihood from the sea thru fishing using fish nets and line fishing but they are most well known in spear fishing because of their ability to stay for an extended period in the sea floor to do spear fishing. They considered themselves as the lowest among the indigenous people if we can categorize them as such. Badjao people scattered all over Sulu Sea extending their presence as far as Borneo and Malaysia. You could see Badjao in the streets of major cities in Mindanao soliciting for money but the Badjao community in Matina, Davao City is different, some of them are now engage in selling RTW and shoes in the streets, they become entrepreneur, they evolve as some of them were gradually integrated in our society. Badjao people in general are not inclined to attend school. Attending school is not part of their life system maybe because our government also did not give attention to their educational needs. The girls in Badjao community usually got married at the age of 15-16 or lower and they also practice arrange marriage with dowry.
In the late 1990’s one of our church leader before saw the need of Badjao people and begun to reach out to them. A group of Badjao were offered to live or settle down in one place which they called “Canaan” (derived from the biblical Canaan). It started with single family then after 25 years the community reaches around 700 individuals. They live in very color full houses. They have SEC Registration of their organization. They have their own set of officers who managed their community affairs, thanks to the patience and hard work of couple Felicisimo “Jun” Morales, his wife Daisy Morales, (recently a recipient of Everyday Hero Award in Davao City) daughter Keiza (UP-Mindanao alumnus who immersed herself among the Badjao) and countless volunteers and supporters before and up to now.
What is the connection of Badjao in my blog about intelligence? Here’s the beef. Our visitor’s name is Naya (Melody Adjari), she graduated this year in a tertiary education, Bachelor of Elementary Education. Accordingly, she is the first Badjao in Mindanao or maybe in the Philippines who finished a 4 year course, isn’t it amazing! Her journey to tertiary education is encouraging. As per her testimony and the testimony of her father, Naya shows no acumen to learning in her childhood. She usually skips classes and prefers to play outside. Volunteer teachers were patiently conducting informal teaching in the community to teach Badjao children in writing and reading for them to attend formal or mainstream schooling in Elementary School. Some of the Badjao children in the community graduated in Elementary and High School but only Naya makes it through college and hopefully not the last one.
Naya’s journey to higher education was not smooth sailing. According to her there were times that she went to school without eating a meal. She stopped after Grade 4 because of change residence from one community to another, after high school, at the age of 18 she got married because all her friends were already married and have children. Finally, two years after high school graduation she decided to enrol in college because she sees the need of the community. She has 2 children while attending college. What is the need of the community? Every time there is somebody from the Badjao community admitted in Davao Medical Center she is the one who is called to assist because most of them cannot read and write. She finds it pitiful for her Badjao brethren unable to read and write so she decided to become a teacher and hopefully someday become a teacher for the Badjao. Hospitalization for the marginalized sector of society in Davao is free (even before the passage of Universal Health Law) but the problem of Badjao people is how to comply with the procedure in availing free medical services.
How could we define or categorize Naya’s Intelligence in finishing college education, Build-in or Acquired. Is she the only Badjao who possess higher intelligence that is why she is the only one who finished college education? What other factors contributed to her higher learning? How about the other Badjao who has no formal education, how could we measure their intelligence? How could we categorize their intelligence?
Comparing the performance of Draymond Green in basketball game and Naya’s educational attainment as mentioned above, how would we measure their intelligence? Could we compare their intelligence? For sure Badjao has intelligence, they excel in their chosen field of spear fishing but often times we label them as illiterates or outcast of the society because they are different; they have no manners, no formal education. The lack of concern and opportunities to nurture their innate intelligence is driving them to who they are as perceived my most of us.
Maybe this is the reason why the debate on intelligence is raging on for more than a century because of the reality that they could not box intelligence; they could not fit intelligence in one single description. It’s like the air that we breathe; we know it’s there, we can feel it but we don’t know where it blows.
Reference:
http://thingsasian.com/story/last-tribes-mindanao-badjao-sea-gypsies
https://www.manilatimes.net/our-badjao-brothers-and-sisters/429671/
ROGAD PALANGPANG 