Legally and Productively Defacing School Property

Today was the halfway point of the last week of class, but it really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since we’ve gotten here. We learned about inherent learning conditions, specifically dyslexia and giftedness. Dyslexia is well-known as a condition that affects the ability of the afflicted to read and interpret written words. Dyslexic people can become up to 7 years behind the general population by age 13 when it comes to recognition of pseudowords, which are words that don’t actually exist, but can be easily sounded out (like the word “parding,” or "spet," for example). However, it is a disability that comes with its own set of advantages; dyslexic people typically have better peripheral vision and can solve big-picture problems more naturally than those who don’t. That being said, I can’t imagine living without being able to read as easily as I can now. School would be so much harder, and it would be disheartening to know that reading, which is something that so many can do, would remain a struggle for the rest of my life.

On the other hand, we also learned about those who were dealt the other side of the genetic stick, known as the “gifted.” There are several different ways to identify giftedness in children, because the concept of intelligence is not easily defined, but it’s generally accepted that the WISC is the most commonly used. Short for Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, it tests verbal comprehension, spatial ability, fluid reasoning, working memory, and processing speed. In order to be considered gifted, someone typically should be in the top 1% of IQ scores of the population. Because IQ is based on ability relative to age, scores don’t really fluctuate much after the age of 5. Those who are identified as gifted get placed into programs designed for students of their caliber, and they generally accelerate through their learning and have high chances of being successful at a young age. I feel like if I knew that my IQ score was above 99% of the general population, I would become obsessed with improving it and making sure that it never dropped below the top 1%.

Yesterday’s and today’s learning has kind of gone against the initial teachings of the course; in the beginning, we learned that intelligence can be raised through hard work, and that studying correctly and understanding your limitations were more useful to academic success than a high IQ. However, we’ve now been exposed to the facts that a lot of who we are today as students have been predisposed by not only our genetics, but our race and upbringing as well. The recent lessons have left me feeling kind of unsatisfied with my current academic level; they’ve made me question whether I’m successful because of my own hard work and dedication, or whether it’s because so many things were laid out for me and all I had to do was show up to school and do my homework.

Writing on walls has never been so productive.

From left: Alex, Lucy, and Sophie, discussing the presentation (but really just posing for me).

After class, my group and I went to the library to work on our upcoming presentation and research papers. Lucy bought a $3 Expo marker from one of the vending machines on the A level of Regenstein, so we got to write on the walls. Most of the walls on the A level have whiteboard material on their surface, which I think is a really useful thing to have in a collaborative work space. We had fun writing on the walls, but after a while the novelty wore off and we just worked. The whiteboard was used, especially for organizing the presentation, but a lot of stuff was also done on our computers. This session was more productive than they have been recently, probably because the last day is in the horizon and coming up fast.