Jayran Mansouri
I am going to talk to you about a prejudice many of us are unaware exists, in fact some of you may actually support it. If I am to be bluntly honest, most, if not all of you probably do. This prejudice is widely accepted by society, but never really discussed. You may consider yourself an open-minded and unjudgemental person and still discriminate against this group. Or you may not even consider it a prejudice. But it can be dangerous, especially for young people.
You’re probably all dying to know what it is now, aren’t you?
It’s prejudice against people who are considered of less-than-average intelligence. Think about it. How many times have you heard that phrase: “it’s not cool to be dumb”? That phrase to me is only as acceptable as saying “it’s not cool to be black/white/Asian/male/female/fat/ Muslim/Christian/Jewish/smart”
But what do we mean by dumb anyway? There are actually many different forms of intelligence.
So why is this prejudice so prevalent?
It’s because our society values particular types of intelligence over others.
Intelligence is a complex mixture of genetics and upbringing. We do not yet have a reliable way to measure it, and there is a chance we never will. Those infamous IQ tests do not come close to “measuring” one’s intelligence. How much brainpower constitutes one IQ point anyway.
A man by the name of Dr. Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard University, believes that “multiple intelligences” exist. What does this mean? It means everyone’s brain has a unique way of functioning, which can roughly be divided into eight categories of intelligence. Most people relate to more than one.
- Linguistic (verbal intelligence) - good with words and enjoys reading and writing. Journalists are usually linguistically intelligent
- Spatial (visual intelligence) - artistic, creative and interprets artwork naturally
- Bodily (movement/kinesthetic intelligence) - athletic and/or physically co-ordinated
- Logical/mathematical (number intelligence) - good with numbers and solving problems, the extreme example of this is a “human calculator”
- Musical (musical intelligence) -someone with a good “ear”, who enjoys making, writing and/or listening to music
- Interpersonal (social intelligence)- understands and relates well with other people
- Intrapersonal (self intelligence)- someone with a strong understanding and analysis of their own personal thoughts, intuition and feelings
- Naturalist (nature intelligence)- is interested in life and nature, such as a botanist
Our culture puts more emphasis on mathematical and linguistic intelligence. You can see this all the time in schools, where our intelligence is tested mainly by exams and assignments based on mathematical and linguistic skills. People perceived to be “dumb” might turn out to have naturalist intelligence rather than traditionally accepted intelligence They might not know their times tables, but they can classify every plant in the garden. They might not feel comfortable in a class debate, but they can paint like Van Gogh or dance like JT!
Another reason why this prejudice is so widespread is because people considered to be “unintelligent” people are naturally under represented in decision-making fields like law and politics (with the possible exception of one President of the United States). We only see traditionally smart people making headlines, making a difference, being in charge, making the decisions. This leads us to believe that people who don’t display traditionally accepted intelligence are incapable of being leaders and are weak as members of society. We are taught to believe that traditionally intelligent people are more valuable to society, 
and on a greater level, the human race. But look at the world today, so many people living in poverty and conflict, maybe it would be in a better state if it were run by gardeners, artists, musicians and dancers!?
G8 Leaders 2005
So the next time you hear anyone say “it’s not cool to be dumb” or “dumb isn’t cool”, go ahead and challenge their intelligence.
- LEARN MORE
- Check out Wikipedia for more info and links on Multiple Intelligences.
- For a perspective on intelligence and the differences found across cultures check out this article -It’s a bit academic, but interesting.
Walking into the building where the conference on children and youth rights was being held I realized I knew little about the rights of children and youth…. actually I knew little about what we were going to be doing for an entire day around these rights. I quickly learned that this conference was put on by the Ministry of Youth Development surrounding the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC). UNCROC is a document created and recoacggnized by the United Nations outlining children’s and young people’s rights. In 1997 The UN submitted a detailed report recommending changes within New Zealand to be made in order to be in compliance with UNCROC. However many of the recommendations made by the UN have not been changed by NZ. The forum was set up as a way to discuss the government’s role and progress in children and youth rights and to allow the opportunity for youth, government and NGO representatives to collaborate around these issues. This meeting was the first forum where youth, governmental and non-governmental agencies came together to discuss the rights of children outlined by UNCROC. There were over 60 different agencies represented as well as about 10 young people. Entering the building I could feel the dedication and passion many people had surrounding the issues.
I boarded the tiny plane in Westport on July 14, nervous and unprepared. I hadn’t even read half of the information we’d been sent. I was excited to finally get a chance to go overseas, but by this stage I had convinced myself it was going to be terrible. They wouldn’t feed me enough (I like food), the people would be super brainy and super snobbish (how could a little West Coast girl ever compete?), not to mention old (I’m only 18 and the people going were aged from 16-30), and I’d get lost (the amount of youth going to the festival was more than the population of my entire town)!
I was immediately welcomed by the 16 other New Zealanders at our one-day workshop in Auckland on the 15th (they weren’t mean after all). And I soon realised I was the only one who was feeling nervous and ill-prepared. And I was one of the youngest people there, but it never became an issue. We all came from different backgrounds, and different parts of the country, but here we were all equal.
Another highlight was meeting three Moriori youth from New Zealand. I never learned anything about the Moriori people at school. All I knew was something about “the Moriori being eaten by the Māori”… It was interesting learning about how the Moriori were still very much alive and the efforts being made to resurrect their language and culture. Their fight to rectify the shame people felt in being identified as Moriori (even more than Māori, Moriori people in the past were looked down upon and forced to hide or forget their culture) was incredibly inspiring.
Matt Lamason, 27, founder of Peoples Coffee in Wellington, seems to have hit on the magic formula. His business sells only fair-trade coffee, which means that the coffee beans are sourced directly from growers who pay their employees a fair wage, “The fair trade mark sets a base wage for coffee growers, which means that the growers have extra money in the hand… 
This means that they will have a better standard of living, better buildings, a chance at an education for themselves and their children. Basically fair-trade means a better deal for the people who produce the coffee”, Matt says.
At this stage however, New Zealand is ten to twelve years behind the UK in terms of consumer-consciousness”. Although currently only in a fledgling state in New Zealand, consumer-consciousness has meant that there is a growing market for Fair Trade products, which is great for Matt’s company.
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into effect, devastating small producers and workers with policies that allow cheaper, heavily subsidised US and Canadian goods to flood into the Mexican market. 
On the same day, 3000 members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) seized six towns and hundreds of ranches in the Southern state of Chiapas, Mexico as an action of resistance against the imposition of neoliberal policies that favour already powerful multinational corporations. For two weeks, the state of Chiapas resounded with the chant “’¡Ya Basta! Enough is enough!” as the people called for an end to five centuries of indigenous repression and exploitation and of the encroaching globalisation of corporate hegemony and cultural homogenisation. The Mexican army responded with bombs and bullets, killing at least 145 indigenous people. Mexican civil society responded with massive demonstrations across the country calling for an end to the military repression, and a ceasefire was called on the 12th of January.
Indeed, the leaders of the movement famously mask their faces with balaclavas or bandanas to symbolise their anonymity and equality with the suffering indigenous, peasants and workers. The movement has organised countless consultations and meetings at community, national and international levels, but always prioritising the voice of the people. As a result, they have established strong, autonomous communities with health clinics, schools and cooperatives producing various goods as deemed suitable for the communities by the communities. A dynamic form of government, (el Buen Gobierno, the good government) modelled on traditional indigenous frameworks, has been established, where leaders are seen as servants of the people and extensive community involvement occurs.
