We May Not All be Mathematical Geniuses...

A few days ago, I had an interesting conversation with a group of people. We talked about intelligence of children and touched on topics such as the value of private education (referred to as public schooling in parts of the UK), streaming in school systems to encourage academic talent etc. The conversation was progressing well until one of the conversants made a comment about 'dumb' children.

'Dumb', the word struck me like a stone. I was stunned, first by the use of that word to describe a child (even in private conversation) and also because when I challenged the use of the word, the response was one of shrugged shoulders and of insensitivity, as if no damage could possibly be done by using that descriptor for a child. I even went as far as to ask, what if it was your child being described as dumb to which the response was, "well my children aren’t". I could see that the last comment was made to save face because the embarrassment was obvious. The person had realised that unknowingly and without malice, they had become a vehicle of prejudice against academically challenged children.

These types of conversations happen every minute of every day all over the world. These are conversations in which people unknowingly discriminate against others and prime their listeners to do the same. That is how prejudice starts. I am as guilty as the next person. I have lost count of the number of times that my husband has pulled me up for showing prejudice, which has come out during my conversations. In my opinion, prejudice results in discrimination and discrimination when unchecked breeds inequality which results in all kinds of injustice being done to the 'victim' of the inequality. 

You may argue that prejudices are inbuilt, that they are part of our emotional DNA. That may be the case but we humans are able to engineer solutions which help us to rise above limitations that we may have as a result of our biological make up. An example is wearing high heels to boost height (for the vertically challenged among us). Likewise, in the case of prejudice, one way to mitigate it is to develop empathy. The definition of empathy from Wikipedia is as follows: Empathy is the capacity to understand what another person is experiencing from within the other person's frame of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another's shoes.

If we practised empathy, we would be less likely to judge, to stereotype, to be biased. We would probably be more patient, willing to listen and to assist in any way we could. I am convinced that if there was more empathy in the world, there would be less inequality. So let’s all work on getting some empathy, lets practice it till it becomes habit. It may be difficult at the start but the more one does it, the easier it gets. 

At the end of the conversation that triggered all of this, what I thought and wish I had said is this, " we may not all be mathematical geniuses but each one of us is remarkably gifted and unique in our own special way".