A Different Kind of Genius by Tatiana

A Different Kind of Genius by Tatiana - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

The most important lesson I have ever learned from a teacher I learned in my freshman year of high school. My geography teacher, Ms. Mora, addressed the class as two students were having a dispute over one’s superior knowledge over the other. She said to the students, “If you’ve never been taught something, I, and no one else expects you to know it. Don’t feel bad about yourself for lacking this knowledge, and don’t judge others for the things they don’t know either. If you want to know something, however, you ask questions.” I immediately jotted this down in the back of my notebook because I understood this idea would recur in my life quite often as a student.
Students in high school typically deal with stressors like exams and peers that can lead them to believe that not knowing the answer to a simple question makes them a less intelligent person, which isn't true at all. I’ve come to realize through asking peoples’ opinions that there are different types of intelligences, and by that I don’t mean Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences ( i.e., visual-spatial, kinesthetic, etc.). I’ve learned that peoples’ minds are of different worlds and everyone thinks and processes information differently. This is one of the reasons why there are different ways of approaching a problem yet still obtaining the same solution as someone else. There is no person “smarter” than another. Every individual just has their own unique set of strengths. One person may be a whiz at Trigonometry, but when faced with a culinary class will do miserably. Then there may be a person who can recite everything they learned in Art History and will grow up to be the next Claude Monet, but is not passing their science and math classes because they cannot comprehend the lessons that are being taught. This does not make these people any less intelligent than the other, or anyone else for that matter.
In summation, what Ms. Mora taught me that day in 9th grade will stick with me wherever I go because I believe it is a very significant thing to constantly remind yourself. Just how everyone looks physically different, their brain functions differently. Everyone thinks and learns in their own unique way, which is why we should never judge others for not knowing something we do, and not feel bad if we don’t know or understand something either.