Hierarchies Limit Intelligence Essay

Many believe that hierarchies limit intelligence. This is shown in Cathy Davidson’s “Project Classroom Makeover,” Azar Nafisi’s “Lolita in Tehran,” and Karen Ho’s “Biographies of Hegemony. Davidson discusses how formal education limits the knowledge individuals obtain. Nafisi explores how hard it is for individuals to imagine and learn due to the Islamic Country of Iran. Ho investigates businesses that dictate what intelligence is without allowing others to consider it for themselves. All three authors discuss hierarchies and how they define intelligence. Without a hierarchy, individuals grow and acquire different values. Hierarchies control individuals which limit their ideas. Davidson shows this when describing formal education. Davidson …show more content…

Davidson shows this when she explains how “formal education typically teaches hierarchies of what’s worth paying attention to” which shows that individuals are forced to learn what hierarchies think as important (Davidson 51). Davidson implies that since formal education teaches individuals of what’s important this limits the likelihood of learning in new ways. Having different learning mechanisms is very important to Davidson; she views this as a way to obtain knowledge. However, individuals cannot obtain knowledge because hierarchies are limiting individuals to have a specific learning mechanism. This specific learning mechanism therefore limits their skills because they are not able to use their own mechanism. This is shown in the high expectations that the hierarchies have when it comes to standardized tests. This high expectation “narrows the spectrum of skills that we test in schools” thereby limiting their understanding (Davidson 61). The hierarchies tell students what and how they should understand in class. If these individuals do not understand the material they are labelled as failures. These students who have failed may have skills that are not tested. Cathy Davidson states how “more and more kids who have skills …show more content…

Hierarchies teach what’s worth paying attention to. This is apparent in Nafisi and Ho’s texts. Their subjects are led to focus on the way they present themselves. For example, Nafisi states how “rituals governing what I was forced to wear, how I was to act, and the gestures I had to remember to control” (Nafisi 283). Nafisi shows that the Islamic State of Iran is controlling her actions and her only way of expression; her clothes. Nafisi shows that Iran is limiting her imagination by limiting her expression. Self-expression is a form of imagination. Nafisi shows the rush of imagination she feels when “trying on different outfits, until I finally settled on a red-striped shirt and black corduroy jeans. I applied my make up with care and put on bright red lipstick” (Nafisi 285). Nafisi’s use of color connects her clothing to art, and therefore to self-expression. By limiting her expression they are thereby limiting her imagination. This is shown in the uniformity of clothes that the women wear. Nafisi was shocked by “seeing them shed their mandatory veils and robes and burst into color” (Nafisi 281). For so many years these women have been controlled by the hierarchies in which narrowed down the