POVERTY AND EDUCATION
POVERTY AND
EDUCATION by
Dr. Tariq
Rahman
These kind of claims are now considered bogus. Nobody believes in blue blood or some innate ‘gentility’ (in the sense of moral and intellectual superiority) or qualities in one’s nature etc. The philosophy of democracy has demolished the more crude forms of such discriminatory ideas. However, they continue to function as prejudices and they are justified in other ways. Performing well in formal educational systems is one legitimate way of discrimination. Saying that so-and-so is not ‘intelligent’ shuts the door of earthly paradises upon him.
The concept of the intelligence quotient (IQ) is used for discriminating against
racial groups, socio-economic class groups etc. The IQ is calculated by counting
how many questions one answers correctly in a certain period of time. The average IQ score is
around 100 while scores below are those of less intelligent people while those
above are of more intelligent people. However, what is often ignored is that
the questions are biased. They are more about the kind of information which
modern, urban people in industrialized societies possess. A.R. Jensen’s book Bias in Mental Testing (1980) tells us a
lot about the way IQ tests can be biased. Other studies conclude that blacks
and working class children do not do well for a number of reasons. Bernstein,
for one, concluded that working-class children are not exposed to logical,
connected speech in their families. One thing which social scientists deny is
that poor people may actually lack cognitive abilities. Even to suggest this is
branded as being a fascist. However, this may be true and, if it is, it is the
fault of the society; it is a crime against the poor; it is absolutely unjust.
If the cognitive abilities of the brain are dependent on what a person gets to
eat and how much one’s mind is stimulated then societies which deprive people
of good nutrition and keep them in dull conditions are criminal societies. We shall
take up this argument in more detail later.
Let me begin by saying that
while I.Q tests as developed in Western societies may be biased, it is foolish
to deny that peoples’ cognitive abilities are not different. My point is that
these may be different but human beings should not be discriminated against
because of this reason. This means that our attitude towards the nature of people’s
jobs should change. We respect power which makes us defer to people who command
other human beings; dispose of goods and services and influence people’s lives.
We also respect whatever is dominating: great learning, good looks, great
talent in something, wealth etc. These qualities overawe us ordinary beings.
They oppress us simply by the fact that they exist in other people. And yet we
abase ourselves at their altar. We revere them and we look up to them. Dr Paul
Maclean, a researcher on the brain, has given the theory that the brain
developed according to an archaeological model. The most primitive part, which
MacLean calls the R-complex, is responsible for: ‘such human characteristics as
ritualism, awe for authority, social pecking orders’--etc-etc. (In The Brain (1979) by Richard M. Restak).
If this is true we cannot hope, as a species taken as a whole, to cease to be
impressed by power and what it creates (goods, services, deference, fame,
obedience among others, the capacity for doing good, the capacity to harm
etc.etc.). This being so we can balance our deference to power by distributing
it among individuals and not concentrating it among the few.
This radical distribution begins by shattering the myths which justify inequality. And among these myths is that of cognitive abilities and education. While not denying that some people have more cognitive abilities than others; while not denying that education confers skills needed in the modern world; while not denying that society does need intelligent and educated people---one should vehemently deny that human worth, human dignity, human significance is to be measured by education and intelligence. This worth is to be measured by the capacity for compassion and for spreading unselfish happiness. We need not give the professorship of mathematics in a prestigious university to someone who does not have the knowledge and the cognitive abilities needed for the position. But we need not prevent the person who lacks both to interact with us as an equal human being. Western countries, at least ostensibly, agree with this egalitarian principle. In Pakistan, since education is indirectly connected with state jobs and, hence, with power, the policeman disgraces the illiterate tonga-wallah while deferring to the educated (Parha likha) smart Alec (especially if the Alec in question sports a green number plate or a uniform).
Another thing which we can do is not to romanticize poverty. The Islamic mystics did preach the virtues of poverty but they exist only if you can command the deference of people for your piety or, being genuinely saintly, you live in a different world altogether. Those if us who live in this world of power and money should not romanticize poverty. The stories of some great man having studied books under the street lamp does not mean that all children will succeed under such dire conditions. Most will fail and so, instead of saying that studious people can study under any circumstances, we should say that the state should create conditions conducive for study for all children. Poor people live in crowded conditions where there is too much noise and poor lighting. They have to work in the house or outside it to help their parents. Their schools are ill-equipped, squalid and bare. Their teachers are often cruel and believe in beating them. Their self-confidence is shattered by the unjust social order they live in. This makes them intellectually timid. Is it any wonder, then, that they cannot do as well in studies as affluent children can?
And now I come to my major point---that poverty may kill off cognitive
abilities. Above all, one’s cognitive abilities depend to a great degree on
nutrition. According to scientists brain development is adversely affected by
malnutrition. Even if an adequate diet is introduced later, the effects of
deficiencies in diet in childhood are not reversed. Richard M. Restak gives a
statement which could have come straight out of a socialist tract. Here it is:
A civilized society cannot tolerate a world situation where the majority are doomed never to reach their genetic potential because some refuse to surrender even a small part of a material legacy so huge they can never live long enough to deplete it.
I should add that those of us in the non-Western world who point to the mountains of butter and cheese in the West should also pause to note that the elite of our own country (in our case, Pakistan) is much less egalitarian than Western elites are vis a vis their own people. We do not give fruit, meat, poultry, nuts and wholesome food products to our working class. In other words we probably cause the lack of cognitive abilities in them of which we are so contemptuous later. We create congenital defects and then we make them worse by terrible living conditions and an environment of indifference to studies etc.
In : Dr. Tariq Rahman
Notes