Intelligence: Looking Through Hero Academia

I found the past two weeks of my life tough and exhausting. A family member in the hospital, growing demands in the workplace, and other issues made a huge roadblock for me to catch up with the lessons and assignments. I wonder if I will be able to truly learn from this way or I will just be merely submitting the requirements.

Previously, I have posted my key takeaway from our lesson about Learning. I want to share my personal reflection on our second lesson about: Intelligence

Intelligence, is a mental quality that consists of abilities to learn from experience, adapt to new situations, understand and handle abstract concepts, and use knowledge to manipulate one’s environment. (Sternberg, 2017). To make my personal reflection on this e-journal more interesting and relatable, I would like to associate “Intelligence” with “Quirks” from one of the top 2018 anime series, Boku No Hero Academia (My Hero Academia). Quirk, in dictionaries, is defined as a peculiar trait, strange attitude, or habit. But with the show, it refers to outstanding or mutant abilities and superpowers. This heroes-versus-villains story started with the notable line “All men are not created equal“, introducing the setting wherein 80% of the population in their wold was born with “Quirks”, and the remaining 20% are, unfortunately, “Quirkless.” The story revolves around the painful life of a quirkless boy named Midoriya Izuku, struggling to overcome the bullying yet persevering to achieve his biggest desire–to save the people and attend the prestigious training academy to become the greatest hero.

This strongly resonates the various types and theories of intelligence that I have read in our module. There is Binet’s theory of intelligence that concentrates to the mental ability of a person in memory and attention, Spearman’s General Intelligence theory wherein there is one general intelligence that are primary in nature and influences to all mental performances. There are also other theories which explored a variety of intelligence such as experiential, practical, reflective, logical, musical, emotional, etc.

Going back to the story, UA is the premier school which students with Quirks are vying for to get to the limelight of heroes. Passing the strenuous entrance exam is the key to reach their dreams, this is also the faculty’s way of determining who are the students with exemplary skills that will be their greatest asset. Clearly, a quirkless and a weak child has no place in the academy. We can see this as the standardized tests in our schools, especially with the prestigious universities, and the IQ testing which, sadly, creates discrimination between children with high and low IQ scores and change of treatments to their child due to unmet expectations among parents.

Although genetics, play a huge role on an individual’s intelligence (like Quirks on the show is hereditary), environmental variables such as childhood experiences, influences, and social relationships, are also significant. Freud (1905) thought that parenting and events in childhood have a great influence and is of primary significant to a child’s development. In the show, the quirkless Midoriya met his idol, the top hero All Might, who ended up as his good teacher and chose him to be his successor. He also did not lurk in self-pity but studies diligently, analyzing the powers of the heroes and keeping it in mind for future references. This is a great example of Dweck’s Growth Mindset (2015), believing someone’s intelligence is not fixed but could be developed.

Having a “Quirk” or higher IQ scores–these may put forward an individual to a certain success, but life requires a lot of other skills and traits that are immeasurable to IQ tests. Scores will not solely dictate what you can achieve in the future.