Emmanuel Plaza BS ChE - V

Reaction Paper: My Brilliant Brain

My father believed that that the potential of children was not used optimally.
This is what Susan Polgar said during an interview when asked how her father influenced
her skill in chess. Susan Polgar has achieved incredible heights in the field of chess that few have
also reached. She has challenged the notion that mens brain are better at understanding spatial
patterns, giving them an advantage in games such as chess, as becoming the worlds first female
grandmaster. Her abilities proved her to be called a genius, but her father believed that genius
was not born, but made. Her father committed to teaching Susan as early as five years old after
she happened to encounter upon a chess set in her home.
The case of Susan Polgar has caused me to be amazed of the human brains brilliant
capabilities. Although most capabilities of the brain are mysterious and continually revealed, it is
very apparent that human brain has plasticity. No, it's not made of plastic. Each one has the
capacity for continuous alteration of neural pathways, synapses and the nervous system in
response to experience or injury. A healthy human being is not stuck in a situation where he
"naturally" cannot do something. Anyone can alter his own brain in order to accomplish
something that he thought he could never in his wildest dreams have achieved. This is what
Susan has experienced in her early childhood years. Her brain was continually wired for chess.
Intelligence can be defined as a general mental ability for reasoning, problem solving,
and learning. Because of its general nature, intelligence integrates cognitive functions such as
perception, attention, memory, language, or planning. One of the greatest questions of human
intelligence is whether it is inherited or acquired. Intelligence appears to be effected strongly
by both innate and natural aspects and also from acquired experience and environmental effects.
It is mostly inherited, but also has to do with childhood development and environment. A child
born with an average or slightly below IQ can acquire intelligence as smarter ones. Anyone can,
if they dedicate their time and work hard enough, can achieve what they set out to achieve, it
may just come more difficult to them than someone who was born with a higher level of
intelligence. This is seen in a lot of college campuses; students can all succeed, some may just
need to work a little harder at all.
The evident skills and capabilities that I have been trained and acquired can be traced
back to my childhood years. I have been known by my family, neighbors, and classmates with an
exceptional memory. I have already memorized the counting numbers 1 to 100 at and known to
recite long literary pieces such as poetry an early age of five. I have been also quite skilled in
mathematics and science in my elementary years due to my inherent curiosity of the world
around me. These traits have been developed through the years until I reached college. The
dominant factors that led to gain and develop these traits are my inherent personality and the
environment I grew in. Being constantly hungry for knowledge is an underlying trait that I have.
I always want to learn and practice new things until I have mastered them. Science and math
have satisfied this desire to pursue learning in every aspect of my life. My family is very
expressive in emotions and feelings. I am a deep person, oftentimes, questioning my purpose
and meaning of life and these led me to exercise my skills in writing and poetry. I have always
been grateful of how I was molded to the very person I am right now.