THE VIEW OF INTELLIGENCE

What is Intelligence? This is a question I have been asking myself since I started school as a young boy. Are good grades a sign of intelligence? Is completing a college degree as sign of intelligence? Over the length of my time and my travels throughout the world I have yet to find that answer that can tell you if someone is intelligent by the job they have, the degrees they hold or the position of power they are in. Yet I have found so many people in my lifetime that are some of the most intelligent, creative and innovative people I have ever met and they do not have any of those standard views of intelligence as we prescribe to people today.

It seems as though school today is based on acceptance into college. But is this really the correct way to instill into our youth of what intelligence really is? Let's think about school…. First off you can get 70% throughout high school and get your diploma, you can get 70% throughout college and get a degree. So does this mean that 30% of the studies you do not understand but that is okay and yet we still classify you as intelligent? Would you want a surgeon to only understand 70% of a procedure and have them perform your surgery? I know that is a far fetched idea and not something I view accurate but something to think about. And the reason is because school is what people base intelligence off. Yet everyone learns at different speeds and different ways.

When you go to school throughout the world the schools rank every subject the same, math and science at the top and music and the arts at the bottom. But why? First off not everyone can be the same so why set up their life the same to focus on those few subjects. What about the ones that will become the future in music, art, humanities, etc. Intelligence means being adaptive, selective, shaping, creative, practical, analytical, but school cannot teach that if the baseline is the same. Multiple intelligences means being a Genius, so would this not mean that a genius is someone who holds multiple intelligence from creative to analytical? 

Some of the most successful and influential people in the world did not make it through college. Examples would be Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs. 35% of billionaires do not have a college degree and yet we force the view that a college degree shows someone intelligence and that is what you will need in order to create a great career in your future. The one thing school does not measure in your studies is your measure of change, it only shows your knowledge of that subject. So with children who cannot do well on tests or learn in a different way are feeling that they are not smart and will not make it. But that is not right because some of those children could be the future leaders of the world or the future innovators because they learn a different way which could be creative or practical.

I view intelligence as someone who is creative, innovative, imaginative, analytical, adaptive and many other things. But how can one show creativity, imagination, adaption when we do not teach humanities, music, dance, and electives that really bring those key traits out in a person. In the end there are many types of intelligent people in the world, there is no way to create a baseline in which you will create intelligent people unless you give them the option to be creative, open minded and learn at their own rate and strengths and to be pushed to be an individual. Also if you are not prepared to be wrong during the learning process how can you become creative and I think this is a key factor in the societies inability to be creative in the job force except for a few companies who actually influence this. I believe we really need to step back and really see how intelligence works and not to show it by a degree that one might hold.