"You are not very bright, are you?" Said my high school teacher to one of her students.
I know some persons here including me have been regarded as not being intelligent at one point in their life or another (even if I like to think of myself as a highly intelligent being).
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, Intelligence is:
The ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations
It is also
The ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests).
A lot of persons have been pegged as not intelligent simply because they don't meet societal "criteria" of intelligence, which usually revolves around having good grades in school. But I will like to believe that academic work shouldn't be used to evaluate one's intelligence, seeing as it mostly focuses on two types of intelligence (Linguistic and Maths/logic).
According to Gardner, there are multiple types of intelligence and they are all unique in their way. (You can read about Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences here: Simply Psychology.
This takes me back to my high school, there are a couple of people that are usually pegged as not smart because they usually have low grades in most subjects. I remember one of such persons, dude usually has low grades in most subjects, but he was very good at composing music. I took time to listen to one of his songs one day and he was very good with rhymes. His pun game was top-notch and he has a very good command of English.
After that encounter with him, I sat down and pondered all about this intelligence business; should we say someone is not intelligent simply because they don't know what we know? Or because they don't learn the same way you do? (That's usually the case most of the time). I observed most of the so-called low-graders and saw that they were good in one thing or the other. One was a very good artist, the other was very good at sports while one other was very good at writing. These are all types of intelligence, but society will like to refer to them as gifted or skilled or talented, why those making strides in science are thought of as intelligent.
One peculiar thing to note is that we all having different ways of learning. For instance, I learn better from a practical approach, some persons learn faster through music, some others learn through art. That's why I think schools are getting it wrong with their manner of teaching students, forcing students to follow a particular style of learning and then giving them the same set of tests isn't being fair now, is it? (Well I don't know how the school system might be in your country).
After high school, the "low-graders" sometimes end up following their passion and becoming successful (that is if they have the right guidance). Some go into the university chasing down their dreams by enrolling for a course that caters to their major interest, they feel right at home learning something they have passion for and then excel greatly in it, at this point can this same set of persons be referred to as not being intelligent? What then are the criteria for being intelligent?
In the university, you will come across different types of persons from all walks of life. Everyone has their path set before them and they know the best approach to take. It is at this point you have the opportunity to follow your passion and do something you like, but sometimes parents end up messing up their kid's path. What do I mean? Take for instance someone good at writing but the parents want him/her to study Medicine in the university and become a doctor, that's basically forcing that child down a disastrous path, making the child look dumb, and then the cycle starts all over again.
I like to think everyone is intelligent in their way (unless a medical condition proves otherwise). This is precisely why I treat everyone the same and do not bother about their academic prowess. Some are blessed to be intelligent in more than one aspect of life, while others have a particular type of intelligence that just needs to be figured out and built on.
Have a lovely week! Cheers.
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