Smart & Stupid

A couple of days ago I had a very enjoyable conversation with one of my daughters about "smart and stupid". I believe that -- with very few exceptions -- there are not "smart" people and "stupid" people...although people do some pretty smart and stupid things.

I have always been considered pretty "smart". My first grade teacher used me to tutor other students in reading. I think she did that partly because I was an excellent reader, and partly because I had way too much time on my hands, as I finished my classwork very quickly.

At some point I seem to have made it my life's mission to befriend the friendless...to hang with -- and help -- fellow students who were rejected by most.

In fourth grade, I actually got called out for trying to help a boy who could not read. He had failed and repeated two or three years (so he was older than the rest of us) and then he had simply been given all "F"s and promoted. I discovered that he did not even know the alphabet, so I took it upon myself to teach it to him during recess. (Yes, he did learn it.) When Mrs. Banks -- one of the most hateful teachers I have ever known -- "caught" me teaching him, she screamed at me in front of the entire class, "HE CAN'T LEARN!!! IF COLLEGE-EDUCATED TEACHERS CANNOT TEACH HIM, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN???" I am not proud of the fact that I stopped trying to teach him after that.

At the beginning of my fifth grade year, the teacher explained to the class quite honestly that math was not her favorite subject, and that if anyone was able to learn it by reading the text book and wished to work ahead, they were welcome to go ahead on their own as long as they turned in every written assignment in the book. (In my experience, teachers typically asked for only certain written assignments to be done in any subject, and never finished a complete text book by the end of the school year.) I took her up on the offer, turned in every single assignment, and finished the entire book two months before school ended. (Math was my favorite subject -- and I generally aced all the tests -- right up through ninth-grade Algebra I.)

I did well on I.Q. tests. (Still do.) But I believe that tests -- while important -- of necessity measure a person on specific areas of "intelligence"...areas that are important to society, and particularly those parts of society that are commercial. I firmly believe that everyone (again, with very few exceptions) is equally "intelligent" and "smart". The intelligence of some simply has little value in society. (Think "Rain Man", for example. I have personally known similar people.)

My belief that there are not "smart" people and "stupid" people was reinforced when I began reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People a few months ago. I cannot think of a single book that has enlightened me the way Stephen Covey's book has. Really. For the first time in my life I truly understand that no two people see the world in the same way. Everybody's view of things is distorted by their own unique paradigm, which is based on their own knowledge and life experiences. (If you find that hard to understand or accept, I invite you to participate in an experiment that I am preparing on a Facebook discussion forum that I created.)

For the past few weeks I have been reading A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900 by Andrew Roberts. (I hated social studies and history when I was in school. Now I read lots of biographies and histories, and almost no fiction.) About Michael Ventris (an Englishman who deciphered Europe's oldest language) Roberts wrote that "he exhibited any number of signs of genius: the capacity to take infinite pain, depression, fluency in four languages from childhood, a mother who committed suicide, lack of interest in human (or even family) relationships, an ill and remote father, a mathematical, logical but above all compartmentalised mind, and no teritary education."

Wow. With a couple of exceptions, that's a fairly good description of me!

Yet, I am constantly reminded of how little of lasting value I have ever accomplished. By some measures, I am quite intelligent. And yet, it isn't always very evident in my life. Many people of average or below-average "measured intelligence" appear much smarter than me in the real world.

Roberts' description of Ventris also fits my idea that there aren't "smart" and "stupid" people. By some measure, I believe that virtually everyone is intelligent...maybe even equally so. I've always been fascinated by the human mind...and particularly interested in people who are autistic or savant. They are good examples of unquantified intelligence.

Our perceptions of "smart" and "stupid" -- as well as "right" and "wrong" -- are very subjective. That does not mean that reality does not exist, or that "right" and "wrong" do not exist. They do! But I am convinced that no human can see things as they truly are. Our only possible viewpoint is through our own unique paradigm.

The more conscious I am that everything I "see" is distorted by my paradigm, the more I recognize the need to examine and adjust it. It is a process that must never stop, unless I choose to cease progress and remain as I am.

Sometimes I think that I am awfully old to just now be learning such deep but basic things about myself. But then I realize how fortunate I am to to understand it now!