I found this article floating around my Facebook page tonight.
I’ve seen the brain teaser before about Farmer Gray and Farmer Brown. Apparently, if you can solve it, you belong in MENSA?
I wish I was brave enough to take the I.Q. test for MENSA–because I REALLY want to know my I.Q….but back to the real question. What’s intelligence all about? Why are we all in a quest to prove how intelligent we all are? What about other aspects of ourselves? Isn’t intelligence only one aspect of us?
I feel conflicted in my view regarding this topic. YES, I realize that my grades (and by extension my intelligence?) do not define who I am. But I’ve been chasing this elusive goal of wanting to be designated/”labeled” as “Gifted” my whole life. (“Gifted” intelligence roughly correlates to I.Q. scores of 130+, which, again, is just a number.)
Maybe being formally designated as “gifted” would help to explain why I felt so different from my classmates in elementary school. Maybe it would help explain why all the girls in my grade excluded me from their groups for 2 years. Maybe it would help explain why I never had any trouble in school, but still felt stupid when the rest of my classmates had questions for my teachers. Maybe it would help explain why I was that weird kid in elementary school who was interested in pregnancy, child development, and had aspirations to become a famous writer when I was 8-and 9-years old. Maybe it would help explain why I was labeled as an “underachiever”, and year after year reminded by my teachers that I was “not reaching my potential”, and that I “could be doing better”, in spite of the fact that I was consistently getting A’s on my report cards. I knew I could do better as well, but I lost my motivation to do well at school. Swim, piano, art, annual Spelling Bee competitions, Speech Meet competitions, and Math Olympics competitions kept me motivated to learn.
And yet, in spite of all these complaints at home, the message reinforced was always clear: “妹, you’re bright, but I don’t think you’re gifted.” Maybe it was a subtle way of being reminded by mother dearest that she wanted me to be a well-rounded person and not boast about being intelligent. It was a way to keep me humble, I guess.
Obviously, I still think there are also more important things in this world than having a high I.Q.. You could be the most gifted person in the world and still be a douchebag and I’d avoid you at all costs.
In spite of everything, I don’t think intelligence is simply a number in itself. It would be fine if I.Q. was simply another number that held no other “consequences”, like my wish about my increasing weight on a scale simply being another number. (Ha) But just like a larger number on a scale indicates health risks for diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, I’m finding that the brain of one with a higher number also compensates in other areas.
Dabrowski, anyone? Overexcitabilities, anyone? Overexcitabilities are inborn intensities, which indicate is a much higher ability to respond to stimuli. Overexcitabilities are expressed in increased sensitivity, awareness and intensity. So if you’ve got a superior ability with words and numbers, you’re also taking in this information and responding with increased sensitivity, awareness and intensity to words and numbers.
So, no. I don’t think that I.Q. is all about words and numbers. You could improve your skills with numbers and words at any time, which is true, just as the high-I.Q. individual can improve skills outside numbers and words. But a “smart” person or “genius” is rarely–if ever–*only* has words and numbers going for them.
That I.Q. number always has other implications involved. Is a number only ever just a number?
Amanda's Experience 