In chapter 2 of Bakuman, the topic of intelligence is briefly touched on.
Quite so often, I’m sure many of us will look around at the people around us and think about the varying intelligence levels that each and every one of us possesses. I think the best example to use would be a more personalised one, and since I’m a student, I’ll use one in the context of school.
One of the of core reasons as for why students attend school sums up to one single word. Grades. Even with all the talk about wholesome education, I’m thinking that all that’s just some concocted gibberish, especially if you speak of education where I live in. As such, it’s no wonder why majority have been embedded within their mindset that grades are totally based on one’s intelligence.
Each time the results for the semester are released, there’s always this common occurrence of people going around asking people how they fared. Upon hearing that someone scored an overall GPA that’s far above the average, I often hear “As expected, he’s/she’s so smart”. If you realise, the people making such comments are those below the top few in bell-curve. I’m guilty of such comments too, since I’m pretty much average, or at best, slightly above the mean score. No top 5%, director’s roll or whatsoever.
However, we often turn a blind eye to effort behind the grade. Sometimes, we all know that the certain guy who scored an excellent grade did so only because of the hardcore intensive study sessions he went through. Yet, the comment above can still be heard with the same frequency. I guess it’s just in our nature to want to sum up everything to intelligence.
Sadly, working hard does not necessarily equate to being smart.
I agree with the saying, “All men are equal, but some are more equal that others”. Yet, I don’t believe that there are any stupid people. Stupid people are people with an intelligence level of a big fat zero, and I doubt that’s the case for anyone. The only reason why people do stupid things is due to being unable to make use of this intelligence level which they possess. “Smart”,”intelligent” or any other word with a similar meaning only enters the picture when the level of intelligence varies between people.
Intelligence is such an easy word to utilise, yet hard to explain or understand. As stated above, majority relate intelligence to success. But is it really as such?
What does true intelligence equate to? Is true intelligence based on what an individual percieves?
Intelligence has its roots on talent, but it can also be developed. While I recognize the fact that there are people with subpar intelligence, I also recognize the fact that it can be developed. I’ve read of a somewhat recent Scientific American article that a parent should not call a child intelligent: it fools him into thinking that excellence is simply just a matter of talent, which is a mistake.
There are people who are born with a high aptitude for the arts and sciences, and there are some people with different aptitudes. But all of them must be developed, and hard work must be stressed. I assure you, most people who have excelled in our classes have worked very diligently, and while I believed in my talent I came to realize that conscientiousness is the way to go.
Aristotle had more faith in action than in potentiality. Even if one had the talent of being the best swimmer the world has to offer, it is still in the realm of potential: it has not yet happened. We will still praise Phelps more, because he has acted and he has proven himself 14 times in the Olympics. Aristotle continues that half of our lives, we are all the same: we are asleep, and we all eat.
/rant
I hit on this topic as well in psychology studies. It really boils down to how we define intelligence, and it is very difficult to come up with something that people can accept objectively as well as standardizing the definition into something simple that can be understood by everyone.
By its very layman definition itself, we are already questioning our own intelligence just by disagreeing on how the word “intelligence”, or the quality thereof, should be defined.
You are right in saying too, that people always overlook the person’s hard work in getting good grades. Sometimes it is not smartness that gets them there, but their own diligence.