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How smart are you?

December 12, 2024   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

I think people in general consider themselves to be intelligent.

It’s very rare to hear someone say, “I am really dumb” and actually believe it.

Most people don’t really like to admit they know nothing about a subject if brought up in conversation.

It depends on which circles you hang around which will provide conversations of interest over a game of cards.

I attended a New Year’s Eve dinner a couple of years ago. I knew no one at this party other than the woman I went with. They were all in her social circle, and I was just a curiosity from out of town who arrived at the party.

I knew that everyone there had vastly different career backgrounds. One person was a retired doctor, and one was a retired firefighter. Other people came from all different backgrounds.

What I did notice, was the conversation never steered towards one person or their perceived importance in the community.

Never once, did the doctor mention her former occupation or bring up something to do with medicine. I was impressed by this group. It was like there was a general agreement they were all on an equal footing in life.

You may be a doctor, but you don’t call the hospital to report your house is on fire.

I recently read a report on a woman who apparently has the highest IQ of anyone on the planet. I’m not sure how you really test someone’s IQ and assign a number.

A series of tests designed to test a person’s IQ and assign a number was originally created over 100 years ago. There have been numerous other tests created over the years to offer a similar way of testing how smart people are.

But how can you assign a number to intelligence? Most of the tests created have been skewed in certain ways to satisfy the person creating the test.

Even a person creating an IQ test can’t think of all the ways a person may be above average in things other than math.

Several years ago, a friend of mine had an eight-year-old son who was fascinated by the weather for some reason. He bought books, magazines, calendars – anything with a picture of a tornado, hurricane, or lightning storm would be his collection.

He studied the books every night to learn about weather patterns.

During a parent/teacher conference, my friend was told by the teacher, that her son can’t concentrate, and does not seem to care about any subjects in school. The teacher said his knowledge of any subject was very limited.

My friend’s response to her son’s teacher, was something like, “he can’t concentrate? I see him get his books and maps and magazines out, and study them for hours. If we called him in here and questioned him, I guarantee he would know more about weather patterns in North America, than you do.”

The teacher declined the challenge of facing off with an 8-year-old on the subject of weather.

Intelligence testing is done in schools in Ontario, in some ways. I recall taking a ‘fill in the circle’ test in elementary school while some very serious and angry people observed us from around the room.

I don’t know how these tests are currently conducted, but I do know, the results of those tests would go on some record and every teacher after that would consider you to be an idiot if you didn’t do well.

Assigning a number to intelligence just isn’t practical.

It’s also a great way to make a kid feel uncomfortable.

“You only got a 110? I got a 115. I’m a lot smarter than you.”

And that comment is based on a number from a single test that doesn’t run full range of things that could determine how smart a person really is.

I went to college with a girl who had to be the best. She would constantly remind us that her father doesn’t work, because he just sits around all day waiting for cheques to arrive from the tenants in apartment buildings he had inherited, implying the family was wealthy.

Except, she would slip up sometimes and we realized her father was some type of slum-lord.

This girl had previously graduated from Queens University – a prestigious school – and she brought it up at every opportunity.

One day, she said, “I have an IQ of 146.”

I said, “Wow, I didn’t know you went to school in the U.S.”

She gave me a quizzical look, and said “I didn’t.”

I explained that Ontario does not do, or assign numbers from standard IQ tests. She gave me the dumbest stare ever.

“Where did you get your IQ tested?” I asked her.

She started mumbling some ridiculous story before making up some excuse and exiting quickly.

Some of the most intelligent people you probably know, are the ones that quietly go through life, but never try to explain why they are so good at what they do.

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