Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Four Point Oh
I had a girlfriend who was smarter than me once. That's not a value judgement on women. I'm not saying that I'm surprised a woman could be smarter than me, I could fill this entire blog with names of women who I know have more on the ball than me. My ex-wife thought she was smarter than me, I just sort of smiled and let her think that. At least she had some proof. We had attended college together, and her grades were better than mine. I could have argued that since she was an art major, that her grades didn't so much measure intelligence as they did talent. Still, her BFA degree is generally held in higher asteem than my BA degree.
And I don't put a lot of stock in grades as an indicator of intelligence. I probably hold that feeling because I wasn't a particularly good student. Plus, I've known a lot of 4.0's who weren't really that smart, but knew how to play the game. If you got a B on a quiz, you'd go to the professor's office and complain until it was changed to an A. If you had to take a tough class you took it Pass/Fail. If you weren't going to get an A in a class, you dropped it (no matter the cost) and took it again next semester. Most 4.0's I knew were weasels to some degree. Even one legitimatley super-intelligent 4.0 who I knew in college played those kinds of games. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship as a Senior and studied at Cambridge for a year. I would never pretend to put down his intelligence, I realize that he did everything within his power to acheive that 4.0. If he didn't, well he could have kissed that Rhodes Scholarship goodbye, you're not going to get that with a single B on your transcript for any reason. He ended up getting into a good grad school and law school, and was later a chief advisor to Sen. John McCain. That's the type of thing he dreampt of doing his whole life. He had it all mapped out when he walked onto campus as a freshman. Some of us didn't.
I do put more stock in intelligence tests. A high IQ indicates high intelligence. These tests aren't without their flaws. They tend to be socially, racially and economically biased. Being a white, middle class, white male, I always did extremely well on intelligence tests. It'd be really tacky to throw out an IQ number right here like I saw a guy do in Letters section of the newspaper a couple of weeks ago (mine was higher than his....), but let's just say I've got nothing to be ashamed of.
I was on a national game show. To even be considered, you had to pass a test that about 90% of the people who thought they were smart enough to be on this show didn't pass. After that you still had to be selected to be on, though that had more to do with personality and appearance. I saw the numbers once, aproximately 20,000 people take the test to be on Jeopardy! every year, less than 2000 pass the test, only about 450 are chosen to play in any given season. I did that, though I admit actually getting chosen to be on the show was as much luck as anything. I didn't win, but if the final had gone a bit differently I could have - I also could have ended up in third, it was that close.
So when some little punk 7th grader tells me he's smarter than me, it's sort of hard not to get upset. You can't get angry as a substitute teacher, if you start to lose it, you start to lose the class - your hold on these kids is tenuous anyway. I assured him I was smarter than him and tried to leave it at that. The little shit had just missed 12 of 16 problems that involved using a ruler, USING A RULER FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!!!! After that he had the gaul to suggest, not that he was on the same intellectual level as me, but was smarter than me?
I know I'm intelligent. I do try to speak in an educated manner, I've always been good with language, but I don't normally quote my IQ at the beginning of a conversation. I seldom mention my education or the fact that I was on Jeopardy! If those things come out, it's because the conversation lead there. When someone tells you how smart they are, they usually are reflecting the exact opposite. They're insecure about their lack of intelligence. When someone quotes their IQ in a letter to the editor or tells you they're smarter than you, it's pretty obvious that they don't have a lot on the ball, high IQ or not.
BOJ
And I don't put a lot of stock in grades as an indicator of intelligence. I probably hold that feeling because I wasn't a particularly good student. Plus, I've known a lot of 4.0's who weren't really that smart, but knew how to play the game. If you got a B on a quiz, you'd go to the professor's office and complain until it was changed to an A. If you had to take a tough class you took it Pass/Fail. If you weren't going to get an A in a class, you dropped it (no matter the cost) and took it again next semester. Most 4.0's I knew were weasels to some degree. Even one legitimatley super-intelligent 4.0 who I knew in college played those kinds of games. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship as a Senior and studied at Cambridge for a year. I would never pretend to put down his intelligence, I realize that he did everything within his power to acheive that 4.0. If he didn't, well he could have kissed that Rhodes Scholarship goodbye, you're not going to get that with a single B on your transcript for any reason. He ended up getting into a good grad school and law school, and was later a chief advisor to Sen. John McCain. That's the type of thing he dreampt of doing his whole life. He had it all mapped out when he walked onto campus as a freshman. Some of us didn't.
I do put more stock in intelligence tests. A high IQ indicates high intelligence. These tests aren't without their flaws. They tend to be socially, racially and economically biased. Being a white, middle class, white male, I always did extremely well on intelligence tests. It'd be really tacky to throw out an IQ number right here like I saw a guy do in Letters section of the newspaper a couple of weeks ago (mine was higher than his....), but let's just say I've got nothing to be ashamed of.
I was on a national game show. To even be considered, you had to pass a test that about 90% of the people who thought they were smart enough to be on this show didn't pass. After that you still had to be selected to be on, though that had more to do with personality and appearance. I saw the numbers once, aproximately 20,000 people take the test to be on Jeopardy! every year, less than 2000 pass the test, only about 450 are chosen to play in any given season. I did that, though I admit actually getting chosen to be on the show was as much luck as anything. I didn't win, but if the final had gone a bit differently I could have - I also could have ended up in third, it was that close.
So when some little punk 7th grader tells me he's smarter than me, it's sort of hard not to get upset. You can't get angry as a substitute teacher, if you start to lose it, you start to lose the class - your hold on these kids is tenuous anyway. I assured him I was smarter than him and tried to leave it at that. The little shit had just missed 12 of 16 problems that involved using a ruler, USING A RULER FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!!!! After that he had the gaul to suggest, not that he was on the same intellectual level as me, but was smarter than me?
I know I'm intelligent. I do try to speak in an educated manner, I've always been good with language, but I don't normally quote my IQ at the beginning of a conversation. I seldom mention my education or the fact that I was on Jeopardy! If those things come out, it's because the conversation lead there. When someone tells you how smart they are, they usually are reflecting the exact opposite. They're insecure about their lack of intelligence. When someone quotes their IQ in a letter to the editor or tells you they're smarter than you, it's pretty obvious that they don't have a lot on the ball, high IQ or not.
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 11:48 AM 
