I've always been intrigued by the field of intelligence. As a child my mom would refer to me as "smart," but I speedily noticed that all parents refer to their children as smart. In time I would scrutinize that all children are not smart, just as all babies are not cute. If that were the case, we'd have a world full of beautiful, smart citizen - which we don't.
Some of us are smart; but not as smart as we think, and others are smarter than they seem, which makes me wonder, how do we define smart? What makes one man smarter than another? When do "street smarts" matter more than "book smarts"? Can you be both smart and stupid? Is being smart more of a direct affect of genetics, or one's environment?
3Rd Grade Math Practice
Then there are the issues of education, intelligence and wisdom.
What does it mean to be extremely educated? What's the contrast between being extremely educated and extremely intelligent? Does being extremely educated automatically make you extremely intelligent? Can one be extremely inviting without being extremely educated? Do Iqs beyond doubt mean anything? What makes a man wise? Why is wisdom typically associated with old age?
My desire to seek answers to these questions inspired many hours of intense research which included the reading of 6 books, hundreds of research documents, and countless hours on the Internet; which pales in comparison to the lifetime of studies and research that pioneers in the fields of intelligence and study like Howard Gardner, Richard Sternberg, Linda S. Gottfredson, Thomas Sowell, Alfie Kohn, and Diane F. Halpern whose work is cited in this article.
My goal was simple: Amass, synthesize, and gift data on what it means to be smart, educated and inviting so that it can be understood and used by anyone for their benefit.
Prenatal Care
With this in mind, there was not a best (or more appropriate) place to start than at the very starting of our existence: as a fetus in the womb.
There is mounting evidence that the consumption of food that's high in iron both before and during fertilization is essential to building the prenatal brain. Researchers have found a strong connection between low iron levels during fertilization and diminished Iq. Foods rich in iron consist of lima beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, spinach, asparagus, broccoli, seafoods, nuts, dried fruits, oatmeal, and fortified cereals.
Children with low iron status in utero (in the uterus) scored lower on every test and had significantly lower language ability, fine-motor skills, and tractability than children with higher prenatal iron levels. In essence, allowable prenatal care is essential to the amelioration of cognitive skills.
Cognitive Skills
Cognitive skills are the basic reasoning abilities we use to think, study, and learn. They consist of a wide collection of reasoning processes used to analyze sounds and images, recall information from memory, make associations between dissimilar pieces of information, and verbalize concentration on particular tasks. They can be individually identified and measured. Cognitive skill impel and efficiency correlates directly with students' ease of learning.
Drinking, Pregnancy, And Its Intellectual Impact
Drinking while pregnant is not smart. In fact, it's downright stupid.
A study in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental research has found that even light to moderate drinking - especially during the second trimester - is associated with lower Iqs in offspring at 10 years of age. This supervene was especially pronounced among African-American rather than Caucasian offspring.
"Iq is a part of the child's quality to learn and to survive in his or her environment. It predicts the potential for success in school and in everyday life. Although a small but essential percentage of children are diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (Fas) each year, many more children are exposed to alcohol during fertilization who do not meet criteria for Fas yet contact deficits in increase and cognitive function," said Jennifer A. Willford, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Paul D. Connor, clinical director of the Fetal Alcohol and Drug Unit and assistant professor in the branch of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington has this to say about the subject:
"There are a whole of domains of cognitive functioning that can be impaired even in the face of a relatively general Iq, along with schoraly achievement (especially arithmetic), adaptive functioning, and executive functions (the quality to problem solve and learn from experiences). Deficits in intellectual, achievement, adaptive, and executive functioning could make it difficult to appropriately administrate finances, function independently without assistance, and understand the consequences of - or react appropriately to - mistakes."
This is a key looking which speaks directly to the (psychological) definition of intelligence which is addressed later in this article.
Ultra Sounds
Studies have shown that the frequent exposure of the human fetus to ultrasound waves is associated with a decrease in newborn body weight, an increase in the frequency of left-handedness, and delayed speech.
Because ultrasound power is a high-frequency mechanical vibration, researchers hypothesized that it might affect the migration of neurons in a developing fetus. Neurons in mammals multiply early in fetal amelioration and then migrate to their final destinations. Any interference or disruption in the process could supervene in abnormal brain function.
Commercial companies (which do ultrasounds for "keepsake" purposes) are now creating more remarkable ultrasound machines capable of providing favorite 3D and 4D images. The procedure, however, lasts longer as they try to make 30-minute videos of the fetus in the uterus.
The main stream magazine New Scientist reported the following: Ultrasound scans can stop cells from dividing and make them commit suicide. Routine scans, which have let doctors peek at fetuses and internal organs for the past 40 years, affect the general cell cycle.
On the Fda website this information is posted about ultrasounds:
While ultrasound has been around for many years, expectant women and their families need to know that the long-term effects of repeated ultrasound exposures on the fetus are not fully known. In light of all that remains unknown, having a prenatal ultrasound for non-medical reasons is not a good idea.
Nature Versus Nurture...The consider Continues
Now that you are aware of some of the known factors which determine, improve, and impact the intellectual amelioration of a fetus, it's time for conception. Once that baby is born, which will be more crucial in the amelioration of its intellect: nature (genetics) or look after (the environment)?
Apparently for centuries, scientists and psychologists have gone back and forth on this. I read many unabridged studies and reports on this field during the research phase of this article, and I believe that it's time to put this consider to rest. Both nature and look after are equally as important and must be fully observed in the intellectual amelioration of all children. This shouldn't be an either/or proposition.
A up-to-date study shows that early intervention in the home and in the classroom can make a big contrast for a child born into ultimate poverty, according to Eric Turkheimer, a psychologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The study concludes that while genetic makeup explains most of the differences in Iq for children in wealthier families, environment - and not genes - makes a bigger contrast for minority children in low-income homes.
Specifically, what researchers call "heritability"- the degree to which genes affect Iq - was significantly lower for poor families. "Once you're put into an sufficient environment, your genes start to take over," Mr. Turkheimer said, "but in poor environments genes don't have that ability."
But there are reports that contradict these findings...sort of.
Linda S. Gottfredson, a professor of educational studies at the University of Delaware, wrote in her article, The general intelligence Factor that environments shared by siblings have tiny to do with Iq. Many citizen still mistakenly believe that social, psychological and economic differences among families generate chronic and marked differences in Iq.
She found that behavioral geneticists refer to such environmental effects as "shared" because they are common to siblings who grow up together. Her reports states that the heritability of Iq rises with age; that is to say, the extent to which genetics accounts for differences in Iq among individuals increases as citizen get older.
In her record she also refers to studies comparing same and fraternal twins, published in the past decade by a group led by Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., of the University of Minnesota and other scholars, show that about 40 percent of Iq differences among preschoolers stems from genetic differences, but that heritability rises to 60 percent by adolescence and to 80 percent by late adulthood.
And this is possibly the most inviting bit of information, and relevant to this section of my article:
With age, differences among individuals in their developed intelligence come to mirror more closely their genetic differences. It appears that the effects of environment on intelligence fade rather than grow with time.
Bouchard concludes that young children have the circumstances of their lives imposed on them by parents, schools and other agents of society, but as citizen get older they become more independent and tend to seek out the life niches that are most congenial to their genetic proclivities.
Breast-Feeding Increases Intelligence
Researchers from Christchurch School of rehabilitation in New Zealand studied over 1,000 children born between April and August 1977. during the period from birth to one year, they gathered information on how these children were fed.
The infants were then followed to age 18. Over the years, the researchers collected a range of cognitive and schoraly information on the children, along with Iq, instructor ratings of school performance in reading and math, and results of standardized tests of reading comprehension, mathematics, and schoraly ability. The researchers also looked at the whole of passing grades achieved in national School Certificate examinations taken at the end of the third year of high school.
The results indicated that the longer children had been breast-fed, the higher they scored on such tests.
Talking To Your Children Makes A Difference
Thomas Sowell, author of Race, Iq, Black Crime, and facts Liberals Ignore uncovered some inviting information that every parent should take note of. He writes:
There is a strong case that black Americans suffer from a series of disadvantageous environments. Studies show time and again that before they go to school, black children are on midpoint exposed to a smaller vocabulary than white children, in part due to socioeconomic factors.
While children from professional households typically exposed to a total of 2,150 dissimilar words each day, children from working class households are exposed to 1,250, and children from households on welfare a mere 620.
Yes, smart sounding children tend to come from educated, professional, two-parent environments where they pick-up essential language skills and vocabulary from its smart sounding inhabitants.
Mr. Sowell continues: Black children are obviously not to blame for their poor socioeconomic status, but something beyond economic status is at work in black homes. Black citizen have not signed up for the "great mission" of the white middle class - the constant quest to stimulate intellectual increase and get their child into Harvard or Oxbridge.
Elsie Moore of Arizona State University, Phoenix, studied black children adopted by whether black or white parents, all of whom were middle-class professionals. By the age of 7.5 years, those in black homes were 13 Iq points behind those being raised in the white homes.
Accumulated Advantages
At this juncture in my research it dawned on me, and should be fairly certain to you, that many children are predisposed to being smart, educated, and intelligent, naturally by their exposure to the influential factors which resolve them long before they start school.
An informed mother, allowable prenatal care, educated, communicative parents, and a nurturing environment in which to live, all add up to accumulated advantages that formulate intellectual abilities. As you can see, some children have unfair advantages from the very beginning.
Malcolm Gladwell, author of top-selling book Outliers, wrote that "accumulated advantages" are made potential by arbitrary rules...and such unfair advantages are everywhere. "It is those who are prosperous who are most likely to be given the kinds of communal opportunities that lead to added success," he writes. "It's the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It's the best students who get the best teaching and most attention."
With that in mind, we turn our concentration to study and intelligence.
What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated?
Alfie Kohn, author of the book What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? poses the question, does the phrase well educated refer to a quality of study you received, or something about you? Does it denote what you were taught? Or what you remember?
I verbalize that to be well educated is all in the application; the application and use of information. information has to be used in order to become knowledge, and as we all have heard, knowledge is power.
Most citizen are aware of the floundering state of study in this country on some level. We tell our children that nothing is more important than getting a "good" education, and every year, due to government allocation shortfalls, teachers are laid off, classes are condensed, schools are closed, and many educational programs - especially those which help the underprivileged - are cut.
The reality is, we don't beyond doubt value education. We value it as a business, an industry, political ammunition, and as an approved form of discrimination, but not for what it was intended: a means of enriching one's character and life straight through learning.
What we value as a society, are athletes and the entertainment they offer. The fact that a professional athlete makes more money in one season, than most teachers in any region will make in their careers, is abominable. There's always money to build new sports stadiums, but not sufficient to give teachers a decent (and well-deserved) raise.
Ironically, the best teachers don't go into the profession for money. They teach because it's a calling. Most of them were influenced by a beyond doubt good instructor as a student. With the mass exodus of teachers, many students are not able to cultivate the mentoring relationships that they once were able to because so many are leaving the profession - voluntarily and involuntarily - within an midpoint of three years.
At the high school level, where I got my start, the emphasis is not on how to educate the students to prepare them for life, or even college (all high schools should be college-prep schools, right?), it was about preparing them to excel on their standardized tests. Then the controversial "exit" exams were implemented and literally, many high schools were transformed into testing centers. Learning has practically become secondary.
This mentality carries over into college, which of procedure there's a test one must take in order to enroll (the Sat or Act). This explains why so many college students are more concerned with completing a course, than Learning from it. They are focused on getting "A's" and degrees, instead of becoming degreed thinkers. The latter of which are in greater quiz, by employers and consist of the bulk of the self-employed. The "get-the-good-grade" mindset is directly attributable to the relentless and often unnecessary testing that our students are subjected to in schools.
Alfie Kohn advocates the "exhibition" of learning, in which students relate their insight by means of in-depth projects, portfolios of assignments, and other demonstrations.
He cites a model pioneered by Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier. Meier has emphasized the significance of students having five "habits of mind," which are: the value of raising questions about evidence ("How do we know what we know?"), point of view, ("Whose perspective does this represent?"), connections ("How is this associated to that?"), supposition ("How might things have been otherwise?"), and relevance ("Why is this important?").
Kohn writes: It's only the quality to raise and acknowledge those questions that matters, though, but also the Routine to do so. For that matter, any set of intellectual objectives, any record of what it means to think deeply and critically, should be accompanied by a reference to one's interest or intrinsic motivation to do such thinking...to be well-educated then, is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that Learning never ends...
History And Purpose Of Iq
We've always wanted to part intelligence. Ironically, when you look at some the first methods used to rate it in the 1800s, they were not, well, very intelligent. Tactics such as subjecting citizen to discrete forms of torture to see what their threshold for pain was (the longer you could withstand wincing, the more inviting you were believed to be), or testing your quality to detect a high pitch sound that others could not hear.
Things have changed...or have they?
No seminar of intelligence or Iq can be faultless without mention of Alfred Binet, a French psychologist who was responsible for laying the groundwork for Iq testing in 1904. His original intention was to devise a test that would diagnose Learning disabilities of students in France. The test results were then used to prepare extra programs to help students overcome their educational difficulties.
It was never intended to be used as an absolute part of one's intellectual capabilities.
According to Binet, intelligence could not be described as a particular score. He said that the use of the intelligence Quotient (Iq) as a exact statement of a child's intellectual quality would be a serious mistake. In addition, Binet feared that Iq measurement would be used to condemn a child to a permanent "condition" of stupidity, thereby negatively affecting his or her study and livelihood.
The original interest was in the evaluation of 'mental age' -- the midpoint level of intelligence for a man of a given age. His creation, the Binet-Simon test (originally called a "scale"), formed the archetype for time to come tests of intelligence.
H. H. Goddard, director of research at Vineland Training School in New Jersey, translated Binet's work into English and advocated a more general application of the Simon-Binet test. Unlike Binet, Goddard carefully intelligence a solitary, fixed and inborn entity that could be measured. With help of Lewis Terman of Stanford University, his final product, published in 1916 as the Stanford improvement of the Binet-Simon Scale of intelligence (also known as the Stanford-Binet), became the approved intelligence test in the United States.
It's important to note that the fallacy about Iq is that it is fixed and can not be changed. The fact is that Iq scores are known to fluctuate - both up and down during the procedure of one's lifetime. It does not mean that you become more, or less intelligent, it merely means that you tested best on one day than another.
One more thing to know about Iq tests: They have been used for racist purposes since their importation into the U.S. Many of those who were complex in the importation and refinement of these tests believed that Iq was hereditary and are responsible for feeding the fallacy that it is a "fixed" trait.
Many immigrants were tested in the 1920s and failed these Iq tests miserably. As a result, many of them were denied entry into the U.S., or were forced to undergo sterilization for fear of populating America with "dumb" and "inferior" babies. If you recall, the tests were designed for white, middle class Americans. Who do you think would have the most mystery passing them?
Lewis Terman developed the original concept of Iq and proposed this scale for classifying Iq scores:
000 - 070: exact feeble-mindedness
070 - 079: Borderline scantness
080 - 089: Dullness
090 - 109: general or midpoint intelligence
110 - 119: classic intelligence
115 - 124: Above midpoint (e.g., university students)
125 - 134: Gifted (e.g., post-graduate students)
135 - 144: extremely gifted (e.g., intellectuals)
145 - 154: Genius (e.g., professors)
155 - 164: Genius (e.g., Nobel Prize winners)
165 - 179: High genius
180 - 200: highest genius
200 - higher ?: Immeasurable genius
*Genius Iq is ordinarily carefully to begin around 140 to 145, representing only 25% of the citizen (1 in 400).
*Einstein was carefully to "only" have an Iq of about 160.
Defining Intelligence
Diane F. Halpern, a psychologist and past-president of the American Psychological connection (Apa), wrote in her essay contribution to Why Smart citizen Can Be So brainless that in general, we recognize citizen as inviting if they have some aggregate of these achievements (1) good grades in school; (2) a high level of education; (3) a responsible, complex job; (4) some other recognition of being intelligent, such as winning prestigious awards or earning a large salary; (5) the quality to read complex text with good comprehension; (6) solve difficult and novel problems.
Throughout my research and in the early phases of this article, I came over many definitions of the word intelligence. Some were long, some were short. Some I couldn't even understand. The definition that is most prevalent is the one created by the Apa which is: the quality to adapt to one's environment, and learn from one's mistakes.
How about that? There's the word environment again. We just can't seem to leave it. This adds deeper meaning to the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." It means recognizing what's going on in your environment, and having the intelligence adapt to it - and the citizen who occupy it - in order to survive and supervene within it.
There are also many dissimilar forms of intelligence. Most notably those created by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of study at Harvard University.
Dr. Gardner believes (and I agree) that our schools and culture focus most of their concentration on linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence. We esteem the extremely verbalize or logical citizen of our culture. However, Dr. Gardner says that we should also place equal concentration on individuals who show gifts in the other intelligences: the artists, architects, musicians, naturalists, designers, dancers, therapists, entrepreneurs, and others who enrich the world in which we live.
He felt that the original concept of intelligence, based on Iq testing, was far too tiny and created the Theories Of manifold Intelligences in 1983 to inventory for a broader range of human potential in children and adults.
These intelligences are:
Linguistic intelligence ("word smart")
Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart")
Spatial intelligence ("picture smart")
Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart")
Musical intelligence ("music smart")
Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart")
Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart")
Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart")
Not associated with Dr. Gardner, but equally respected are:
Fluid & Crystallized Intelligence
According to About.com, Psychologist Raymond Cattell first proposed the concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence and added developed the principles with John Horn. The Cattell-Horn principles of fluid and crystallized intelligence suggests that intelligence is composed of a whole of dissimilar abilities that interact and work together to furnish unabridged individual intelligence.
Cattell defined fluid intelligence as "...the quality to perceive relationships independent of former exact convention or study regarding those relationships." Fluid intelligence is the quality to think and guess abstractly and solve problems. This quality is carefully independent of learning, experience, and education. Examples of the use of fluid intelligence consist of solving puzzles and advent up with problem solving strategies.
Crystallized intelligence is Learning from past experiences and learning. Situations that want crystallized intelligence consist of reading insight and vocabulary exams. This type of intelligence is based upon facts and rooted in experiences. This type of intelligence becomes stronger as we age and gather new knowledge and understanding.
Both types of intelligence increase throughout childhood and adolescence. Fluid intelligence peaks in adolescence and begins to decline progressively starting around age 30 or 40. Crystallized intelligence continues to grow throughout adulthood.
Successful Intelligence
Then there's prosperous Intelligence, which is authored by intelligence psychologist and Yale professor, Robert J. Sternberg, who believes that the whole concept of relating Iq to life achievement is misguided, because he believes that Iq is a pretty miserable predictor of life achievement.
His prosperous intelligence principles focuses on 3 types of intelligence which are combined to contribute to one's unabridged success: Analytical Intelligence; reasoning steps or components used to solve problems; Creative Intelligence: the use of contact in ways that look after insight (creativity/divergent thinking); and Practical Intelligence: the quality to read and adapt to the contexts of everyday life.
With regard to environment, Mr. Sternberg writes in his book prosperous Intelligence: Successfully inviting citizen perceive that the environment in which they find themselves may or may not be able to make the most of their talents. They actively seek an environment where they can not only do prosperous work, but make a difference. They generate opportunities rather than let opportunities be tiny by circumstances in which they happen to find themselves.
As an educator, I subscribe to Mr. Sternberg's prosperous intelligence coming to teaching. It has proven to be a extremely efficient tool and mindset for my college students. Using prosperous intelligence as the backbone of my context-driven curriculum beyond doubt inspires students to see how study makes their life goals more attainable, and motivates them to added found their expertise. Mr. Sternberg believes that the major factor in achieving expertise is purposeful engagement.
Emotional Intelligence
In his best-selling 1995 book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman reported that research shows that approved measures of intelligence - Iq - only inventory for 20% of a person's success in life. For example, research on Iq and study shows that high Iq predicts 10 to 25% of grades in college. The percentage will vary depending on how we define success. Nonetheless, Goleman's assertion begs the question: What accounts for the other 80%?
You guessed it...Emotional Intelligence. What exactly is emotional intelligence? Emotional intelligence (also called Eq or Ei) refers to the quality to perceive, control, and rate emotions. Many corporations now have mandatory Eq training for their managers in an effort to heighten employee
relations and increase productivity.
Tacit Knowledge aka "Street Smarts"
You've heard the phrase, "Experience is the many teacher..."
In psychology circles knowledge gained from everyday contact is called tacit knowledge. The colloquial term is "street smarts," which implies that formal, classroom study (aka "book smarts") has nothing to do with it. The individual is not directly instructed as to what he or she should learn, but rather must citation the important chapter from the contact even when Learning is not the original objective.
Tacit knowledge is closely associated to common sense, which is sound and frugal judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts. As you know, common sense is not all that common.
Tacit knowledge, or the lessons obtained from it, seems to "stick" both faster and best when the lessons have direct relevance to the individual's goals. Knowledge that is based on one's own practical contact will likely be more instrumental to achieving one's goals than will be knowledge that is based on man else's experience, or that is overly generic and abstract.
Being Both Smart And Stupid
Yes, it's potential to be both smart and stupid. I'm sure man you know comes to mind at this spoton moment. But the goal here is not to ridicule, but to understand how some seemingly extremely intelligent, or extremely educated individuals can be so smart in one way, and incredibly brainless in others.
The woman who is a respected, well paid, dynamic executive who consistently chooses men who don't appear to be worthy of her, or the man who appears to be a pillar of the community, with a loving wife and happy kids, ends up being arrested on rape charges.
It happens, but why? I found the acknowledge in Why Smart citizen Can Be So Stupid. Essentially, intellect is domain specific. In other words, being smart (knowledgeable) in one area of your life, and brainless (ignorant) in other is natural. Turning off one's brain is quite common especially when it comes to what we desire. A shared characteristic among those who are smart and stupid, is the mystery in delaying gratification.
Olem Ayduk & Walter Mischel who wrote the chapter summarized: Sometimes brainless behavior in smart citizen may arise from faulty expectations, erroneous beliefs, or merely a lack of motivation to enact operate strategies even when one has them. But sometimes it is an inability to regulate one's affective states and the behavioral tendencies associated with them that leads to brainless and self-defeating behavior.
The central character in this book who many of these lessons regarding being smart and brainless revolve around is Bill Clinton and his affair with Monica Lewinksky.
Wisdom & Conclusion
My great grandmother, Leola Cecil, maybe had an 8th grade study at the most. By no stretch of the imagination was she extremely educated, but she had what seemed like infinite wisdom. She was very observant and could "read" citizen with incredible accuracy. Till the very end of her life she shared her "crystallized intelligence" with whomever was receptive to it.
She died at the age of 94. I often use many of her sayings as a communal speaker, but most importantly, I use her philosophies to make sure that I'm being guided spiritually and not just intellectually. Many of us who are lucky sufficient to have a great grandparent can testify that there is something extra about their knowledge. They seem to have life figured out, and a knack for helping those of us who are smart, educated and inviting see things more clearly when we are too busy thinking.
What they have is what we should all aspire to end up with if we are lucky: wisdom.
Wisdom is the quality to look straight through a person, when others can only look at them. Wisdom slows down the reasoning process and makes it more organic; synchronizing it with intuition. Wisdom helps you make best judgments regarding decisions, and makes you less judgmental. Wisdom is insight without knowing, and accepting without understanding. Wisdom is recognizing what's important to other people, and knowing that other citizen are of the utmost significance to you. Wisdom is both a starting point, and a final conclusion.
The divergence in the middle of Being Smart, Educated, and engaging
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