Intelligence

[HHR Ed]

Intelligence, we all have it to some degree. It may be low in some and high in others.

I think it is marvelous how people get excited when babies start to speak. And it's very exciting when an animal learns to talk like a human.

I think we take speech for granted. We can accomplish this feat everyday, yet we don't get excited at how we are so talented. And it pains me to see the art form of conversation be absolutely murdered by the horrible posts I see online or through texts nowadays.

The culprits use the excuse of this not being English class. Well, no, this is real life where I need to understand what you are talking about. You need English class, if you happen to use that excuse.

So, don't take your ability for granted. This cute Beluga has not.

[TeamHT]

I think language and speech have direct relations to how certain individuals think, process information, form thoughts, and use logic. I also believe intelligence isn't just one bar, high or low, but rather 9-12 different points. Just rambling really, lol

[HHR Ed]

I think language and speech have direct relations to how certain individuals think, process information, form thoughts, and use logic. I also believe intelligence isn't just one bar, high or low, but rather 9-12 different points. Just rambling really, lol

I agree that intelligence is variable and very analog. And rating it as higher or lower is very subjective.

For instance, most would rate me as a rather highly intelligent fellow. Though, I had taken my MENSA test with a 16 year old guy. This particular 16 year old just so happened to make me feel like a huge idiot when we started conversing. My perception of his intelligence is that it was among the highest I have ever encountered face to face. Not only in attained knowledge, but in understanding that knowledge. I was humbled to be sure.

[HHR Ed]

And, Belugas are known as canaries of the sea. I wonder if they have better equipped vocal skills when compared to dolphins to accomplish this.

[cjdavis618]

First one must understand that speech is not the only form of communication. This is true of both the human race and the animal kingdom. We are much more apt to recognize sounds that mimic our speech due to our communication methods. In truth, animals communicate with us all the time without it yet we take most of it as a learned response and not sentient thought.

Regarding human behaviour and the lack of language skills-

Knowledge and intelligence are two entirely different things, it is the norm for some to have more memory based knowledge and not be able to reason or apply critical thinking to a subject. On the other hand, with the advancements and reliance on "External" memory devices, the human race as we live it today generally do not flex our memory "Muscles" nearly as much as our previous generations. It is all to easy to disseminate information from handheld devices where ever we are, and also perform both simple and complex mathematics with these devices at our leisure. Sadly, I am one that didn't apply skills in math and english and chose to waste my youth at that time and dropped out of school at the 10th grade. However, like most parents will tell you, I regretted that as I became older. With that said, I didn't let that hamper my career or my future. To this date, I still do not have a GED and couldn't attend an accredited college due to that. On the other hand, I have no need to rely a diploma in order to succeed and my real world skills and experience in many topics have given me and my family a bright future. The intelligence aspect of my life provided that opportunity because I can reason and solve complex problems. Maybe not by the same steps others would that have been conditioned in certain ways. But instead finding out that 2+2=4 on my own. Some would say that a wheel is a wheel and it is round. Through the years, I not only know that the "Proverbial" wheel is round, I also know why because of the learning steps. Knowledge would have provided the answer in the beginning, intelligence and reasoning is the journey to the answer. Even still, while I may not provide any great advancements to the world or do anything substantial throughout my limited time here such as great minds like Nikola Tesla, Da Vinci, etc. I feel that I must do my very best at anything I do so I can at least lay a groundwork for others to do so.

Sadly, many waste their mental capabilities for simple reasons. Some of which is the lack of education offered early in life to them. While many would argue that the public and private school system provides all of the education a child should need. There are many, many teachable skills and ways of learning that are not afforded to them and in some cases simply not taught in a way that has the most substantial impact for the student. So, the issue comes back to whether the student or the teacher is responsible for the lack of understanding.

Contrary to popular teenage belief, the best "Courses" in school are not lunch, recess and detention.

One other quick note on this topic. I remember when I was very young talking with my great grandpa. I barely remember anything of the time but something he said has always stuck with me over the years. He said.

If you go home at the end of the day and your not aching or have a headache, you could have done more.

That may be painful to hear for the youth today, but my grandpa died at the age of 101, he could out work kids in their 20s at 65 years old. Not much of that generation left anymore. As you mentioned above, that drive and determination to better one self is lost on most.

[HHR Ed]

First one must understand that speech is not the only form of communication. This is true of both the human race and the animal kingdom. We are much more apt to recognize sounds that mimic our speech due to our communication methods. In truth, animals communicate with us all the time without it yet we take most of it as a learned response and not sentient thought.

Regarding human behaviour and the lack of language skills-

Knowledge and intelligence are two entirely different things, it is the norm for some to have more memory based knowledge and not be able to reason or apply critical thinking to a subject. On the other hand, with the advancements and reliance on "External" memory devices, the human race as we live it today generally do not flex our memory "Muscles" nearly as much as our previous generations. It is all to easy to disseminate information from handheld devices where ever we are, and also perform both simple and complex mathematics with these devices at our leisure. Sadly, I am one that didn't apply skills in math and english and chose to waste my youth at that time and dropped out of school at the 10th grade. However, like most parents will tell you, I regretted that as I became older. With that said, I didn't let that hamper my career or my future. To this date, I still do not have a GED and couldn't attend an accredited college due to that. On the other hand, I have no need to rely a diploma in order to succeed and my real world skills and experience in many topics have given me and my family a bright future. The intelligence aspect of my life provided that opportunity because I can reason and solve complex problems. Maybe not by the same steps others would that have been conditioned in certain ways. But instead finding out that 2+2=4 on my own. Some would say that a wheel is a wheel and it is round. Through the years, I not only know that the "Proverbial" wheel is round, I also know why because of the learning steps. Knowledge would have provided the answer in the beginning, intelligence and reasoning is the journey to the answer. Even still, while I may not provide any great advancements to the world or do anything substantial throughout my limited time here such as great minds like Nikola Tesla, Da Vinci, etc. I feel that I must do my very best at anything I do so I can at least lay a groundwork for others to do so.

Sadly, many waste their mental capabilities for simple reasons. Some of which is the lack of education offered early in life to them. While many would argue that the public and private school system provides all of the education a child should need. There are many, many teachable skills and ways of learning that are not afforded to them and in some cases simply not taught in a way that has the most substantial impact for the student. So, the issue comes back to whether the student or the teacher is responsible for the lack of understanding.

Contrary to popular teenage belief, the best "Courses" in school are not lunch, recess and detention.

One other quick note on this topic. I remember when I was very young talking with my great grandpa. I barely remember anything of the time but something he said has always stuck with me over the years. He said.

If you go home at the end of the day and your not aching or have a headache, you could have done more.

That may be painful to hear for the youth today, but my grandpa died at the age of 101, he could out work kids in their 20s at 65 years old. Not much of that generation left anymore. As you mentioned above, that drive and determination to better one self is lost on most.

You touched on something that is an important subject for me, Education.

I have a firm understanding that teachers can make or break a student's learning process. It is true that level of intelligence is also related to our ability to learn. But, there is something wrong with the U.S. education system that promotes memorized knowledge over intelligence. This is even more so with lazy or mis-qualified teachers.

One such case is Neil Degrass Tyson's child that did not do well in Science class and told him that they hated it. He looked at it further and it was because the teacher and curriculum was having them memorize things out of a text book, and reporting them back on the test. Neil knew that this was not how Science is done, and that most of those things are not needed to be known from memory. And instead, they should have been teaching the process of how to figure things out, and promoting skills of deduction and problem solving.

Another case was with myself.

One year of highschool, I had failed Math. This was mainly due to my tests. I had answered 100% of the problems correctly, however, I did not show the proper work. Yes, I did show my work. But, the work I showed did not match the proper sequence that was shown in the text books and how the teacher had wrote on the board. Instead, I had never memorized those formula. I had never taken any notes or studied. When it came time for the exam, I was confident that I could just figure things out. Which I did, I used my intelligence and problem solving skills to derive the correct answers my own way. And, I was the first in the class to complete the test. So it would appear that my way was more efficient. But, they failed me anyway because I did not memorize what was written in the text book.

The teacher was not necessarily bad, but, if the teacher had been exceptional, he would have recognized my achievement and rewarded me with a passing grade. But then I had to attend summer school and memorize the book. I felt that I was actually dumbing myself down to solve those problems with a slower method.

[cjdavis618]

I felt the very same way when I was in school and that was the main reason I had given up. Part of learning is the adventure and achievement involved in solving a problem both mentally and physically. The force feeding of facts doesn't let the child examine and deduce what the outcome or characteristics of a problem are. That is where we are failing our generation.

[MrSkippyJ]

I will not defend bad teachers. But coming from someone who was in the public school system as a teacher, I can tell you that a teachers job is completely dependent on how students score on a test. That won't slow an incredible teacher down, but it does leave plenty of otherwise good teachers in the dust trying to figure out to keep a job. It is ridiculous the amount of testing these kids go through. A week long test at the end of every year, three 2-day long test during the year. 1 test each week to gauge weekly progress, and none of those are the regular tests they take during class. Again, I am not defending bad teachers, and there are LOTS of them, I am just saying it is way more than just a bunch of bad teachers.

[HHR Ed]

More teaching, less testing.

Let's look at the real world at a job. You only have evaluations every year or 2 or 4 times a year at the most. But really, a boss would evaluate an employee's performance everyday just by observations and working with that employee. So why have a test to evaluate that employee every week?

It should be similar in schools. Teachers should just evaluate the student's performance as they go, and be taught how to pay attention and look out for issues. I think one problem is that some teachers may have more students than they can handle.

And why not have a system to promote greater initiative and critical thinking? Some schools may have that, but I never received any attention for my intelligence, even when I showed it in an outstanding manner. I was never encouraged or supported in my interest in science or engineering. That lead to my disinterest in ever going to college. Most of the talk was about finally getting out of school.

[MrSkippyJ]

I agree Ed, the logic behind learning is not taught. Students are simply given information and told to apply it. They are never taught how to apply it in the classroom, kids get homework to do that. Then they get problems that expect a student to be able to apply something in a different way. Kid gets it wrong and gets a low grade, teacher says kid should have studied harder or should have been more attentive in class. It's a terrible cycle that I did everything in my power to avoid when I taught. I put kids in situations where they had to apply it in a different way so that they would be confused, but be confused in class where we could figure it out together.