February 23, 2005
Lonely at the Top
Last weekend, the wife, dog, and I went to a party rental store to complete an order for a party my wife is planning. A very nice lady helped us, and was excited to hear the dog’s name, “Guinness”. She proceeded to tell us all about her husband, who had a shirt that read Guinness: Gaelic for Genius. She continued to tell us about how her husband was a retired electrical engineer, enjoyed brewing beer in his spare time, etc etc. But one thing she mentioned was a bit odd. She said her husband was a genius. She said this matter-of-factly, with no particular emphasis or boastfulness. It was a simple fact.
I was completely taken aback. We live in a culture where so many things are triumphed; fame, sports ability, fortune, looks, personality, virtue. Yet intelligence is not one of them. The smartest among us are chided as nerds, and any acknowledgement of intelligence is to be avoided. We care not when Muhammed Ali proclaims himself “The Greatest”, but when someone believes they have genius-level intelligence, that is unacceptable. MENSA is a joke to the general population. I knew a woman (admittedly a loud, obnoxious moron) who was aghast at the fact that I said I believed I was in the top 20% of the country (much less even saying genius-level intelligence). And this lady matter-of-factly says her husband is a genius?
Perhaps it is a concept that flies in the face of both religion and our declaration of independence. Surely the founding fathers did not believe that every man is created identically, but they believe that there is an inherent equality. Religion favors faith over reason, and eating from the Tree of Knowledge was man’s first sin. Of course, Kobe Bryant is certainly not created equal to me, nor am I able to craft music like Ray Charles. They have levels of ability far beyond that of the average in their fields. Some people are gifted with business acument, writing talent, social skills, and a few of us have exceptional intelligence.
The general definition of genius is to be in the top 2% based upon measured intelligence (with an IQ or other score). Of course, this means that 1 out of every 50 people in this country is a genius. Typically, those people know that they are different, and already have trouble relating to others in their age group. A gifted child grows up unable to see why his classmates are not “getting it”, and can’t grasp why the only people he relates to are always older than he. Adding a social stigma against intelligence on top of this makes it much more difficult for a child to understand.
If I have children blessed with high intelligence, I am going to do my best to ensure that they understand what comes along with it. There are plenty of benefits and pitfalls growing up as a gifted child. But the first thing is to ensure that the child understands that he is not a pariah, and that there is nothing wrong with him. Too many kids, myself included, grew up shunned and ostracized for our quirks. I was fortunate enough that I had parents that understood me, and a school with a strong gifted program. But those kids without these advantages will grow up to hide and be ashamed of their intelligence. And that robs both themselves and the world of their abilities.
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I admit that I grew up a little “different”. I was put into a program from third grade until sixth grade that was called “GATE”, or, Gifted And Talented Education. Myself and about five other students. You would think that we would be teased when at that age, but oddly enough, we were looked at like we were the lucky ones. Special field trips, using the computers (a big deal back then. the GATE program had the only ones). Maybe we weren’t teased because none of us were the typical “nerds”. We were all normal kids that happened to have extremely high test scores. The school no longer has this program, parents of “normal” children didn’t like that their kids were excluded.
When I graduated from High School, I graduated as Valedictorian. This came as a surpise to many that weren’t in my classes. I had so many people come up to me and say “you’re smart?”. Maybe it was because I wasn’t always the best behaved student. Always walking that fine line of ALMOST getting into serious trouble. I will admit, I received special treatment from many teachers, simply because I was a good student. I think that maybe the reason I liked to walk that fine line is because I desperately wanted to make sure I wasn’t that geeky nerd like most other good students. I wanted to be different. I really enjoyed being that strange mix of good student, good athlete (rarely went together), and a bit of a troublemaker. Maybe because the teachers didn’t know what to do with me. I remember the principal telling me that I am an honor student and I was supposed to set a good example.
That’s my story. I don’t imagine that things are going to change in terms of how we view intelligence versus how we view other gifts. Kids (and adults) are always going to look up to people like Michael Jordan rather than appreciate the genius of Da Vinci. But that’s what sells the tickets and that’s what we see on TV.
Thanks for bringing up a favorite topic. What I really enjoy (sarcasm at work here) is when someone brags about a number from an IQ test.
What most people don’t know is that there are statistical measures that go with those numbers, and they are drawn along typical bell curve lines. As you said, being in the top 2% puts you way out there on the right side of the curve, but the bad news is that the further away from center you get, in each direction, reduced social skills is typically the extra bag that you get to carry with that high or low score.
Getting back to people bragging about their scores: 100 is average. 1 standard deviation in either direction is 15 points, 2 standard deviations is 30, etc. 95% of the population lies within 2 standard deviations, meaning that there are only 2.5% on each tail that are either below 70 or above 130. 99% lie within 3 standard deviations, meaning only 0.5% lie outside, at either less than 55 or greater than 145. How many times have you heard numbers from people who claim to be 145 or better? There’s just not that many.
Uncle Jack
Wilson,
Ours was TAG (Talented And Gifted). I loved it, because we had these logic puzzles to do. It was the only mental exercise I ever got in grade school. I was never a “troublemaker”, per se, but certainly was not a good student. I would sit, off in my own little world, never pay attention, never do homework, and yet understand it all. I think I probably gave some teachers gray hair.
My parents helped me along with mental exercise by teaching me poker at a young age. That’s a heck of a fun way to challenge a kid without it being “nerdy”.
All that needed to be said.
Just give a young genius a computer
and an internet connection and let him
alone.