#wfe2: Intelligence and Judgments

While academic understandings of intelligence have evolved and altered in the last 100 years, the way we measure it and talk about intelligence as a society has remained fairly basic. This leads to unfair judgments and decreased opportunities for those who fall ‘outside’ of the primary measures of intelligence, but who may have remarkable capacity in a variety of areas.

As discussed in this week’s lectures, we have come to understand that there are different types of intelligence. And yet, many of our judgments as a society are still based on basic understandings of intelligence. I loved the example of language capacity and intelligence, discussed in lecture one; just because someone has not developed their skills or ‘intelligence’ in a certain area does not mean that they do not have the capacity for it. It simply means that they have not had the opportunity, experience, or environment necessary to develop it. If we all keep this mind mind, I believe we would appreciate those around us and the value that they bring to the world more.

Each of us has a capacity for greatness, and while that may look very different from one person to the next, one is not inherently less valuable than another. Giving students of all ages the opportunity to discover what they have the capacity for and giving them the opportunity to develop as much as they would like to will move us all forward in meaningful ways.