Oct.

2016

Heather Gresham - Essay on Intelligence

Essay Topic/Question
Intelligence
1. Think of Intelligent people whom you know well. What unintelligent things do they do? All of
them are bound to do some unintelligent things, so why do you consider them to be intelligent
people? Were you emphasizing some factors at the expense of others? Explain.
2. Did you ever consider the homeless shelter might be filled with people with tremendous
potential? There might be a world-class archer, a great poet, a magnificent violinist, and a
great president. However, the archer never happened to try the bow, the poet never tried
writing, the violinist ignored music, and the president never ran for office. Instead, they
worked at other things and werent very good. Some might think of themselves at failures,
although they would have been successful if they had only tried these other things. What
argument is being made by these statements? How would the concept of a general intelligence
refute this argument?
Answer
I know multiple people that I think are very intelligent but do unintelligent things some times.
That is a part of being human. We all make mistakes. One example in particular is my husband. I
think of him as being very intelligent. He can talk you about many subjects with very intelligent
and well thought out responses. He can also give references of where he got that information. He
is a Software Engineer which involves learning quite a bit of math and isnt a career that anyone
can learn or do. He has excelled at any of his places of employment. Upper management has
always given him great reviews and has come to him for help with certain things that they should
know. Even though I feel that he is highly intelligent he has done some unintelligent things from
time to time. For instance, one time he was reversing out of our garage and realized at the same
time that he had forgotten something in the house. Instead of stopping the car and putting it in
park and then getting out, he stepped out of the car as it was still reversing in our garage. The car
kept going and the car door got caught on the garage door with him stuck in between them. The
car door got bent backwards and the garage door was damaged. He was fine since the garage
door stopped the car. This obviously wasnt a very intelligent moment for him. At the time
though he was studying for finals at school, working part time and taking care of our son. He had
a lot on his mind and was overwhelmed. Stress can distract us and not make us very efficient.
As far as the question, Were you emphasizing some factors at the expense of others? I do think
that I have emphasized my husbands intelligence at the expense of my own. This goes along with
the second question too. I am not as good as my husband at discussing deep subjects in depth
such as politics and religion. I always felt like I wasnt as smart as him because of that. I have
started to realize recently though that I am just different than him. In Kathleen Stassen Bergers
book Invitation to the Life Span it talks about Howard Gardners multiple intelligences.

Gardner believed that there are nine intelligences and every person excels in particular ones.
(Berger, 2016, pg 268) My husband excels in the logical-mathematical intelligence. Math has
always been a strong subject for me but I am a more emotional person then logical. I recently
took a career placement test with a career advisor. That test ranked me high for being creative. I
have never thought of myself as a creative person. I have had some life changing things happen
recently though that have made me start to look at myself and make me think more about what I
am good at and what do I like. I realized that I love music and am interested in learning to play
an instrument or sing. I played the piano and sang in high school but I didnt continue with it. I
wonder now where I could have been at with those things if I had stuck with them. I would say
that one of Howards intelligences I could excel at is musical.
As far as the second question goes, I had never thought about the people in the homeless shelters
having great potential but it makes sense. Just like I was talking about with me not going down
the musical path and always wondering why I wasnt very good at discussing subjects like
politics and religion like my husband, these people could just not understand or know what they
are good at. Sometimes, highly intelligent people seem a little crazy and have a hard time making
it in the professional world. That could be some of those people in the homeless shelters. I
definitely think that everyone has great potential. Its just a matter of them figuring out what they
can excel at. This also goes along the lines of the question regarding the concept of general
intelligence. Someone can be very intelligent but may not have figured out how to use that
intelligence, or they may be very intelligent in some areas but not very intelligent in other areas.
Some people are very intelligent but have a hard time keeping a job. The keeping the job aspect
is a part of social and professional skills. You need multiple skills to be able to do some things
like being successful working in a professional environment. For some people, it isnt easy
knowing what you would be good at especially if those things were not introduced to your life
that much.
Reference List:
Berger, K. S. (2016). Invitation to the life span (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.