My mom always said that a person can be the most educated in the room, but still be the least intelligent.
And for years and years, that stuck with me. I grew up in an environment where intellectual ability was always placed on a pedestal. I was told that I had to be ‘intelligent’ if I wanted to survive in the world. For years, I thought that book smarts meant intelligence.
But I could not be further from the truth.
As I grew up, I realised that my ability to analyse poems or my ability to calculate difficult mathematical functions seldom helped me out in the real world. Rather, it was important life skills, such as the ability to navigate my way around a place, that I really needed: things that a high school diploma did not teach me.
Intellectual ability does not qualify someone as ‘smart’. This idea that you need a college degree or a masters degree to be considered ‘smart’ is entirely wrong. Anybody with money has the ability to go out and get a degree. That is not intelligence, but rather privilege. And whilst this privilege can help you gain a societal standing, it does not truly qualify someone to be intelligent. This is constantly being proved by successful people around the world, such as Steve Jobs and Michael Dell, who did not need a degree to completely transform their lives.
I’ve always seemed to notice that the people that I consider to be truly intelligent are the people that are often overlooked in society. People are considered to be the ‘underdogs’ of capitalism because they weren’t privileged enough to be born with a silver spoon.
I remember seeing a labourer sweeping leaves out in the wind. He had poured water on the leaves to stop them from flying and I found that truly intelligent. I would have never thought of doing that and that was one of the things that made me realise that intelligence is far beyond the scope of education.
Intelligent people are ones that have experienced the world out there and adapted to it. They have faced all the hardships and curveballs that this Earth has thrown at them and have been able to survive. They are truly intelligent people.
Because at the end of the day, a degree is just a piece of paper with a fancy name on it. But life experiences: those are what truly matter. I hope one day that society stops placing such an emphasis on good educational standing and rather notice the truly tactile and intelligent people out there.
What is the difference in between education and being intelligent? Being learnt and being matured ? What’s the most annoying word to someone who is matured enough to understand situation?
Our society is too complex to understand. Let’s think for the sake of our ownself because there will always be the difference.
Early Morning Memories 