IQ Means Nothing
| April 16th, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 751 | Reading Time 3:00 | 1,807 views |
I’m sure everyone at some point in time during their life has heard of the IQ test and how it relates to how “smart” you are. IQ, the Intelligence Quotient. Consensus over time proposes that the average adult in our world sports an IQ of 100. Further “proposed” information states that about half of our society actually falls in the 90-109 IQ range. Outside of a rare few of you, has anyone actually taken a real IQ test? Not an internet test, not a sample test, not a kid test, but a REAL, IQ test? I think there might be a few of us that can answer yes to that. However, I think our sample size to determine the average IQ needs to be revisited. I find it very hard to believe that 100 is our average level of intelligence in today’s world.
Given the changes in our world with technology to promote efficiency and less time spent on how things actually work, I think our average IQ is sinking. The Bell Curve is shifting to the left. We are given signal after signal of this deterioration from our news media, internet coverage, and our local trip to the grocery store. People just seem to be a little bit behind these days. You can see people on television continually making fools of their self via programming specifically created to advertise their stupidity. There are internet sites devoted to the ignorance of people and what they will do. There are stories after stories in our newspapers detailing the misadventures of individuals within our society.
Do we really have an average IQ of 100? In reality, an IQ test is really just any other ordinary test. It can be biased, it can be affected by your health, your state of mind, and it can also be affected by guessing. If you’ve taken the SAT or ACT or any standardized test, I’m sure you can attest to some sort of test anxiety or feeling that you could have done better or been more prepared. What I say to all of this is to throw out all of the scores and come up with a better determination of just how “intelligent” people are. Come up with some average regarding the standardized tests and then normalize them against a more sensible set of data. This set of data would be a collection of information regarding the actions of the individual, works they have accomplished, and also a collection of interviews of their closest friends and relatives.
A lot of people are book smart and show high IQ’s, but there are also a lot of people who are common sense smart who may not show a high IQ. Who is smarter, someone who can figure out puzzling questions, or someone who can run or manage a business because they know how to relate to people? I’m not saying book smart people are less important, but I am saying book smart people also do a lot of dumb things. Ever heard the saying “You are the dumbest, smart person I know?” There appears to be a growing society of these people. Very smart people, but capable of being very, very dumb. Their IQ may show 120+, but their actual level of smart is well below 100. This is why I believe our actual average IQ is below 100. The actions of our society do not reflect the IQ of 100. It reflects that of a lower range.
I’m not calling people dumb to be mean, but if a person’s actions fall within the dumb category and they continually do dumb things, then I say they fall well within the dumb category. More water in the dumb bucket than the smart bucket makes you more dumb than smart. So next time you see someone doing something dumb, think to yourself, are they displaying how smart they are? I think they are, because a number derived from a test means absolutely nothing. What you do and what you say is what makes you smart, or not. Do smart things, say smart things, you are smart and of course, vice versa. A number determined by some test designed by people to help differentiate people will never tell the full story. Everything is held within our own actions and words. Keep in mind as you go through your day, if you make smart decisions, you will be help raise our level of true IQ.
Citation: IQ Information obtained via various Internet resources.
on April 21st, 2008 at 10:09 pm:
In our school system of today (No child left behind), does this mean to pass all children on to the next grade? From what I hear and see from teachers and students,that is exactly what is going on. Can you believe that some High School children do not even know where their water comes from,some only know that it comes out of their faucet. At this rate the I.Q. standards will have to be lowered, just to get them above 50%. They have taken discipline away from the teachers and to a large degree away from the parents. Now we have our court systems backed up with young people that do not understand why they are being punished for disobeying rules and laws. Not just the young people, but grownups are known to follow the path of least resistance. The leaders or people in charge of our schools will need to start using their common sense, or as it is generally refered to now as (uncommon sense) to turn things around. I believe that we will need to instill common sense in our young people before we can raise the I.Q. numbers.
on April 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm:
Common sense has left the building it seems. With the current crop of young and single parents out there lacking in this arena, the children are at an even greater risk of losing the ability to utilize common sense in their future adult lives. I agree, common sense has become uncommon sense and that’s a travesty for our country.