The Failure Of Man Stephen Jay Gould

Gould books titled The Panda's Thumb was full of 31 essays about evolution, science biography, probabilities, and common sense.

In his essay Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff emphasizes the idea that to be an intellectual one does not have to excel in school. Graff argues that a person’s intelligence should not be measured by solely what they learned and how they progressed through school, rather, intelligence should be measured by more secular standards. Throughout the essay, Graff provides many examples on how this biased view of intellectualism affected him and others in his childhood and how he suggests that school curriculum be changed to better reflect the different types of intellectualism.

In today’s modern world, recent scientific research has been conducted, which reveals that world-wide IQ test scores have risen, and continue to rise every year. In Alison Gopnik’s article, “Smarter Every Year? Mystery of the Rising IQs,” she discussed how these recent scientific discoveries relate to our society throughout the last century. It is evident that in our society a person’s level of intelligence is extremely important in our culture which is obsessed with being knowledgable. In her article, Gopnik addresses the historical evidence that supports the conclusion that people are getting smarter as the years go on because of today’s society. Gopnik effectively explains the fact that people’s IQs are rising every year, by using the results

Gladwell reveals that to excel in the world, one must be born with or introduced to the right tools. These tools may include being born into a high class home, when one is born, as well as being recognized early in school. When Lewis Terman, in 1921, conducted the Genetic Study of Genius observation, he only took into account the subjects I.Q. scores. It wasn’t until later, when he noticed the divergence of three different groups A, B, and C, did he realize that it wasn’t only about scores. The groups were separated by societal class, group A born from the high end of the scale while C was from the lower end. Group A, as well as most of B, did superb at the same time that group C fell out. Intelligence

Gerald Graff, the author of “Hidden Intellectualism” argues that there is more than one way to measure intelligence. This essay significantly considers how Graff’s beliefs on “Hidden Intellectualism” can be related to today’s education system. While I somewhat agree with Graff I find it difficult to completely believe that children should be taught only of topics that interest them because a student should be well rounded and have a general understanding of the other basic academic skills.

The role of the environment was minimalized due to Burt’s (1909) theory, intelligence was viewed as a fixed inborn state that could neither be developed or changed (Parrington 1996). Burt’s (1909) influence came from his research through the years 1920 to 1970, when children were segregated by capability. This was noticeable during secondary education

In the article, the author highlights differing views on the nature of intelligence. He states that in Asian cultures intelligence is something that they must acquire or work to achieve; whereas, western cultures view it as something one is born with. Neither of these views is necessarily incorrect however, I believe the best outlook lies somewhere in between. People are born with natural gifts and skills. Therefore, certain subjects come very easily to them. Nevertheless, it is possible for one to increase his skill by applying himself.

The intelligence of a child is demonstrated by the use of signs, improvement of language, memory and the imagination when articulating in the non-logical and non-reversible way. The child’s sphere of socialization improves when the child is engaged with other people around them; if this does not happen and the child is reserved to itself there is a possibility the child will lack ability to make his/her own decisions in life after (Dodge, 2004).

In “A Rounded Version: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences”, Howard Gardner illustrates how there are a variety of intelligences. Gardner starts off with an example how IQ tests may predict achievement in school but may not predict achievement in life. After finding out certain parts of the brain are responsible for certain functions, such as “Broca’s Area” which is responsible for sentence production, Gardner proposes the existence of multiple intelligences. Multiple studies later led him to propose seven distinct intelligences; Musical, bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, linguistic, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Each intelligence has certain classifications. According to Gardner’s classifications, I realized my intelligences are bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, and intrapersonal.

As I reference, the textbook “Understanding Child Development” by Rosalind Charlesworth with his idea on education we can look back on “Jean Piaget “who is known for his work on Cognitive Developmental: Development leads to language, concepts, problem solving, and intellectual needs" (p10). “Piaget’s theory explains how individuals think, understand, and learn. Piaget’s believed that intelligence is the cognitive, or mental, process by which children acquire knowledge.

Common sense is the most useful aspect of intelligence, yet the American school system rewards its students with the ability to memorize rather than those with common sense. Therefore, many intelligent students fail to realize their individual merit. Regarding the application of knowledge, American author Brian Tracy said, “Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.” Tracy shows the value of intelligence as it pertains to thriving in society as a result of the application of knowledge. For example, an intelligent lawyer gains knowledge of precedents relevant to his case and applies this knowledge to present a strong case for his

Intelligence is not easily measured; there are many factors that influence the way we determine whether or not someone is considered “intelligent”, and many more to rank who is more intelligent than others. James R. Flynn, in his piece “The Sociological Imagination, and Kevin Warwick, in his work “Into the Unknown, both share a common argument: intelligence is subjective; therefore, social and environmental context should be considered. Both authors expand on the idea of nature versus nurture. Flynn’s main claim is that the way that intelligence is measured is flawed which is supported by his use of sub claims and evidence, such as intelligence is dependent on social scenarios and that Jensen measures intelligence only through Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Reaction Times (RTs), in order to illustrate what happens when social awareness recedes into the background, he offers 14 specific examples that also serve as reasons (181). Warwick extends on Flynn’s argument; his main claim is that within a particular group what is regarded as intelligence is based on a general consensus, which naturally depends on the culture and values of that society (199). Although they extend on each others’ arguments, they have a particular opposing view: Flynn believes that IQ tests could be an accurate measurement of intelligence if social context was in taken into account; yet Warwick believes this impossible

There is a relationship between intelligence and culture because intelligence is culturally shaped and defined and some cultures support and identify it as very vital in the context of social and ecological aspects. In the early years, there was a bias towards intelligence tests because they used English language and culture. The formation of Wesler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Addition (WAIS,IV) in 2008 by David Wesler was meant to minimise the bias. According to Westen, Burton and Kowalski (2006), intelligence assists human beings to take control of their lives and it varies cross culturally because the power dynamics differ in each society and this leads to differences in behaviour and line of thinking. These authors describe intelligence as multifaceted, functional and can be defined by culture because it is universal and studying intelligence using different culture as a sample that can be used to question Western ideas about intelligence with some emphasis on the assessment of skills and abilities using culturally appropriate methods (Benson, 2003)

The two main ideas of “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids” are that fixed minded people are less likely to accept a challenge than growth minded people and that parents can do their part to help their child have a successful life by implanting a growth mind-set in their child’s brain. If more parents raised their children as growth minded individuals, this world would improve significantly.

When a person utters the word “intelligence,” people tend to think of a genius like Albert Einstein developing some obscure equation that the great majority of the population will never understand. The problem with the definition of intelligence is that people relate intelligence to words like “genius” which require intelligence but do not have the same definition as intelligence. Often, people try to use related words to define intelligence, but these words are unable to define intelligence since many are only different levels of intelligence. While many definitions try to encompass the meaning of intelligence and various definitions describe a small part of intelligence, no definition completely explains intelligence, because