Intelligence: It's More Than Good Grades in School

I have been intelligent enough to keep an open mind in the land of the free because that freedom includes freedom of speech. People who have mastered freedom of speech in the United States have led some to become powerful voices in America, powerful enough to brainwash or condition America's people through the media. There is a vast area of topics that people have been conditioned to believe, follow, or be ignorant to. The average dictionary will have a similar definition to this for intelligence: capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc. Clearly this does not translate into what you have learned or what grades you have received based on what you learned. It is the capacity/willingness to learn and your application of the information that sets you apart.

I have been bombarded with people in my life that continually prove to me that their definition of intelligence is someone who is in school and receiving outstanding grades. I am a person who keeps an open mind about everything and this subject is one of them. I discussed earlier that this is a country full of conditioning because people are allowed to use words any kind of way. One of these conditionings is the people in society who are trained to treat those with good grades as some sort of idol and those with bad grades as failures. I honestly believe that there are masses of people who do not attend school or receive bad grades that have far more intelligence than some of the arrogant people who graduate at the top of their class. Don't get me wrong, everyone who fails is not destined to become an underdog success and everyone who graduates high is not arrogant. I am not complaining because I am one boat or the other. I myself am someone who is been on and off the honor roll and deans list since I was able to set foot in a classroom but I also realize I am no where near genius status because it. I simply don't like to see my friends and family treated indifferent because their grades do not look like that of successful students. Some treat me as some miracle when the grade report comes out when I am no different than they. I simply have found a way to comprehend the work handed to me in the education system and turn it into a desirable outcome.

I have come to the realization that everyone is born with gifts, some more common than others. One common gift is the ability to do well in a class setting which seems hard because of the duration of school and academic stress. However, this should not equal intelligence. This means and only means that the person with desired grades has the gift to use a certain study method, certain allotment of time, and certain retention method to earn good grades. The other method to receiving outstanding grades is cheating which can also be considered an evil gift but that is a whole other subject.

If you cannot grasp the concept you can watch a few movies to see this conditioning in effect. These movies include Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester, and Powder. Only two of the three are credible but it goes to show that some people who read books can very well outsmart those who simply perform well in the classroom. In light of this, next time you see one person with A's and B's and another person with average grades foster what they are talented in instead of shunning them for what they are not talented in. Congratulate the A/B student for mastering their classroom skills and find the talent of the average student because it may very well be music, sports, or other arts rather than school work. Remember good grades do not equal intelligence, it simply means someone has found a talent in having great classroom skills.