Re:Interviews & red flags & MENSA

[David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Actually, I believe that there are many different kinds of
intelligence, and IQ is an extremely limited measure of only a few of
them. I also believe that each person is born with a set of capacities
and develops only a part of these and to varying degrees.

When one is unbalanced--with some attributes much more fully
represented and developed than others--the result is often unhappiness
because of maladjustment in the "real world".

For those who are gifted in some of the characteristics that create
the best entrepreneurs, for example, it is a positive benefit for them
and for society at large for these gifts to be identified and
cultivated early in life--but this is rarely the case. However, these
qualities are not frequently measured meaningfully other than in the
"school of hard knocks."

To think that very "intelligent" people have realized the value of
living beyond the race for the next buck is, I believe, to credit them
with more common sense than is often the case. Instead, I believe a
compelling case can be made that the very intelligent parts of our
society are often lacking in social skills that yield success in any
kind of organization including business enterprises of all sizes.

Mensa chapters are often over-populated by social misfits of various
kinds--often the result of some ostracism as children because they
were "different"--a rather fatal flaw to other children on the
playgrounds and in the classrooms. (I speak only of the "regulars" in
the chapters. The more successful individuals who are members are
rarely regular in attendance at the public functions of the
organization--at least, in the three chapters I have belonged to
briefly over many years and in the various chaptes I observed from
time to time).

There seems to be no doubt that the average child can be educated to
be far better in any number of skills than they are today by most
schools. Students of average IQ can surpass the achievements of others
with much higher IQ measures if the manner of teaching and of learning
are better for the first than the second.

For those parents and children who are suited to it, I am becoming
more convinced every day that homeschooling is by far the best method
available for true education to happen--if by "true education" we
speak of the ability to independently learn and integrate knowledge
useful for the individual and/or society. Homeschooling also offers
the ability for children to be more positively socialized than do the
public schools--for, in my opinion and in the opinion of many others,
much of the socialization that takes place today in the public schools
is actually very negative.

David

Presently a fairly typical, relatively unsuccessful former Mensan of
an IQ which I haven't the faintest idea in any meaningful degree. (The
last IQ test I took was while sipping on red wine and watching the
evening news--so I really doubt that the results are very
significant!).

The "relatively unsuccessful" part is subject to change with my next
employment, however...

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