U4 Essay

Emerald Holdaway

Question:

Respond to BOTH of the following: sets of questions:

1.  Think of intelligent people whom you know well.  What unintelligent things do they do?  All

of them are bound to do some unintelligent things, so why do you consider them to be intelligent

people?  Were you emphasizing some factors at the expense of others?  Explain.

2.  Did you ever consider that the homeless shelter might be filled with people of tremendous

potential?  There might be a world-class archer, a great poet, a magnificent violinist, and a great

president.  However, the archer never happened to try the bow, the poet never tried writing, the

violinist ignored music, and the president never ran for office.  Instead, they worked at other

things and weren't very good.  Some might think of themselves as failures, although they would

have been successful if they had only tried these other things.  What argument is being made by

these statements?  How would the concept of a general intelligence refute this argument?

Answer:

When I think of intelligent people, one of the first to come to mind is my grandmother,

who after raising two kids alone, went back to school and got her master’s degree at the age of

40. She is very wise and knowledgeable, and definitely my go-to person for advice. Obviously,
being older she struggles with technology, but I would not call that unintelligent for her age. I

would say she acts very open minded but is not very educated on the subjects sometimes. She got

her master’s in social work and has been a therapist ever since. She has helped many people and

to them is a phenomenal listener, but when it comes to talking about my own anxiety disorder,

she will say things like, “just get over it,” or “you know, you don’t HAVE to be anxious.” Which

for someone in her position, seems like a very unintelligent thing to say. But I still don’t really

consider it that way. I don’t believe anyone is unintelligent, just uneducated. Our textbook states,

“having an extensive knowledge base, or a broad body of knowledge in a particular subject

makes it easier to remember and understand related new information.” (Berger, 2019, p. 245).

Her inexperience with the feeling of an anxiety order does not mean she is unintelligent, just

uneducated on the feeling of that particular topic.

I always think about the homeless shelters and the endless possibilities of the people in

there. I always talk about how if I had the money that people like Jeff Bezos has, I would use it

to buy a large plot of land and put a lot of tiny homes on it, and pay for homeless people to go to

rehab if they need it, and then allow them to live in the tiny homes for free, as long as they put in

community work of sustainable living with gardening, etc. I know it sounds far-fetched, but

imagine what people could be capable of if they were given the equal opportunity of others.

Some people were never even given the chance to succeed, which is extremely unfair

considering some who have endless opportunities refuse to do anything with them. Einstein

wrote, “everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its

whole life believing that it is stupid.” I think this says a lot about the ability that people really

have if they find a passion that they love and apply themselves to it, even if in other people’s
eyes they aren’t considered successful, they are successful in that job/art/talent/path. I think the

concept of general intelligence would refute this by saying we all have the underlying

intelligence for any task, but I just don’t believe this is true. I think certain people are just born

with a higher skill level for certain things than others. This doesn’t make the person who isn’t

quite as good “stupid,” it just means they haven’t found their skill yet.
 Reference:

Berger, K.S. (2019). Invitation to the Life Span, New York, NY: Worth Publishers.