I used to ask teachers of the learning disabled how they would have liked to have Albert Einstein in their class. Two knew it was a trick question. The rest…
When Hermann Einstein asked the principal of Albert’s elementary school what studies he thought it would be best for Albert to pursue, the principal replied it didn’t matter since Albert would fail at everything. While Einstein was plotting means of escaping the torment of his elementary schooling, he was thrown out of the school.
Einstein had the most terrible of all learning disabilities – he was autistic. I reject the notion of including those afflicted with diseases of the “autism spectra” as autistics. Most notably Asperger’s syndrome, that is rumored to afflict Bill Gates, may indeed be very difficult to deal with but how does a disease that manifests itself in teen years compare to a disease in which most of the victims never learn to speak?
Einstein’s reputed high IQ score must have been obtained through one of the many non-verbal IQ tests.
Temple Grandin, an autistic professor, writes with superb clarity about the condition but includes in her “visual learners” a man such as DaVinci. DaVinci’s incredible depth and breadth of knowledge was not remotely comparable to Einstein’s laser focus that allowed little distraction.
An IQ test may be considered a test of neatness and shallowness more than intelligence says your wretched informant who always scored very high in that sad state of affairs.
Maybe if I hadn’t dawdled occasionally over which of the two right answers was the one the dimwitted authors of such tests wanted, I could have scored even higher. At least I could be certain to outscore those deeper sorts who really struggled with such a conundrum.
My mother, to her dying day, was still angry about starting school in a class with Hispanics – she thought the town was divided between Finns and the enemy Norwegians and had no idea where those others came from. Speaking Finnish nearly exclusively, the only thing my mother had in common with the Hispanics was that neither knew much English but at least the Hispanics could speak to each other. They were put in what today would be the “short bus” class.
In my own view, the dimmest of the dim are those who proclaim IQ tests are proof of racial superiority by idiots who have no idea what race is.
Race is not, is not, is not ethnicity. It is biology but those proclaiming IQ tests prove the imaginary white race is superior to all but the totally non-existent yellow race offer powerful evidence they have less intelligence than Darwin’s race of butterflies.
What then is a test of intelligence?
Knowing an IQ test, as a measure of intelligence, is bunk might be a good start.
Best, Terry