Five Myths About Genius By Eric Weiner

Society’s view on intelligence is becoming watered down from the truth. In Rose’s article, “Blue Collar Brilliance” Rose discusses societies outlook on intelligence. Rose explains how society thinks blue collared jobs don’t involve any intelligence, and anyone can do a blue collared job. He explains how society thinks that since you don’t have to have a high education to perform well in blue collared jobs, it takes little to no intelligence. Rose says, “We reinforce this notion by defining intelligence solely on grades in school and numbers on IQ test” (Rose 279). Rose explains that even though most blue collared jobs don’t require a college degree, they still demand many forms of intelligence. Rose also explains how his brother dropped out of school in the ninth grade but eventually became a successful employee of the company General Motors. In Graff’s article, “Hidden Intellectualism” he explains how there are many students in today’s world who have an outstanding amount of “street smarts” but are failing school. He explains

Most scientists agree that genes have some influence over general intelligence and special aptitudes in such activities as athletics, mathematics, music, and science. But genes are not the only factor involved in producing these characteristics.

The overall theme of the sources we studied was about growth mindset.The most important thing about growth mindset is that intelligence can be developed. Also, the brain can grow by hard working and practicing. In “You Can Grow your Intelligence,” the author maintains that contrary to the belief that a person is born either smart, average, or dumb, instead the brain is more like a muscle, it changes and get stronger when you use it. Lastly, Carol Dweck, in a Ted Talk titled “ The Power Of Believing That You Can improve,” narrates how she researches about the growth mindset and the fixed mindset, and the benefit of having a growth mindset. Also, in her video she gave many good advice of how you can change a person that have fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

In “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, the author speaks about how schools should use students’ interests to develop their rhetorical and analytical skills. He spends a majority of his essay on telling his own experience of being sport loving and relating it to his anti-intellectual youth. He explains that through his love for sports, he developed rhetoric and began to analyze like an intellectual. Once he finishes his own story, he calls the schools to action advising them to not only allow students to use their interest as writing topics, but instead to teach the students on how to implement those compelling interests and present them in a scholarly way. In perspective, Graff’s argument becomes weak with his poor use of ethos, which he tries to build with his own anecdote but, through the same means he is able to build his pathos and in the last few paragraphs, with his use of logic he prevents his argument from becoming dismissible.

Thoughts can be fleeting, however some of the feelings resulting from thought and can have a long lasting impact on the mental state of a person. In my metacognitive exploration I found an interesting comparison between the way in which I think and approach my past feelings and the methods which Tim O’Brien, from The Things They Carried, and Paul D from Beloved express their thinking about the past. I have discovered that the expression of thoughts, including memories and feelings, is the key to a healthy mental state of a person.

One’s intelligence cannot simply be measured based on his or her educational background. Intellect is spawned from within based on an individual’s experience and desire for additional knowledge. In the article, "Blue-Collar Brilliance", Mike rose contends the egocentric notion regarding what makes an individual intelligent; western civilization has drug on their fascistic opinions since earlier times. Everything including one 's intellectual capabilities has been measured by a hierarchy designed by the white man in order to oppress non-white civilization. Our intellectual capacity is bigger than a formal education; Intelligence that is acquired outside of the classroom is commensurate to those who have solemn educations.

Geniuses are people of "an exceptional natural capacity of intellect, especially as shown in creative and original work in science, art, music, etc." Unfortunately, I have yet to meet a genius

Charles Spearman’s theory (1904) also takes the psychometric approach that there is a general intelligence. Spearman maintains that intelligence is hereditary and an individual is born with their maximum mental ability. This suggests that intelligence cannot be changed or strengthened. The concept of ‘general intelligence’ suggests that an individual has an underlying intelligence, in which their performance in one type of cognitive task is often similar to their performance in another (Boundless 2013). Spearman demonstrated this through the correlations between tests, where individuals who performed well in one test, often performed well in others. This led Spearman to the conclusion that intelligence is defined as a single factor. However, critics refute Spearman’s conclusions, as they argue that one cannot reduce all factors of intelligence to an indefinable “g” (Neisser et al. 1996).

Intelligence tests are inaccurate to measures true ability of a person because genes affect how a person responds to their surroundings, the tests cannot measure the person biological makeup or his true potential for being “smart”.

Many people believe that being a great mathematician comes from genetics, while other think that you can practice mathematics over and over to be great at it. I strongly believe that math is a genetic code in our DNA because there are honestly some people on this planet who do not understand math or how it works. For the ones with math in their genetic make-up math problems are rather simple and learning a new topic does not take long. Also math gives me reason to believe that is a genetic trait because in kindergarten, our teacher could tell almost immediately who was good at math and who wasn’t. The last reason math is a genetic code is because in schools now we see there are regular level courses and honors level, which gives me reason to believe that teachers and faculty may also believe what I do. Math is a part of genetic coding because some people have little struggle grasping it, teachers know almost immediately who is going to do well at it, and because there are now honors level math courses offered.

Right brain? Left brain? Both sides are very different and have their own characteristics that help determine what a persons potential strengths and weaknesses will be. “The human brain is split into two halves, each with its own unique abilities. This phenomenon, discovered three decades ago by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry and his associates at the California Institute of Technology, is known as brain lateralization” (Raudsepp, 1992, p. 85). Certain characteristics of a person can go so much deeper then just hobbies that a person enjoys. Brain function can play a major role in how a person perceives their surroundings, such as if someone like to draw or do math. On the other side of that if a person is very analytical and good at subjects in school such as math it could be linked to which side of their brain is dominant.

Yes I do agree with the statement “It takes a village to raise a child; it takes a city to raise a genius”(). In the book The Geography of Genius the author travels to many different cities around the world to find out why the different places had so many geniuses. When he goes to the cities he discovers the unique actions and everyday activities, but most importantly the different historical events that had happened there to make the place so significant.Those events, actions, and activities shape those geniuses to be who they are today. In the book the author states in a conversation with Aristotle “ ‘What we’re doing right now is very Greek,’ he says. ‘Really? Because all we’re doing is walking.’ ‘Exactly. The ancient Greeks

In the article, Math People, there is this common theme that the ability to succeed in math is based on working hard instead of the “myth” that success in math is based on genetics. The article is also suggesting that the term “math people” and “non-math people” is entirely false. To some degree, I agree that mathematical ability is innate. Children whose parents are mathematicians, engineers, or any other career that has to deal with math are probably more likely to be better at math than someone’s parents that didn’t finish college. This goes back to the popular nature v. nurture debate. To another degree, I do agree that mathematical ability isn’t innate, as well. This is displayed in the article very well with the preparation example. Some

Albert 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.”

The Genius by Frank O’Connor The boy’s personality and his intelligence are swiftly established in the opening paragraph. His mother is presented as being a strong influence on him and appears as a kind of ‘ally’ against the rough children – ‘savages’ as she describes them – that live and play in the area. It is clear that she encourages him to regard himself as ‘different’ and separate from them, but it is equally obvious that he is not anxious to associate with them anyway. He describes himself as “a cissy by conviction” and says that he regarded the idea of fighting as both unattractive and ‘dangerous’. He avoids rough games and prefers the company of girls to boys only because “they don’t fight so much”.