How Are You Smart? Not How Smart Are You?

Ever feel that you’re not as smart as others?

Wish you’d ‘stuck in’ more at school?

Have you ever started to learn something new only to give up half way through because you just ‘didn’t get it’?

Think you haven’t had the opportunity (yet) to show what you know you are capable off?

Yes? Then this is for you, it’s not all your fault. (Warning: two swear words ahead.)

Stories are the single most powerful tool in a leaders tool box. ~ Howard Gardner

How Are You Smart?

I’m not saying I’m a complete numpty (scottish-ism), but I don’t think I’m an intelligence genius, if we’re going to go by the Binet-Simon test.

I remember 4 years ago the nation was tested on the ‘smart’ BBC channel, I had a gathering of finest Scottish minds ;-) at my house, just for a laugh, as you do.

Two hours later, the host, Phillip Schofield confirmed my underlying suspicions that I wasn’t that smart, and I’ll admit it, I didn’t take it lightly from a man who made his fame and fortune talking to a feckin puppet called Gordon the Gopher!

Eventually People Don’t Expect Much

Not being IQ smart has it’s disadvantages you know, after a while people don’t actual expect that much from you.

You no longer get asked what happened to make you get an F, or in my case nil pois when it came to physics, or ‘your sister passed first time, why can’t you‘, really doesn’t kick in the old internal motivation and get the competive streak going.

There is no failure, only feedback

I failed, first time round, most of my ‘O’ Grades, not because I can’t learn, because I didn’t care.

If you don’t know what these are, call someone in the UK over the age 38. In short: they were real exams, none of that ongoing nambeepambee assessment melarkee, in my day, we were real pupils, we had it tough, we had vigilators, we sat in rows at little wooden desks where the graffiti made more sense than answering ‘war can be good, discuss’.

Oh, dearie regarding the ‘ongoing nambeepambee assessment melarkee’ comment — tongue in cheek, I totally agree that ongoing assessment is a good thing, as opposed to building up anxiety, fear and stress to one big exam day.

Actually, I think that’s why some people go through life thinking they ‘aren’t that smart’, because they couldn’t memorize parrot fashion, not because they couldn’t learn.

Em, I just didn’t spend the time memorizing, I think they call that studying. Or is called conforming?

So, I failed all except Home Economics, Modern Studies and Drama, that means. if you want a casserole delivered in a foil tray and an apron made with gingham, or you want me to tell you what a ‘new town’ is, perhaps a wee recital of Queen Margarets speech Henry VI part ii, I’m your gal.

Aside: my parents can provide astounding dish testimonials, always ‘saving it for supper’, after I was in bed so they ‘could enjoy it’. I’m smarter than that, I know and knew full well where it went, bypassing the dog, just in case it had tummy trots, and into the bin. Ah, parents, they sometimes forget how smart their children are, their ditching of the food and ‘cover up’ actually taught me a lot about human behaviour.

They did get passed eventually, and one day they even let me go to the big studying place, that would be university. That experience is an entirely different post!

Smart Learning

Modern Studies, that rocked. Loved it.

Teacher swore like a sinner.

And she made us argue with her, the theories, the books, even each other, telling us ‘to think for ourselves or we’ll get nowhere, don’t believe everything you read in books, school is for learning how to think, not learning how to follow everyone else!’

That’s a smart piece of learning I do remember. (I wonder if she’s still alive, she needs a ‘thank you’ letter!)

Modelling myself on a v-e-r-y responsible adult, I choose her. I like the odd swear, you?

F, C, B words, whatever, love them all.

Folks (parents) hate swearing, ‘it’s not nice Dawn‘ and my mum has mini palpitations and giggles when I mention the word shag, I use it now just to feed my own basic human needs, laughter being the main one.

However, when she was very ill for a long time, I used it deliberately, because it changed her state of mind, the laughter made her forget, even if it was just for a few minutes, that’s pretty smart, no?

I love words. Love them. Just because I sometimes can’t string a sentence together (mainly because my brain is faster than my mouth) doesn’t mean I’d use a swear word instead. Tut.

2+2=4

I dislike maths, just as much as I hate eating meat, and that’s a f**king lot.

Maths, technical, physics were a big thing in our household, mainly because my Dad was good at them.

I always wonder why some parents:

a) force their child to learn what they weren’t good at or

b) force their child to be as good at the subjects they were good at

Any thoughts on that one?

I really wanted to love maths,  not just because I enjoyed the squares in the jotters, which were different to the usual lines and produced a very unique doddle, which was great for my visual brain. It blew me away that others could take a pile of letters and turn them into a number.

Sadly, I had Hitlers sidekick teaching me, I spent most of my 4 years in his class, avoiding the flying chalk and blackboard (again ask parents about these) cleaner thing.

I was so busy being scared to actually care ‘if x+y=b, was the value of r?’,  in his class I got really smart lesson in ‘learning should be high challenge and no threat’.

But…

Word and Maths Smarties You Have Me in Complete Awe

Number Smarties

There are some really smart people that love math and science, number smarties, you may be one.

I applaud and admire you.

You see, because of people like you, the rest of us get some really cool, neat stuff: things like advancements in medicine, technologies, ipads, digital banking, computers, and soda streams.

You make things, you like to categorise and experiment, I love what you produce.

Word Smarties

And all you people who are passionate about language and blend words together — you’re really smart to me, word smarties, you guys and gals take me to places in my head that I never knew existed, you create imaginary people and situations that excite me and give me stories that I share with others.

You keep me up at night, I’ve refused sex because I’d rather turn a page, and I have row upon row of what you ‘word smarties’ have produced.

How are you smart not how smart are you?

What about you?

How are you smart?

Although words (linguistics) and numbers (logical/mathematical intelligence) are not my strongest. I’d say I’m pretty smart in other ways, like we all are.

Put me in a room where someone is just about to swallow 100 paracetamols because they don’t want to live anymore, or place me in a front of a group where they feel so helpless and worthless, I can do and say smart things to be handed the pills or aid the group on the road to worthwhile and hopeful.

I know what to say to a child when they tell me for the past five years of their life they have been abused by their mother. I know when to push someone and I know when to back off.  I can empathise. Share stories and anecdotes, and install a passion for learning.

I’d say that’s smart. It didn’t require me to apply any math either.

Where are you smart?

Seriously, where are you smart? Have you ever thought about what you can do that nobody else can?

Don’t dare say nothing.

Look, although  we all can’t play a musical instrument (musical intelligence), dance like Beyonce, Gaga or Pink and play tennis like the Williams sisters (bodily intelligence), you can motivate yourself, you can manage your emotions, have you ever really had a long hard think about what you are really awesome at? Where you really excel?

Multiple Intelligences

It was psychologist Howard Gardner who introduced ‘Frames of Mind The Theory of Multiple Intelligences’ upon the world.

“I believe that the brain has evolved over millions of years to be responsive to different kinds of content in the world. Language content, musical content, spatial content, numerical content, etc.”

Gardner proposed that we all have dominate preferences about learning and intelligence:

He said: people are smarter at different things and no two people learn the same way.

Where you are mega smart, I’m not. And vice versa.

Should You Really Care?

Ah, there’s a question.

My professional opinion would be yes.

Part of my work is helping people with their career, part of finding out where your passion and purpose lies, is very much linked to your preferred intelligence. Gardners work is a theory, he even wrote about never devising a test to measure multiple intelligence.

However, in my little world it does occur in practice.

You would be stunned at the numbers of people that say to me ‘I want a career that makes a difference, one where I can give back and work with people’, they wonder why they have been so unhappy working in finance, banging at keys on a computer for 15 years!

Preference to them (may be) ‘interpersonal intelligence’ and ‘intrapersonal intelligence’.

And others have said the same, only to realise that actually, they don’t like people that much and would prefer to be outdoors (naturalistic intelligence), perhaps working with animals, or involved in an environmental piece of work.

Or imagine you’re learning, and your preferred intelligence is spacial (pictures), and all the materials are words (handouts, powerpoints, books, texts, papers), you may find it difficult to learn. (Which by the way, should be addressed by the teacher or trainer, they should be teaching to all learning styles and preferences.)

Please Care If You Have Children

Do you have children? Do they struggle at school with certain subjects? Although the results may not show it, they may actually be good at maths, however the method in which they are taught may not suit their learning style or intelligence.

Where do they excel, no, where do they get most pleasure? Writing? Telling stories? Drawing. Here’s a great book by Thomas Armstrong if you want to explore this theory and ensure your child leaves school with a passion for lifelong learning.  (Order a second hand copy around £1.50)

Food for thought.

I’ll end with this ‘there is no-one who is 100x smarter than anyone else’ – how are YOU smart?

PS: if you go to the collection of books on this site (Amazon store) click on training/inspiring others you’ll see plenty more book recommendations on multiple intelligence.