That Spot! Where Can He Be?
Confession: I don't remember my SAT score. Definitely not the breakdown, but maybe after some hemming, hawing, and head scratching, I can figure out the composite. SAT 2 scores? Forget it. Perhaps we can discuss the deterioration of my memory at another time.
Four years ago, I knew these scores like my phone number (I'd say "like the back of my hand," but that idiom makes no sense to me. Was there some sort of course or stage in our lives when we were taught about the back of our hands? I must have missed it.) You could wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me my SAT score. It was probably somehow involved in my dream (nightmare?) anyway. At that SAT phase of my life, I just felt as if everyone was defined by this four digit (hopefully!) number. After everything I had accomplished and experienced, I was going to be reduced to a numerical value? That admissions officers would just blindly rank against thousands of other codes? Positioned as an aptitude test, the SAT is supposed to be predictive of the heights at which you will soar in the future. A sign of your future successes.
But here's the thing. It's just one sign on a highway infiltrated with billboards and landmarks. There are other aspects of intelligence. Great, another intelligence score that will victoriously bring you down? Maybe not. The good news is that this is an aspect of intelligence over which you may actually have complete control. And it may even be more important than the rest.
Practical intelligence is the ability for individuals to find the best fit between themselves and the demands of their environment. It's part of the intelligences necessary to achieve life-long success and it's defined by the individual within his or her sociocultural context.
When my brother was in the 2nd grade, he was sent to the Principal's office almost every afternoon. His teacher found his disruption of daily read-aloud to be completely unacceptable. She had declared him a misfit and expected nothing of him. It was his principal (who he got to know quite well during the post-lunch rendezvous) that determined that his disrupting the class stemmed from his boredom. At age seven, this precocious child couldn't sit still and listen to his teacher's account of Where's Spot?. My brother was admitted into a class for gifted and talented youth, and knowing his "standing" so to speak, his following teachers welcomed him with soaring expectations. His reserved chair in the Principal's office made him hopeless; his desk in the gifted class made him a genius. His environment was determining his intelligence.
Psychologists argue a general intelligence g which is constant throughout life. But in addition to g, our performance and ability intelligence (the out-of-head intelligence) develops throughout our life. It is these creative and practical abilities that allow us to be successful in life. It's the ability to do something rather than obtain mere knowledge about it. No instruction necessary. It's what is personally important to us, the learner.
I'd like to think I'm justified in not remembering those scores. Sure, they may possess some foundational base. But in the end, our environment, coupled with our motivation, passions, and initiative, are just as important. If not more so.
Yes. The CollegeBoard has ultimate power over our standardized test scores. Yes. Our professors have tyrannical power over our grades. But when it comes to the grade you will receive on your life performance, it's all you.
Four years ago, I knew these scores like my phone number (I'd say "like the back of my hand," but that idiom makes no sense to me. Was there some sort of course or stage in our lives when we were taught about the back of our hands? I must have missed it.) You could wake me up in the middle of the night and ask me my SAT score. It was probably somehow involved in my dream (nightmare?) anyway. At that SAT phase of my life, I just felt as if everyone was defined by this four digit (hopefully!) number. After everything I had accomplished and experienced, I was going to be reduced to a numerical value? That admissions officers would just blindly rank against thousands of other codes? Positioned as an aptitude test, the SAT is supposed to be predictive of the heights at which you will soar in the future. A sign of your future successes.
But here's the thing. It's just one sign on a highway infiltrated with billboards and landmarks. There are other aspects of intelligence. Great, another intelligence score that will victoriously bring you down? Maybe not. The good news is that this is an aspect of intelligence over which you may actually have complete control. And it may even be more important than the rest.
Practical intelligence is the ability for individuals to find the best fit between themselves and the demands of their environment. It's part of the intelligences necessary to achieve life-long success and it's defined by the individual within his or her sociocultural context.
When my brother was in the 2nd grade, he was sent to the Principal's office almost every afternoon. His teacher found his disruption of daily read-aloud to be completely unacceptable. She had declared him a misfit and expected nothing of him. It was his principal (who he got to know quite well during the post-lunch rendezvous) that determined that his disrupting the class stemmed from his boredom. At age seven, this precocious child couldn't sit still and listen to his teacher's account of Where's Spot?. My brother was admitted into a class for gifted and talented youth, and knowing his "standing" so to speak, his following teachers welcomed him with soaring expectations. His reserved chair in the Principal's office made him hopeless; his desk in the gifted class made him a genius. His environment was determining his intelligence.
Psychologists argue a general intelligence g which is constant throughout life. But in addition to g, our performance and ability intelligence (the out-of-head intelligence) develops throughout our life. It is these creative and practical abilities that allow us to be successful in life. It's the ability to do something rather than obtain mere knowledge about it. No instruction necessary. It's what is personally important to us, the learner.
I'd like to think I'm justified in not remembering those scores. Sure, they may possess some foundational base. But in the end, our environment, coupled with our motivation, passions, and initiative, are just as important. If not more so.
Yes. The CollegeBoard has ultimate power over our standardized test scores. Yes. Our professors have tyrannical power over our grades. But when it comes to the grade you will receive on your life performance, it's all you.
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