RE: Mensa, was Re: IQ tests

From: natashavita@earthlink.net
Date: Thu Aug 09 2001 - 16:22:49 MDT


Original Message:
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From: Barbara Lamar altamiratexas@earthlink.net

> Why does society consider a person who can memorize words and
> formulas, or discern problems presented in a written test be more
> able to "think" than someone whose cognizance is highly skilled
>>in dealing with life's varied problems and applying knowledge to
>>clear-headed analysis? I don't.

>I think most people would agree with you, Natasha, that common sense is as
important as IQ. The two kinds of intelligence aren't mutually exclusive,
though. I haven't followed the discussion about Mensa on Cryonet, but the
people I met at the Mensa dinner meetings seemed quite ordinary; some seemed
to be well endowed with common sense and others didn't, as with any other
gathering of people.<

I think this is true of everyone. If we dig deeper into each person, regardless of IQ, we will find something of interest. I'm not into criticizing "mensa" social skills. I am very interested in understanding why *any* highly thinking-skilled person is able to understand the formula for being healthy but not practice it. I wonder at my own ability to understand complex ideas, but not able to augment them into my life. It may be laziness or preoccupation with something else. But with a group such as mensa, for example, if members take pride in being highly skilled thinkers but don't internalize the information or apply the info, were's the log jam?

Natasha

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