The Measure of Intelligence

So today I was taken aback by a question. It's only the third time in my short and illustrious career that one of my kids has said something that seemed so far out there that I literally didn't know what to say. I'd like to share these gems with you here:

The first happened around 3 years ago when I was just starting the UTeach program. They had us spending 10 hours in an elementary school classroom just getting our feet wet. One day I was teaching a small group of 2nd grade kiddos the prefixes re- and un-. We had gone over words like undo, redo, reload, unload, unzip, retie, untie... you get the picture. Anyway so at the end of the lesson I decided to 'check for understanding' by going around to each of the 5 boys and get them to name a word that begins with re- or un-. Simple right? Not so fast. Guys 1, 2 and 3 had no issue saying words that we had previously discussed. One even used a new word, reshelve! So at this point I'm feeling pretty good. The teacher observing me is smiling, the kids are answering well and we're all golden until guy 4 steps up to the plate. 'OK buddy, give me a word that starts with re- or un-', I said. Then he sat there, wheels spinning in his mind. All of a sudden a light bulb came on. He looked at me and said with the utmost certainty... "Bracelet!"
Hmmm...

The second came during the very next semester when I was spending 20 hours at the middle school level. I was actually teaching the same subject that I am now, Texas History. One day I was showing the class some info on plains Indians and telling them about the various uses for buffalo. I talked to them about the stomach being used for bowls and the hide for shelter etc. Somewhere toward the end of the conversation a girl sitting up by the overhead looked at me with a whole barrel full of sincerity and asked, "So is that where buffalo wings come from?" Assuming she was kidding as 7th graders are prone to do, I gave her a courtesy snicker. In the middle of my sneer I realized her expression had yet to change. Without a thought I vomited the words, "Wait are you serious?" ............Yep, she was. The kicker is that I have the whole thing on video and I was being evaluated that day. Woof....

The third, like I said before, happened today. So we're talking about the significance of Nov. 22 1963 on Texas history. To those of you who have trouble remembering dates, this is the day JFK was shot in Dallas which in affect made Texan Lyndon B. Johnson the president. So I explain to the students that it's Johnson's popularity in Central Texas that has led to so many things in the area being named after him. Lake LBJ, the LBJ library, LBJ high school... the list goes on and on. The kids got into it and started naming LBJ things they knew. Some even asked about Lady Bird and we all sort of got into this really cool conversation about old Lyndon's impact on their lives today. Somewhere in the middle of this, a hand goes up in the back. I acknowledge her and step toward her as the class had, at that point, gotten a little noisy... and thank God it had. When I was just a couple feet away she got this really quizzical look and said, "I thought LBJ stood for LeBron James." ............................................................"no", I said quietly.

These situations bring up feelings that make me feel like I might be turning into a grandparent rather than a parent. I just want to scream, "What's the matter with kids these days?!" But then I'm reminded of something an AP instructor told me this summer:
He, one of the most intelligent men I've met in quite a while, told me this story about how he never understood the why the Civil War was called the Civil War. This is probably because he wasn't hearing, thinking or saying Civil. Instead he was hearing, thinking and saying Silver War. No wonder he was confused.

All of this makes me think about how we measure intelligence in our society. Here in Texas we have this little gem called the TAKS test. That's Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills for those not in the know. Anyway so it's basically this mulitple choice test that determines the fate of the kid's educational future, the federal funding of the school, the jobs of teachers and administrators, the rating of the school and the district and probably the fate of the world as we know it too. But why? Just because a kid can't tell me LBJ means Lyndon Baines Johnson doesn't mean they're stupid, it just means they're disinterested. For example: Driving a car is extremely complex. Between the operation of the vehicle itself and the traffic laws and negotiating the roads with other drivers... it can be pretty intense. And yet how many more kids want to drive and know they'll succeed at driving than those who want to do and know they'll succeed at algebra. Algebra really isn't more complex, it just isn't as fun. The same girl that asked about LeBron's lake and library monicker can tell me anything I'd ever want to know about the Jonas Bros.... and then some.

So from now on I pledge (scout's honor) to withhold judgement. Just because someone doesn't know what you think is basic knowledge, doesn't mean they're dumb. They're just.... for lack of a better word... Bracelet?