EVENTUALLY
Eventually, I.Q. tests may
be shown to be merely measuring the ability to read.
Eventually, in his
experiments with artificial intelligence, man may come to the startling
conclusion that no such mental characteristic as intelligence even exists.
These peculiar ideas popped into my head as I read an article in a newspaper
and they won't go away. Researchers somewhere had come up with an exceptionally
accurate I.Q, test consisting solely of the average response time of an
individual in pushing a button in response to a blinking light.
The faster
you read, the faster you think. Quicker thinking would mean better time on
arithmetical problems and a quicker response to the blinking light.
Does one
read exceptionally well because one has a high I.Q. or does one have a high I.Q.
because one has learned to read exceptionally well.
For months I held these
suppositions at arms length comparing them as a pattern to my experience.
Gradually, then ever more surely I have accepted them as fact. There is no one
before whom I would not defend them.
There is something about Charles
Darwin's famous dictum 'the fittest survive' that has been bothering me. Clearly
the 'I.Q. of 100' is the fittest in the struggle for existence and clearly
giraffes with extremely long necks, do not survive.
Having suffered and been
confounded by an apparent inability to socialize and/or carry on normal everyday
yiketty-yak with the vast majority of the human race - it suddenly occurred to
me just exactly what it was that people with the 'I.Q. 100' possess that the
others do not. They are attuned to the spoken word, the mouth and the ears. In
the evolution of the species, the spoken word emerged first, became a primary
advantage in the struggle. Then the printing press was invented.
"I took a
book up to the teacher's desk and asked her if I could read it to her. She
laughed and told me I didn't know how to read yet." (Lucille C.C.Winfield, MC2
7-8 1983.
"...we present one Gary Anderson, 22 years old, football player,
he signed a $1.5 million deal to play...he cannot read...one credit short of
being able to graduate from university...he is functionally illiterate." Allan
Fotheringham Macleans 9-26-83)
Throughout elementary school and secondary
school I was surrounded by constant gabble and babble without end, virtually
none of which I found either interesting, entertaining or remotely useful.
Occasionally I made a genuine effort to participate, concentrating on the flow
of words with all my might, only to be disappointed and utterly astounded that
all I heard seemed to be of no more significance than the chirping of birds. To
merely ask a question in class became unthinkable. Speaking aloud in the
presence of authority figures caused to me to tremble, my voice to squeak and my
heart to pound. Uttering a mere word or two had stupefying results. Entire
classrooms exploded in laughter and uproar when being a comedian was the last
thing on my mind.
Now, I think I know damn well "Why Johnny can't read".
What do you think?
This item by George Noviss was included in MC2 (Mensa Canada Communications)
1-2/1984
