Having just mailed off my membership dues renewal cheque for about the twenty-ninth consecutive year, guess it's time to send the editor a little feedback or a little lip as the case may be. Not all Mensans have horns, two heads and green skin; just those who have had a positive thought about education during the last two decades."First god made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made school boards." -Mark Twain

The last time I had a positive thought about educators, I was in grade two. The curly red-haired wild woman used to let me read what I pleased in the afternoons while she force marched the rest of the monkeys to the alphabet. She made sure that I knew that the race was not to the swift, the medium was the message and showed us what a bell curve looked like.

Whether it is better to emulate the literate or the successful is a tough call even for a Mensan board of directors of course. Mind you, I don't claim to do anything better. My copy of "The Mismeasure of Man" is on loan at the moment to a member in Guelph, but I'd like to recommend "IQ a Smart History of a failed Idea". I think I loaned it to a member in Toronto.

Of course, if I was a half-wit or a school board trustee, I would think that people who can read were born intelligent or gifted, too.

When last my name appeared in MC2, August 2003, this is where I left off. Encourage Mensa to promote honest standards of literacy, have Mensa dues paid by the Government of Canada to compensate for the catastrophic effects of secret reading scores for the past century. Expect that Mensa should become the universal arbiter of literacy standards.

This is what we're gonna do - - -in my dreams. Take a break from revisiion of by-laws for about ten years. Focus on the written word as a means to run this organization. Forget about speakers and wonderful personalities at RGs and AGs. Point out that not all of us are successful and polished talkers and socializers or writers. Adopt a tricky slogan like: The medium is the message that "literate" means "unemployable." Forget all about this "intelligence" claptrap. Force march the rest of the monkeys to the alphabet. Push not only our own membership beyond 1917 but save the English speaking world from continually and needlessly replacing itself with ESL immigrants!

My compliments to those who work to keep this outfit rolling.

This item by George Noviss was included in Letters to the Editor, MC2, March 2009, Mensa Canada Communications



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