More Than Book Smart: Rethinking Intelligence, Education, and Vocation
Many Kinds of Intelligence: What Trades, Arts, and Academics All Have in Common
I was recently caught up with an old friend of mine whose daughter had just become engaged. His daughter is quite a prodigy. She was homeschooled her entire life and had every academic opportunity a child could want. She was a voracious reader and intellectual of the highest caliber, conversant in philosophy, theology, and history at a level well beyond her peers. When she went away to college, she studied classical languages and added even more jewels to her academic crown. And her father—himself a scholar of the first-rate—couldn’t have been more proud.
Her family was a bit surprised, therefore, when she got engaged not to a fellow scholar, but to a blue-collar man with a background in mechanical work. Everyone supposed she’d wind up with an intellectual, her father explained—a fellow academic or someone in the humanities. He wondered whether they could connect around their shared interests and professional backgrounds. Was a blue-collar man going to be too “plain” for such an “intelligent” young woman?
But then, her father explained, he realized he’d been considering categories like “education” and “intelligence” far too narrowly, as if they were synonymous with being academic or book smart. Intelligence comes in many forms, each enriching us in its own way. Tradespeople are extremely intelligent in their fields of expertise, fields which we all understand to be extremely important, especially when we need help. “He came over and replaced the shocks and struts on my car,” her father told me, “which is something I could certainly never do.”
Intelligence Is Not One-Dimensional
There is a recurring trope in martial arts movies where a protagonist begins the film arrogantly believing his style of kung fu is the best, only to learn over the course of the movie that every style of kung fu has its own unique beauty and value. The same can be said about intelligence. While book smarts and academics are one way to learn, they are certainly not the only way one can be intelligent.
We have been talking about the kind of spatial intelligence a skilled tradesman must develop to repair a car, wire a house, or do finished carpentry. But it goes beyond the trades: think about farmers who learn to master the cycles of seeding and harvesting, the raising and care of livestock, and the management of complex farm operations. Think of a professional musician whose understanding of music combines practical and theoretical knowledge in a musical composition. Or the intelligence of a professional athlete who makes his or her own biology their field of study and optimizes their diet and exercise for performance excellence. Or of an artist, or an actor, or a financial manager, who may have never read Shakespeare but understands money.
The Complementary Nature of Human Skill and Knowledge
Not only are there many types of intelligence, but they are all complementary. Nobody has all the knowledge they could possibly need. “No man is an island, entire of itself,” the poet John Donne famously said, for “every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” There are always times when we need the expertise of someone else, and in those moments (whether it’s needing shocks and struts, or someone to guide your stock market picks), we are always profoundly grateful for the knowledge of others. There is value and honor in mastering any skill; it is the variability of knowledge that makes the vast tapestry of human knowledge possible.
What This Means for Guiding Our Children’s Futures
This is worth remembering when discussing career options with our children. While an academic or “intellectual” path in the humanities or hard sciences is praiseworthy, it’s just as praiseworthy to start a business, learn a trade, or go into the arts. There are pros and cons to everything, of course (an aspiring musician will face a steeper uphill battle toward financial security than an aspiring investment banker), but these different avenues provide value to society and offer people unique perspectives. Personally, I find some of my most refreshing conversations are with friends who are not enmeshed in the academic world like I am. These sorts of relationships can be complementary, just as skill sets are, becoming the foundation for very strong and enduring relationships—as my friend and his daughter are learning.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Facebook Group or in the HSC Community to continue the conversation.
