Transcript 0:02 Are you stupid or something? Take a minute and think to yourself, "Who is the smartest person I know?" 0:09 Now, when I say smart, most of us think straightaway about someone who is educated and done well at school or university, because that is how we have been led to believe intelligence is measured. 0:20 But there are different types of intelligence, and we need to acknowledge that. I know teachers who have a university degree that says they are a teacher, but they're not a good teacher. 0:32 I've worked with engineers who have an engineering degree, but I wouldn't trust them to make a paper plane for me. All they have done is pass a test to say they passed a test. 0:44 If having letters behind your name or a title in front of it means you are intelligent, then why have I watched a professor at university try to put oil in the dipstick when there is a cap that reads oil less than six inches away? 0:59 NASA has some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and yet they have made simple mistakes that cost millions of dollars. 1:06 The Mars Climate Orbiter was designed to study Mars from orbit and serve as a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander and deep space probes. 1:16 It cost $125 million and failed because when doing calculations, they did not translate English units to metric. 1:26 Even worse, seven astronauts lost their lives when the space shuttle exploded due to an O-ring that did not expand in extremely cold weather, such as the morning of the launch. My father-in-law would have known that. 1:41 He would have known the O-ring didn't expand in cold weather, but he wouldn't be considered intelligent because he didn't go past grade eight. 1:48 But he could pull apart a mower that wasn't working and put it back together good as new without any instruction booklet. 1:55 I've seen mechanics with little formal education identify the fault in an engine by the sound it makes. My mother used to think she wasn't smart because she didn't go past grade eight, as many of her generation didn't. 2:10 I used to ring her up and describe a meal or dessert I'd seen on TV, and she would be able to, to make it by the description that I gave her. That takes intelligence. 2:22 Let's not make the mistake that academia is the only measure of intelligence. 2:28 After all, they have developed an education system where a student can graduate with a certificate at the end of grade 12, but not be able to read it. 2:37 There are many levels and types of intelligence, and because you do not excel in one, never make the mistake of thinking you are dumb. Our minds are wired differently, and so we discover things in different ways. 2:50 In education, the model referred to is VARK. It stands for Visual, Auditory, Reading and Writing, and Kinesthetic. 2:58 Basically, some people learn by seeing, some by listening, some by reading and writing, and others by doing. 3:07 There are some who rely on logic to process information and search for causes and patterns that are often not obvious to others. Then you have two opposite types of learners, social and interpersonal, 3:20 or solitary and intrapersonal. Some people learn by working with others, and some by being left to their own devices. A lot of boys at school I have been at 3:32 are often seen as badly behaved in class, but when they go to metalwork or woodwork classes, they are no problem. Same with PE. That is their forte, and that is what they understand. 3:44 Two people can explain something to you, and one makes no sense, and the other is crystal clear. By the same token, you can explain the same thing to two people, and one gets it, and the other doesn't. 3:59 And that doesn't mean you can cop out by blaming the person trying to teach you something or the way they are trying to. That is not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of discipline. 4:10 You are not dumb because you don't understand. However, if you don't try and find a way to understand, then that is a dumb choice. Mama says stupid is as stupid does.
