how much of intelligence is innate

Pre-College Topics High School Life
21

<p>Not this again…I do agree that this whole issue is vague and unclear, as there are many forms of intelligence, and the very nature of this…has an unending place of possible scenarios and cases.</p>

<p>Either way, I’m with the opinion that genetics/nature starts you off, but it’s impossible without nurture.</p>

<p>You have to take in information, this is the same for everyone, no matter how smart you are. The speed/degree/quality of taking in the information may differ, but it’s still the same process. </p>

<p>If you took a genius from birth and put him alone inside a cave with nothing, and gave him no education, and just provided basic necessities to survive, he’s not going to turn out to be a genius, let alone being able to read/write. He’s not going to just suddenly have a variety of ingenious concepts and thoughts inside his head.</p>

<p>What about those people in school that never study, never pay attention, but still get high grades, still ace everything? They were still exposed to reading/writing, education from a young age, I count that as studying. This is where many disagree with me: they consider that nature, I consider it mostly nurture (although it’s partly both, I admit).</p>

<p>It’s probably because I consider almost everything “studying” or taking in information, thus, those people that are able to ace everything just from barely paying attention without studying, are still absorbing information.</p>

<p>I’ve seen both cases; but I have to say that hard-work mostly pays off in college/post-college years. Remember that high school is only a small part of life; in later jobs, society, hard work is often more rewarding than innate talent alone (when being able to spew off physics equations and calculus aloud in seconds won’t really help you that much, although this is a pretty bad generalization).</p>

<p>Yes, there are exceptions to everything. </p>

<p>In b4 “Oh so and so…” and the rolling failures of anecdotes.</p>

<p>Maybe I should listen to what I say for once and not be a hypocrite. I should study for once…</p>

22

<p>Whatever, you need both innate intelligence and discipline to succeed.</p>

23

<p>I’m not sure which side I’m on but I just want to share an interesting story that might somehow contribute to this argument.</p>

<p>Okay so I was really smart when I was young, I was reading full chapter books at 3 and doing times tables etc, etc. Well when I was 7 I was diagnosed with epilepsy and put on these heavy duty drugs that seriously altered my mind/memory. I had a lot of trouble learning and fell pretty far behind in 4th grade. In 6th grade I went off the medicine and suddenly learning became so easy for me. However, I had to play HUGE catch up for the next 4 years and finally now in 10th grade I finally feel “caught up” where I should really be. So I guess the conclusion I’ve drawn is that your born with an IQ but it can be altered by various environmental factors. So it’s a nature and nurture kind of deal, but then again most people aren’t put on mind altering drugs during a time of critical brain development either. I don’t know, draw your own conclusions.</p>