A lot of people are educated but few realize that education in the absence of intelligence is just a mechanical operation. One can attain information as educated in school but fail to apply it in a meaningful way such that the end result is a person who wanders through life with no specific achievement or difference.
One of the most intriguing definitions of intelligence comes from a simple source Wikipedia
“It can be more generally described as the ability to perceive information, and retain it as knowledge to be applied towards adaptive behaviors within an environment or context.”
However this definition as interesting as it lacks the ability to show that intelligence is an application which goes beyond just retaining or perceiving, there is something that must be done to the knowledge to make it relevant.
Another definition says that intelligence is
“the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.”
This sounds more exciting as people do acquire knowledge but what they do with it will determine just what they are. However Wikipedia makes a comeback in the definition and adds flesh and says that;
“Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including as one’s capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity and problem solving.”
For everything that you do as a human being you are solving a challenge or problem. When you walk from one end of the room to the other you are solving a problem of reduction of distance between yourself and the object that you require such that you will then acquire that object. When you decide to eat anything, you are solving a problem of what it is that you require at that moment. You do not eat starch when you are thirsty why?
Now Merriam-Webster.com says that education is
“the knowledge, skill, and understanding that you get from attending a school, college, or university“
However this is limited as it ignores the fact that one can be self-educated or can learn in life from experience.
“It is, as John Dewey (1916) put it, a social process – ‘a process of living and not a preparation for future living“
Education as Wikipedia puts it is
“Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research.”
You do not eat starch when you are thirsty because you are educated about what is it that is thirst and what is hunger. Out of experience or some level of learning you know what you can consume when hungry as according to what is available. Now if you do not apply this education then your intelligence becomes questionable.
Success is a function of being aware enough on the difference that your actions can make in an environment such that you can apply some level of education to enrich or develop yourself. If you are unable to be aware of you environment to the knowledge that it can be changed then your intelligence for success will be affected. People do not see opportunities because their level of education is limited to instruction, hence the instructions they received at school becomes their form of reference on how to decipher what actions to take yet there is more to life. Humans are progressive not because they are static in knowledge but because they are intelligent enough to be aware of what is needed to improve their status to leaps and bounds hence Kennedy;
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win “
This statement is an example of intelligence at work with education as its support structure. Make no mistake about it, education is the foundation of intelligence and it is needed. If mankind did not have education they would lack the foundation to apply their intelligence on. It is thus we are able to go to the moon not because we are comfortable with the knowledge that we have of the existence of the moon, but because we can figure out what can be done and we will learn more.
One book says “Proverbs 4:7 ” Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.”
Because even in religion it is noted that understanding/knowledge is the principal thing, the one thing that one must get. Get educated in life and then intelligence can be easier to apply. Make education your foundation but make intelligence your graduation.
Thanks! Good post!