Do you believe school performance is a good indicator of one's intelligence?
 

Ok, I'm sure there is a strong correlation between these two things, but I don't think a person who gets better grades mean they are smarter. What do you guys think?

Do you believe school performance is a good indicator of one's intelligence?

No.

So many students are just uninterested/bored by school. Some of the very intellegent students aren't challenged so they slack off. Many have poor time management and others have undetected learning disabilities.

There's a lot of reasons why students don't perform well in school, but I feel it's unfair (although sometimes easier) to say it's because the student isn't intelligent.

Leslie, I whole heartedly agree with you. Just because you do not do well in school does NOT mean you are less intellegent than other students. A learning disability is defined by if one's preformance does NOT match what that student can potentially do. Other students may not test well, but they know their information better than they can communicate it on a test or in a paper etc....

Yes and no.

Yes, when a student CONSISTANTLY makes very high grades, it speaks volumes about their intelligence.

However, when a student makes low grades, it doesn't neccessarily mean that the student isn't bright. It can be several things besides low intelligence that can cause bad grades: boredom, emotional problems, stress, avoiding stigma of being smart, learning problems, concentration problems, low motivation, low self esteem, conflicts w/ teachers or students, etc. This list goes on and on.

Not at all. Like someone said above, a lot of people can be bored or uninterested with school. Especially since a lot of tests in school are read and reguritate type tests where you are tested on how much you remember more than anything else.

I also meant to add: a person can have common sense and street smarts. They may have more common sense and street smarts rather than reading and writing type intellegience.

Not always. What about the kids who were in the Top 25 of my graduating class in high school who were dumber than sticks? It was very, very common for certain students to whine to the teacher until a grade was changed. Or for some students with parents who were higher-ups in the school system to magically get good grades. One of the valedictorians in the class that graduated before mine did not deserve the honor, and everyone knew it.

Actually, in my opinion, it speaks more to their dedication in earning the grades.

No, my brother never graduated from high school because he was completely bored with the classes that they offered and he hated going to school...he is one of the smartest people I know! He's four years younger than I am and he makes more money that I do!

Yeah that's true also, however if someone is dumber than a rock they can be dedicated all they want and still will make bad grades.

@ Achtung, I think you're also right, we had a few summa cum laudes from my HS that has a brillance of a 40w bulb (stealing that from JAM ;) ) there are definately exceptions. IMO for most part you have to have some sort of brains to pull off 4.0 g.p.a and such.

Well in H.S. I saw some pretty below average people graduate valedictorian... Of course we had around 20+ of them. Take classes like pottery just to keep your grades up...

In college I think it's a little different. I do think you need intelligence for some classes. Others though it just speaks to how much you're willing to study.

I'm with Dionysus on this one. There are so many factors that can cause a student to not perform well in school.

I don't agree that better school grades mean you are smarter. I am really not a good math student and i don't like science, thus i didn't get grades in these subjects in high school and in college. So these grades lowered my GPA, but I am always reading and very good at logical thinking, English, etc. I feel that I now have much better street marts than I did five years ago. I am surpised by how many idiots are out there. I also have common sense which a lot of people don't have.
I don't think standarized tests really help because I think one really needs to work on their public speaking and writing skills. If someone is good at a subject they usually do well on picking an answer from the ones given. I have seen so many poorly written applications.

Looking back at myself, my wife and our three kids, I've gotta go with Dionysus on this one.

I reasonably bright, but was inconsistent in school -- sometimes very good, sometimes bored. My wife is very bright and always worked hard and graduated with honors. Oldest daughter and youngest son always have/had top grades. Middle daughter is very bright personally, but couldn't be bothered with high school and didn't (and shouldn't have at the time) go to college. She's doing very well as a hair stylist.

One other factor to point out -- some people test better than others, which in some cases make them look brighter than they really are.

Finally, my late mother only got as far at the 4th grade (due to the deaths of her parents and other family factors), but was one of the "smartest" people I've ever known.

Looking back at myself, my wife and our three kids, I've gotta go with Dionysus on this one.

I'm reasonably intelligent, but was inconsistent in school -- sometimes very good, sometimes bored. My wife is very bright and always worked hard and graduated with honors. Oldest daughter and youngest son always have/had top grades. Middle daughter is very bright personally, but couldn't be bothered with high school and didn't (and shouldn't have at the time) go to college. She's doing very well as a hair stylist.

One other factor to point out -- some people test better than others, which in some cases make them look brighter than they really are.

Finally, my late mother only got as far at the 4th grade (due to the deaths of her parents and other family factors), but was one of the "smartest" people I've ever known.

I don't think its a good predictor at all. I know many people who graduated from high school and college with high GPAs (3.8+) who are complete and total morons. It all depends upon the quality of the school, and the classes you take.

One of my HS valedictorians is super-smart. She's a math genius. Got something like a 34 on her ACT.

The other one took the easiest classes possible, took short day, 4 years of P.E., but she had a 4.0 :rolleyes: I was salutatorian, because I got a B in a gifted Algebra II class I took as a soph (its a jr. level class). She got an A in a regular Algebra II class she took as a senior. Yeah, its real fair that she was ranked higher than me (and a host of other people who'd worked really hard in much harder classes)

My school district doesn't have weighted grades for honors/AP/gifted classes because some woman complained that her "little darling" wasn't valedictorian when she had a 4.0. The reason was becasue other people had worked their butts off and her kid was taking regular level classes.

IMO, standardized tests are a much better indicator of intellect. They present a standard, and test how you measure up to that standard. Because there's such a vast difference in the quality of school districts around the country, its hard to judge by grades. A 4.0 is not the same everywhere.