Feedback-Paul Payton (Editor's
note-This email is a reply to Greg's "How Gifted Are You?"
which appeared in the September-November issue of Apotheosis found here.
I advise readers to take a look at this before they read the following)
Greg,
I liked your psychometric questionnaire. I thought about it last night.
Some personality attributes that might also be revealing about
giftedness...
* Feeling as if your mind works faster than those around you
(feeling
as if your mind works at 78rpm whilst others are motoring along at 45rpm
or
even 33rpm).
* Being able to "figure things out" faster than
other people
(finishing a class before others, reading books faster and retaining
information, learning a software package, assembling a kit).
* Being able to do things without reading the manual
(figuring it out
intuitively using reasoning power).
* Coming to conclusions faster than others (and subsequently
seeing
those conclusions validated).
* Coming to conclusions which are prescient or
out-of-the-norm
(anticipating technical developments, showing unusual insight or
sensitivity
to personalities of individuals, predicting political or social events
through extrapolation of human insights).
* Seeing commonality between ostensibly disparate fields
(most
notably, science and art) that others do not see.
I also think a certain degree of absolute idealism is present in gifted
people. By this I mean that the intellectual tends to seek out ideals
and
overarching guiding first principles. They are strongly-convicted and
feel
passionate about issues and opinions, most notably philosophical
matters. They may even go so far as to evolve a self-consistent philosophical
outlook
and articulate it through writing. I've noticed high-IQ folks I know are
opinionated (in the good sense) and have constructed a very consistent
set
of values bolstering their beliefs. Some would consider them 'naive' or
'idealist'; I consider them 'of noble heart and pure thought'.
In my opinion, giftedness comes from a general intangible feeling of
operating on a different plane than those around you. This isn't
arrogance;
it is a genuine sense that you are either functioning more rapidly and
efficiently than others (feeling like your mind is razor-honed) or
feeling
you make observations and see connections which ordinarily escape those
around you (speaking insights that cause others to look at you with
wide-eyed wonder or gape-jawed incredulity). It is a sporadic sensation,
felt at certain times with specific stimuli.
The problem is getting at these attributes, without designing questions
that
appeal to the test-taker's own sense of vanity, while still getting at
self-perceptions of 'being different'. This is a hard task for the
psychometrician.
As far as IQ tests go, I look at them as fun little quizzes. They
suggest
areas of study (as most tests rely on certain acquired or intrinsic
reasoning skills). I take the tests whenever I have spare time more as a
lark to see what aptitudes they're 'getting at'. Life (my job) is my
harshest and most incessant IQ test. Also, there is a certain
self-defeatist
issue concerning IQ tests -- the harder you work at them, the higher you
score (one can improve one's score through practice and exposure to new
fields). The higher your score, the more uncommon it is and the more
rarefied the atmosphere is up there. So, you work yourself into a
position
where your supposed colleagues are increasingly more difficult to find.
Is
scoring well a benefit or a detriment? I'm of two minds here. Seems to
me
that the purpose of IQ groups is a social one; exposure to a broad
audience
is the reason for inclusion.
I've probably stated it poorly and phrased it awkwardly, but high-IQ is
both
a blessing and a curse; poetry is a mitigating factor in that it
provides a
mechanism for expression to 'the rest of society'. Sadly, many of the
subtleties of poetry are lost on a large portion of the population. PGS
fills a needed void in providing the creatively frustrated with a forum
for
expression. I am thankful for PGS as a means of emotional sublimation.
I think Tommy's messages gets at the real matter: what IQ tests actually
measure may be less a matter of personal creativity and more a matter of
educational exposure and cleverness. The fact IQ tests are not
stringently
monitored is but one symptom of a far broader question, that of what is
being measured and with what yardstick.
-pmp (who really waxed loquacious when he spewed this e-mail out!)
Poetic Portrait-Tod Jacobs
Born May 20 1953-Central Illinois (still reside in same geographic
area)
Became aware in the latter part of
fifties-early sixties, which would
most likely explain my liberal leanings. Graduated from high school.
Attended and graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree
in Mortuary Science-became licensed and practiced for several years
before
placing my license on inactive status (the work became depressing and
found myself becoming more and more anti-funeral service).
Currently, and for the last three and one half
years, I have been
employed as an administrative assistant for a state trade association in
Illinois. I am a musician, composer, poet, animal lover, avid runner and
hiker.
I'm also a vegetarian (Have been married twice-currently single. Had one
child, who passed away in 1988 as a result of multiple birth anomalies).
