I don't really like talking about IQ, because I know it's only a rule of thumb. You can lump people together according to where they score, and line them up, and most of the time they will come out in about the same place, but the scores are meaningless. You can get 130 on one test and 160 on another, which is why MENSA just says, top 2%, on any standardized test.
I know I test high. I know people who don't test high resent people who do test high. I don't think I am necessarily smarter than people who don't test high. Even if I were, so what? What matters is what you can do. It's nice to test high, you get special benefits, but I feel creepy accepting them, like I get to ride at the front of the bus and everyone else at the back.
My kids are in GT Center, which is much nicer than regular public school, on the basis of test scores, and there is just this arbitrary cut-off at 150, so 149 IQ won't make it, which is crazy. Although they do define giftedness as having talents, that isn't how kids are put into the centers, it's on this arbitrary cutoff on a test which isn't all that accurate, anyway.
And then there is the problem of the people who test high and never do anything with it.
And the people who think that social problems should be addressed on the basis of test scores.
All in all, it's very problematic. I don't think about it much at all. |
