Twit Post: Why Mensa is ridiculous

(I promise I will get away from twit posting (defined as short posts with little analysis) soon. I have just been really busy.)



This video just highlights what is wrong with the inclusion criteria for Mensa (the group of 'really smart people'). This girl is essentially a memory machine. I think it is horrible that we have reduced the 'intelligence' of a person to their ability to verbally recite things. It is really sad. Should not intelligence be the ability to make connections, to think rationally, to invent or innovate, etc.? When did we get away from that. While I am not saying this girl is not smart, I am saying there is no evidence either way based on this video. (For reference there have been about 4 videos like this recently where a 'smart' kid is brought on and then just shown to be an encyclopedia on something. One I remember was that she knew all the presidents forwards and backwards.)

Now what does this mean for this little girl? Everyone will always be telling her she is smart which is a self-fulfilling prophecy just as much as the converse is. Thus she likely has a more productive and fulfilling life ahead of her as a result of this. The question is, 'For such a trivial trick why not get more kids recognized as "smart" and give them a leg up in life?' I think that is an important question to ask as it returns to the heart of the issue. Now of course if she had devised a new quantum unification theory instead of just reciting facts, well then she wouldn't have even needed the smart term anyway.