No one knows. No one. If you're looking for the answer to this question, you'll have to look elsewhere. Can you be self-supporting if you have a severe cognitive or language impairment? The chances are less hopeful. I once had a quote on my bulletin board at the beginning of the school year. It was from Mark C. Baker (The Atoms of Language. 2001), "Humans swim in an ocean of language." I still think about that quote. Especially since I have been to Sweden, where my Swedish produced one good sentence in three weeks, but I couldn't understand the response. In Cuba, the people did not speak English very much. Yet we used body language and a small dictionary to get through conversations and began to understand each other surprisingly well. The combination of cognitive, social and language skills is very powerful.
However, just having those skills at an exceptional level does not insure that a person will be able to be self-supporting as an adult. Ask any addict. Whether their addiction is drugs, spending, sex or gambling, they often trip over their own denial. This can be a potent force in preventing recovery.
Add mental illness, and bffs or family members can end a relationship on a sour note. Jobs can be hard to maintain. I had planned to write every month on this topic, but found myself floundering this summer in the wake of just such a loss.
My parents were convinced that intelligence was the most important part of the psyche. It can do amazing things. I credit my creativity to them and their high intelligence, as well as a good school system that encouraged achievement. The more ideas you are exposed to, the more you can manipulate, right? Yet my parents had no idea how much they could have achieved. They rose out of poverty into the middle class and put three kids through college, but envied those who had much more money than they did. Because of their childhoods, they denied the spiritual aspect of life. Even though they lived by incredibly strong morals, they didn't see how much more a person can do to help others in the world. We children were our parents' world.
Spiritual intelligence is defined by Dorothy Sisk as using a multisensory approach to access one's inner knowledge to solve global problems. The common themes among most world religions are to love others, treat others as you would like to be treated, feed and care for the poor, serve others, focus on the present, be honest and ethical, take responsibility for your actions, make amends for wrongs you have done, make peace and be present in a community. This form of intelligence has not been studied as much because it is hard to measure, but it is extremely important for leaving an honorable legacy for the future.
However, just having those skills at an exceptional level does not insure that a person will be able to be self-supporting as an adult. Ask any addict. Whether their addiction is drugs, spending, sex or gambling, they often trip over their own denial. This can be a potent force in preventing recovery.
Add mental illness, and bffs or family members can end a relationship on a sour note. Jobs can be hard to maintain. I had planned to write every month on this topic, but found myself floundering this summer in the wake of just such a loss.
My parents were convinced that intelligence was the most important part of the psyche. It can do amazing things. I credit my creativity to them and their high intelligence, as well as a good school system that encouraged achievement. The more ideas you are exposed to, the more you can manipulate, right? Yet my parents had no idea how much they could have achieved. They rose out of poverty into the middle class and put three kids through college, but envied those who had much more money than they did. Because of their childhoods, they denied the spiritual aspect of life. Even though they lived by incredibly strong morals, they didn't see how much more a person can do to help others in the world. We children were our parents' world.
Spiritual intelligence is defined by Dorothy Sisk as using a multisensory approach to access one's inner knowledge to solve global problems. The common themes among most world religions are to love others, treat others as you would like to be treated, feed and care for the poor, serve others, focus on the present, be honest and ethical, take responsibility for your actions, make amends for wrongs you have done, make peace and be present in a community. This form of intelligence has not been studied as much because it is hard to measure, but it is extremely important for leaving an honorable legacy for the future.
Of the many kinds of intelligence that impacts our lives and the lives of others, perhaps social intelligence is the most important. I have had students with autism who didn't develop beyond preschool. They appear cognitively delayed because of their social skills. Doug Sandler lists ten basic social skills needed by adults at his article Ten Social Skills Essential for Success.
I think this is why it is so hard to write about intelligence. I have taught children with Down Syndrome who have severe language and cognitive impairments and yet are popular because of their social skills. I have taught students with autism who can memorize words in order to read, but they have trouble recognizing behavior that is embarrassing for others. I have known gifted individuals who have such strong wills that they are certain they are right much of the time, making them difficult to get along with sometimes. It is a testament to the human condition that not one of us is like any other human and it is possible to accomplish amazing things with our lives.
