Education and Intelligence: Different sides of the coin or the different coins?
“Education is no substitute for intelligence,” said Frank Herbert and who wouldn’t agree to this considering the global pandemic we are amidst, where even people educated have a reluctant behaviour towards the safety norms to be followed as they completely deny the existence of a pandemic. Despite the death rates and the numbers on the screen about individuals being infected with the coronavirus each day, some people refuse to wear masks, adapt social distancing and proper sanitisation. We believe this is not a result of lack of education rather lack of intelligence. We have come across highly educated celebrities and public figures travelling, making plans to Goa, hosting parties during a pandemic whereas people with not even a minimum level of education are practising all the safety measures possible.
This behaviour often comes as a surprise to people because of the conventional belief which presents education and intelligence to be one rather than two separate entities who are interdependent however it is circumstances like these that prove this notion to be entirely wrong. This certainly doesn’t mean that one’s education may have very little to no impact on their intelligence but it simply affirms that the two aspects are not interdependent.
So the question that arises: To what degree is being educated mistaken with being intelligent in our society?
And the convenient answer to this question is very intensely. The emphasis of the contemporary societal settings on education and its significance ends up portraying intelligence as a result of education instead of an aspect that exists on the same plane as education. One of the prominent examples of the emphasis of society on education is how the management industry operates. It has become mandatory for managers to have an education in managerial studies, be it Masters, in a management programme have become a mandatory requirement.
The foundation of this structure completely depends upon how education is primary to the art of managing however it stands incorrect when we consider the generations before us who despite lacking formal education had remarkable managing skills enough to create excellent businessmen and CEOs like Dhirubhai Ambani, Pete Cashmore, Gautam Adani, Henry Ford and many more. Such real-life examples prove intelligence to be the apex out of the two making education equally important if not more.
Intelligence will forever be innate and education something external which we will receive through other mediums but both are meant for the upliftment of an individual; therefore the presence of one and the absence of the other is bound to create a flux.
Education and intelligence both involve learning which never truly ends considering the innumerable learnings out there which an individual is not even aware of. This makes learning essential and more primary than intelligence and education, and the perception that education is the only way to go about learning is rather traditional after all there are a plethora of different ways to learn.
"I failed in some subjects in the exam, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an Engineer in Microsoft, and I am the owner of Microsoft"- Bill Gates
#education #intelligence
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An avid reader, researcher and versatile content writer who is still learning and enjoys the company of animals and books on a peaceful Sunday evening.
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