Intelligence and education are not necessarily related

[All Along The Watchtower]

I've come across some people who seem to equate "intelligence" with "education." Yet there are plenty of examples of intelligent people who were not "well-educated."

For example, George Carlin was a brilliant, brilliant man. He had terrible grades and dropped out of high school, never to be "educated" again.

I've talked to a farm worker whose IQ is in the 140s. And I believe him-he's smarter and more astute than most of us city-slickers (which includes me! )

Conversely, George W. Bush was an MBA....

[RI]

Conversely, George W. Bush was an MBA....

A business degree is not an education.

[Gustaf]

That is nonsense. One always determines the other.

[anvi]

Oh, I totally agree.  I've been involved in higher ed in one way or another for more than two decades total, and there are people in education that couldn't hit a bullet with the side of a barn.  I've been known to do and say stupid sh*t all the time myself, and while I know a few things about a limited number of topics, I know and understand nothing about most things in the world.  People have different strengths and weaknesses in all walks of life.   So understand the weaknesses as natural human limitations and appreciate people's strengths wherever you find them. 

[Lief 🗽]

It's only not true if you very narrowly define education as formal schooling. Graduating with a degree from a formal institution of learning doesn't necessarily mean that you have been educated, and likewise educating oneself does not necessarily require having graduated from a formal institution of learning.

But very intelligent people clearly do have some foundation of (necessarily learned) knowledge upon which their brilliance is based.

[Politico]

I have met folks who are intelligent but do not possess a formal education beyond the ordinary (i.e., high school or whatnot). Likewise, I have worked with quite a few imbeciles who possess the highest caliber of education imaginable thanks to their parents. In other words, there is evidence that being formally educated does not necessarily cause one to be intelligent nor does being intelligent necessarily cause one to be formally educated. But I think that is kind of self-evident, really, and there is still a prevalent association between intelligence and education. This is partly why firms use the latter as a signal/proxy of the former.

[LastVoter]

If intelligence is IQ then they are pretty related. If you were to design a test that tested a person's ability to reason that disregarded previous education(test was completely neutral and most likely unknown subjects to both groups), the correlation would  a lot weaker.

[Gustaf]

If intelligence is IQ then they are pretty related. If you were to design a test that tested a person's ability to reason that disregarded previous education(test was completely neutral and most likely unknown subjects to both groups), the correlation would  a lot weaker.

You're saying that a measure of intelligence which was independent of education would not be very dependent on education? I'd contest that, for sure.

[LastVoter]

If intelligence is IQ then they are pretty related. If you were to design a test that tested a person's ability to reason that disregarded previous education(test was completely neutral and most likely unknown subjects to both groups), the correlation would  a lot weaker.

You're saying that a measure of intelligence which was independent of education would not be very dependent on education? I'd contest that, for sure.

From which side?

[dead0man]

ummmm....duh?  Obviously being smart would make getting an education easier, but clearly there are very smart people with little education and there are amazingly stupid people with impressive degrees.  There may be some correlation, but in my experience there hasn't been much of one.

[© tweed]

I've often thought a person with an IQ of 115-125 has some distinct advantages over someone with a 145-155+, the way the current system is set up.  at least in certain fields and up to a certain point.

[All Along The Watchtower]

I've often thought a person with an IQ of 115-125 has some distinct advantages over someone with a 145-155+, the way the current system is set up.  at least in certain fields and up to a certain point.

The person with an IQ of 115-125, generally speaking, can relate to a lot more people than the person with the IQ of 145-155+