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Tuesday, 09 January 2007 16:03 |
| | Janese Johnson |
Often, when we say that someone is intelligent, we are referring to his or her mental capacity and IQ.
This belief can be quite limiting for all of us if we continue to think of intelligence only as a mental experience.
We are multifaceted beings who operate on many levels at the same time.
One form of intelligence that I want to address in this weekës column is known as emotional intelligence, which is the innate potential to feel, use, communicate, recognize, remember, learn from, manage and understand emotions.
Even
though humans have clearly been operating with emotional intelligence
since the beginning of time, the definition was spelled out fairly
recently ÇƒÓ in 2005. The definition was derived from the research work
of Jack Mayer and Peter Salovey. They felt strongly that recognizing
children who have higher emotional intelligence will prevent the damage
that they believe that educational institutions do by only recognizing
mental intelligence.
I have also seen
the negative effects that the typical education system has had on one
of my daughters, who I believe has a higher-than-average emotional
intelligence. However, because she has a lower-than-average IQ, she has
been categorized and put into "special needs" classes where the main
goal is to pass her through to pass the tests.
Unfortunately,
that did not work for her and, with her self-esteem broken, she quit
school. My daughter is amazing in so many ways ÇƒÓ she can feel all that
is going on around her; she can read people like a book and communicate
in ways that go straight to the soul.
However, because
she has believed the "system" that she is not smart and will not do
much in her life, she is aimlessly wandering through life. I hope that
one day she will "know" her true level of intelligence and create her
own success from that.
How many of our young people have been told that they are not "smart" and believed it?
What is this
doing to the whole of society, when there are so many who have not been
recognized for their personal intelligence and brilliance?
It seems that we are continually perpetuating the myth of what constitutes intelligence only to support a lopsided society.
How can the ones
with strong emotional intelligence really get ahead in life if their
true abilities and ways of seeing life are not even recognized as
intelligence?
These are the questions that we should ponder so that we can come up with some clearer answers for this challenge.
Our national community has greatly rewarded those who have high IQs and low EQs.
We have all met
at least one person in our lives who has high mental intelligence, but
low emotional intelligence. How are they faring?
They often have
the high paying jobs but spend much of their life in a goal-oriented
manner because their low emotional intelligence isnët helping them
socially. And then there are those who are fortunate to have both areas
covered.
It seems as a
community we must look at and honor all beings within the community. It
also seems that by recognizing emotional intelligence in others and
supporting them as contributing, healthy beings, we could change the
high school drop-out rate, which then affects many other areas.
Once emotional
intelligence is taken more seriously, our schools can teach the
children according to their way of perceiving the world and level of
emotional and mental intelligence without making anyone wrong.
Fortunately, there are some schools that are taking this approach by teaching through different learning styles.
Hopefully this way of teaching our young will continue to blossom so that we can have a more balanced community.
So if you meet
someone that might see life a little differently or learn a little
differently then you do, go a little deeper in your own self and
respect that there are so many different ways to learn, to think and to
be.
Diversity is the tapestry that has woven us all together. Letës honor and accept it.
ï
Janese Johnson
has been doing intuitive counseling nationally for more than 20 years.
She may be contacted at janesej-at-buncombe.main.nc.us.
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