Jeannette Sefcik: Everyone is smart, just in different ways

I do honestly believe that everyone is smart. But it’s also a benevolent viewpoint because it helps me to appreciate and value other people.

There’s intelligence, and there’s smartness. Intelligence is what you’re born with, and smartness is what you add as you live and learn. Everyone has ways in which they are smart. No one is dumb (that is, unless they can’t speak). We can’t do much about our innate intelligence, measured as IQ. But we can become smarter.

As a society, I think we put too much emphasis on intelligence, partly because it’s so easy to recognize and envy. It takes more time to find and appreciate the various ways in which people are smart.

Let’s start with this stipulation – educated people are not necessarily smarter. Formal education can help in the smartness quest but using talents and self-educating can also improve cognition and performance.

On an individual level, with introspection, I think we each have a fairly good idea of how much original brain power we have, even if we’ve never had an IQ test. So, we pretty much know what we’re starting with, and we must accept our native potential. Also, in observing the people around us, we probably recognize the geniuses and those of markedly low intelligence.

However, most people are somewhere in between, in a category of average intelligence. Obviously, if we had to choose our level, we’d all like to be intelligent and smart, but we don’t get to choose. I’d say in the performance of life, smart is more important.

A highly intelligent person likely starts with an advantage because of a natural confidence and more successes early on. But intelligence is not destiny.

Being more motivated and working harder can narrow the gap, and even allow a person to surpass someone more intrinsically intelligent.

We need to recognize intelligence and build on it, but we also need to appreciate and reward people for the ways in which they perform smartly, both in their private life and in their public and work life.

Smart is an earned status. We must put effort into becoming smarter. Intelligent, on the other hand, is inherent and simply stems from genetic makeup.

We’re hearing increasingly about something termed “emotional intelligence.” First, I’d like to change the name and call it “emotional smartness,” because this kind of brain work is not innate, and it involves the heart as well as the mind.

Emotional intelligence (also known as emotional quotient or EQ) can be defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, and manage emotions. EQ matters just as much as IQ for being happy and successful, and it’s certainly an area where people can improve and become smarter.

Clearly, in this short thesis about intelligence vs. smartness, I am barely touching on an overly complex and multifaceted topic. Intelligence is quite defined and measurable, but the concept of smart is much harder to pin down. I like this connotation of smart: “particularly good at learning or thinking about things” or “showing good judgment.”

In all the ways we associate with and get to know other people, let’s look for their individual smartness. Then we can respect and appreciate everyone for the unique ways they use both their inherent and their acquired brain power.

Jeanette Rusk Sefcik, Glendale, is a retired newspaper reporter and editor, having worked at newspapers including the Tucson Citizen, Daily Spectrum in St. George, Southern Utah News in Kanab and Lake Powell Chronicle in Page, Ariz. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Arizona.