A New Theory of Human Intelligence: Scott Barry Kaufman (Transcript)

Here is the full transcript of Scott Barry Kaufman’s talk titled “A New Theory of Human Intelligence” at TEDxZumbroRiver conference.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Rethinking Human Intelligence

I would like to offer you today a broader definition of human intelligence. One that I think takes into account the whole person, both our deepest challenges as well as our most profound strengths. I believe our standard model of intelligence is systematically letting far too many kids fall between the cracks in an educational system that has such limited notions of human potential. Let me share with you two school evaluations that I think do a nice job illustrating this point.

So, this one is a middle school assessment about a quiet but friendly and hardworking young man who’s enrolled in a small private academy. Depending on the subject, he works at a variety of different grade levels. His teachers report he’s a willing participant in every facet of school and becomes fervent, even obsessive, about activities of particular interest, showing superior grasp of academic concepts in his homework, class discussions, and projects. He occasionally suggests alternatives to teacher-directed assignments so that he can demonstrate his comprehension and skill. As a result, his relationships with peers, older students with mutual interests, and adults continue to improve.

Okay, now I want to show you another school evaluation about an eight-year-old boy who was referred to a neurologist. According to this neurologist, information provided by mother and observations in the office setting indicate that difficulties displayed have a multifactorial basis, including attention deficit hyperactive disorder, mild oppositional defiant disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and mild unevenness in skill development. Now I want to ask you all a question.

Raise your hand if you thought I was talking about two completely different children.

So, I see some hands here. I mean, would it surprise anyone in this room to know that this was actually the same kid, Blaine, at different points in this kid’s life? One when he was eight years old and one in middle school.

The Case of Twice Exceptional Students

Do you think, just looking at this report, by the way, these are the recommendations of this kid. We have a whole bunch of things including counseling, medication, social interventions, behavioral management. Is there anything in this evaluation that would have allowed you to predict this kid? I want you to think about that for a second.

In recent years, a number of very thoughtful educators, clinicians, psychologists, and parents have identified the unique needs and learning styles of a particular classification of students called the twice exceptional student. So, I want to tell you today about these twice exceptional students. What you find is that twice exceptional students simultaneously have exemplary strengths as well as extraordinary challenges. So, you may see the child could have difficulty with written expression, high anxiety, could become easily frustrated, difficulty with social interactions, uneven academic performance, while also having a rich vocabulary, being resourceful, being curious, imaginative, creative, having a special talent or interest, all in a single package.

Now, it’s estimated there are about 300,000 of these kids in this country, but I think that’s a gross underestimate for a number of reasons. For one, I don’t think we fully realize that a lot of these challenges can be strengths in the right context, but I also think we have a really narrow notion of strengths to begin with. So, I think in order to really find out how many of these kids are falling through the cracks and really get the best out of these students, I think we need to take into account a 4C model. So, we need to take into account capacity, competence, commitment, and creativity.

Understanding Capacity, Competence, and Creativity

Importantly, they’re not all the same thing. You often, you do sometimes see them all in the same package, but I think it’s really important to differentiate them from each other. So, first of all, what is the difference between capacity and competence? Well, here’s a chart of so-called, of one of our biggest metrics of potential, IQ, the IQ test.

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Most of you have heard of the IQ test. It’s supposed to forecast your ability to achieve academically on actual competence tests of standardized achievement. And what you see here is, yeah, it’s true. IQ does correlate with standardized achievement.

I’m not saying that IQ is a useless measure of human, of potential in academics, but what you see here is that about 50% of individuals are underperforming based on their predicted measure of potential. And often unrecognized, 50% are overperforming based on their predicted measure of human potential. That often is not made nearly as much. We need to leave much more room in our models in school for children to surprise us.

The Role of Commitments and Creativity

Something is clearly not complete here in our understanding of human intelligence. But if we just stop there, there’s obviously more to getting out of possibility in children than just their academic performance, their capacity, or even their competence. We also have commitments. You see kids in special education have so many commitments, so much values.

They have so many values and passions for special interest areas, for things that they’re, for making the world a better place. I think something is deeply flawed with an education system where if a child comes to you and says, “Look, I’d really like resources to end violence or end bullying or to develop my musical talents, et cetera, et cetera,” that we say, “Hold on, we have to measure your IQ or look at your standardized test to see whether or not you score above a certain threshold in order to make the world a better place.”

I think something is deeply flawed with a system where we don’t just immediately say, “Great, how can we help you get there?” And in addition to commitment, I also see creativity as extraordinarily important. You find that creativity often comes in the most unexpected packages. So, you see these kids right here, these happy, engaged group of kids? Well, these are kids on the autism spectrum. Now, according to a lot of popular notions of autism, they’re not capable of deep social interactions and bonding.

But what you find when you actually work with kids in the autism spectrum is that they crave connection. They deeply crave connection. And my colleague, Matt Lerner, has been designing these improv exercises that puts them in this kind of situation where they can be funny with each other, where they can really bond with each other in neat, fun ways. And finds that instead of the social awkwardness that a lot of people, a lot of what may be referred to as neurotypical people would call social awkwardness among people on the autism spectrum, actually, it’s completely reframed as social creativity in this context. And they are genuinely creative in this context.

A Personal Reflection on Intelligence

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be called socially creative than socially awkward, and we have that framing. So, I really do believe we need a new theory of human intelligence, one that is more holistic and takes into account a child’s passions, personal goals, as well as their ability level. Because the more that we engage and are motivated to achieve, the more that increases our actual ability. And the more the ability achieves, it then becomes an upward spiral where then our engagement is greater as well.

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And most importantly, once it’s connected to a personal passion or a dream, then we can start to realize a real possibility we have. Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that this is deeply personal for me. When I was a child, I was diagnosed with a learning disability called central auditory processing disorder. It made it very difficult for me to process information in real time.

And I was held back in third grade. As a result, a lot of the kids and teachers thought I was… they took my slowness as an indicator of being stupid. And I was kept in special education until ninth grade when a teacher took me aside and she said, “You know, I see you.” I see your frustration. Why are you still here? And she inspired me. I realized I had no good answer to that question.

Overcoming Limitations

And she inspired me to see what I was possibly… what was I capable of? Could my capability exceed my capacity that everyone was telling me? And so, I took myself out of special education. I signed up for lots of classes.

I joined the school orchestra. I joined the choir. By my senior year, most of my friends were in gifted education. And I wanted to be in gifted education. I went to the school psychologist and I said, “You know, I would love to my senior year be in gifted education.” And he said, “Well, you look gifted. You know, that’s good.” Good start. I told him I’m getting straight A’s. I’m getting straight A’s in all my classes. He said, “That sounds gifted as well.” But I have to see if you’re actually gifted. I need to look at your IQ score when you’re age 11.

Challenging the Status Quo

So, he pulled out my test, my score at age 11, which turned out that my measured IQ at age 11, I’ve never revealed this in a talk, was borderline mentally, intellectually impaired. And he said, and he took out a bell curve and said, “Look up here on the right, these are the kids who are in your gifted class.” These are all your friends, basically. “You know, to the left here, about in the center is about average.”

And he moved to the left of the bell curve and said, “This is you. I’m sorry you don’t qualify for gifted education.” I was so upset and shy at that moment. And I just remember thinking to myself, “Gosh, at what point is my achievement allowed to trump my potential?”

When I’m actually doing it, at what point can that trump what was measured as my potential? I knew at that moment that I wanted to do something to change the system. And I applied to Carnegie Mellon University and put in a personal statement. I said, “Look, I really want to change our metrics of human potential.”

A Journey Through Rejection and Persistence

And I think far too many people are falling between the cracks in terms of our standard models. And they rejected me to Carnegie Mellon. They said, “Sorry, your SAT scores are not high enough to redefine intelligence.” Again, again, I was rejected because they were looking at my SAT scores potential over what I was trying to show them right in front of their face.

So, I looked at the different departments at Carnegie Mellon to see which ones don’t look at SAT scores. And I found the opera department. I went in the following week, did not tell the opera department I was already rejected by their university. And I said, “Hi, I just love opera.”

And I’d like to audition. And I sang “Stars” from Les Miserables, sang my heart out. And they accepted me on a partial scholarship to Carnegie Mellon University for my singing ability. Apparently, the departments don’t talk to each other very much.

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Finding a Way

I was just rejected. Once I got to Carnegie Mellon, I should say it’s a lovely department, no disrespect. I endured a full semester of dance classes and ballet and acting classes. I’m a terrible actor. Singing classes, not a bad, not a terrible singer.

And I went in second semester freshman year to the psychology department at Carnegie Mellon, my heart beating so fast, trying to pretend I hadn’t been planning this my whole life. And I walked into the department. And the secretary was there eating a bologna sandwich. And I said, “Hey, I just took a course in psychology. I loved it.” Do you think maybe I could be a minor in psychology? It’s called foot-in-the-door technique.

Realizing Potential Against the Odds

You start small and work up. And she’s like, “Whatever, no one’s ever been as excited to be a minor in psychology at Carnegie Mellon.” She’s like, “Just sign this paper.” I remember as I was skipping back in my tights because I’d just come from dance class that day, I remember thinking to myself, “Would this paper in my hand, my gosh, this is all it came down to in life, was finding a way to sign the paper, to get to that space where there was high expectations for everyone, where everyone just saw a different aspect of me.”

And there was no question. All she wanted to do was finish her bologna sandwich. She didn’t ask to say, “Well, I’m sorry, let me see, what are your SAT scores?” Or sit down and let me have you take an IQ test. No, I was there. I had figured a strategy through my commitment and creativity to get there. And once I was there, it didn’t matter anymore what my potential was.

A Triumph of Determination

So, the following semester, I went back to the same secretary. I think somehow she was still eating the same bologna sandwich. I don’t know how that’s possible. But I said, “Look, I would like to be a major in psychology.” I took another course, and it was just even better than the first. “Who knew this department would have such a good psychology department?” And she said, “Fine, just sign these two pieces of paper.” You can have whatever you want.

So, I changed my major to psychology. And then working my way up, I graduated Phi Beta Kappa, straight A’s, Carnegie Mellon, got accepted to Yale University for a PhD program. “Oh, thank you.” Thank you.

A New Theory of Human Intelligence

And in 2009, I actually did graduate from Yale with a PhD. And my dissertation was “A New Theory of Human Intelligence.” So now, I’ve seen, through personal experience, as well as lots and lots of research, just how many kids really are falling between the cracks.

I think that if we’re ever going to get the best out of students, we need to really understand this coexistence of ability and disability, not treat them as opposites, not have gifted education here and special education here and set up this false dichotomy in our school system that we only have these two binary characters, these two binary categories.

I think in order to really see the true possibilities in all students, we need to have a theory of intelligence that is holistic and really takes into account and appreciates the whole person. Thank you so much.