AS THE WORLD TURNS:
Those with superior intelligence need to learn to be wise
We live in an age when it is unfashionable to talk about the special responsibility of being gifted, because to do so acknowledges inequality of ability, which is elitist, and inequality of responsibilities, which is also elitist.
Because giftedness is not to be talked about, no one tells high-IQ children explicitly, forcefully and repeatedly that their intellectual talent is a gift. That they are not superior human beings, but lucky ones. That the gift brings with it obligations to be worthy of it. That among those obligations, the most important and most difficult is to aim not just at academic accomplishment, but at wisdom ….
The encouragement of wisdom requires being steeped in the study of ethics …. It is not enough that gifted children learn to be nice. They must know what it means to be good.
The encouragement of wisdom requires an advanced knowledge of history. Never has the aphorism about the fate of those who ignore history been more true.
All of the above are antithetical to the mindset that prevails in today’s schools at every level. The gifted should not be taught to be non-judgmental; they need to learn how to make accurate judgments.
They should not be taught to be equally respectful of Aztecs and Greeks; they should focus on the best that has come before them, which will mean a light dose of Aztecs and a heavy one of Greeks.
The primary purpose of their education should not be to let the little darlings express themselves, but to give them the tools and the intellectual discipline for expressing themselves as adults.
— from Charles Murray, “Aztecs vs. Greeks”, Opinion Journal (from The Wall Street Journal editorial page), January 18, 2007.
URL: www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009541
