I have a high IQ and all the fun and problems that go along with it. I will not repeat the number, but it’s 1/1,000, or one out of a thousand people has an IQ this high. I think there is a Triple Nine Society I could join if I wanted to.
I read a lot about IQ, especially high IQ’s and high IQ people, mostly because I think I am subscribed to one of the Quora groups on intelligence of IQ or something. Because every Quora mail I get has at least one article about IQ stuff or high IQ stuff. This latest digest had I think four articles on IQ.
Quora is here if you have never heard of it. It is a pretty cool site. People ask all sorts of questions on there, and then the readers try to answer the questions. A lot of the people answering are quite smart, and if you read enough answers, frankly most every question gets answered correctly or satisfactorily. Of course there are lots of idiots who answer the questions wrong (especially on the IQ questions), but you can just spot them, note that they are wrong and why, and laugh at, chide or dismiss them, and then move on.
Anyway, one of the topics that comes up when discussing the gifted or people with very high IQ’s is that they are often misdiagnosed in school. They are often labeled retarded, learning disabled or mentally ill.
I had a math teacher in 7th grade, a big fat pig of a woman named Mrs. Swenson or Miss Swenson, I forget which. This was before the Ms. era, you know. I am not sure how well I did in math. I think I did ok. But I hated it. I had my best friend who sat in back and of me, and I forget what I would do, but somehow I would do things to make him laugh, I think maybe via the mirror-like glass of the cabinet next to us. Maybe making weird and funny faces in the glass reflection?
Anyway, this bitch demanded absolute silence, and I was a major pest for making people laugh to ruin the silence. She tried everything, but I kept screwing off, mostly because I hated her and also because I was developing a hint of a bad boy/pre-delinquent thing. Finally she put me out in the hallway with my own desk and chair to keep me away from the rest of the students. People would see me in the hallway and laugh in sympathy. I would joke with them about being exiled to the hallway. I was actually rather proud that I was such an asshole that I had to be separated from all of the other students for their own good.
I believe she notified my parents somehow. At some point, my Dad came down to the school and pretty much ordered her to put me back in the class. But she had these conferences with my Mom after school where she would go on about how weird I was. She was convinced that I was mentally retarded!
But I have now read that a lot of very high IQ kids get labeled retarded. I recall a story about a boy in second grade who refused to do any of the work and instead lay off the side of the class on his back and stared at the ceiling all day. Everyone was convinced that he was retarded, learning disabled or mentally ill. He was none of those things. His only problem was that he had an IQ of 150! The class bored the Hell out of him so badly that he refused to do the work. What was he doing while lying on his back looking at the ceiling? Doing what a lot of very smart people do: thinking!
And even I got mislabeled – the kid with the genius IQ got labeled retarded! Haha.
PS. That big fat pig Miss Swenson was later killed in a light plane crash. I was so happy when I heard that. I really hated that woman.