Curiosity and Intelligence

Mount Vernon Presbyterian School and the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation hosted the 3rd annual Council on Innovation last Friday. Students in the Upper School iDiploma cohorts read and discussed the article ‘Curiosity is as Important as Intelligence‘ beforehand, then listened as the panel of external experts discussed the same article.

The conversation was interesting. Here are a few of the quotes and questions I captured…

Complexity is an indicator of change.

No one says, “I’m going to manage complexity today.” (As HOMS, I might disagree)

How much is innate and how much ‘around the margins’ can you change? CQ, IQ, EQ, SQ? What is the role of genetics?

I’m curious about self-awareness, self-regulation, and human nature.

We have as many internal genetic traits as we do external (tall, fast, etc.) There is no entitlement for genetic traits.

What role does hard work play? Einstein has a quote about everything. Somewhere in that hard work something is going to happen. I want to hire the hard workers and then give them the coaching.

Technology is an enabler of curiosity (and intelligence).

Curiosity does not equal intelligence. Sometimes curiosity leads us to bad stuff.

How can EQ and CQ be more heavily weighted in the college admissions process? Does this become the new diversity issue? Part of me worries about that.

What would the author have said if he had 6 more pages?

I believe curiosity is MORE important than intelligence.

I don’t hire anyone based on where they went to school, but what they’ve accomplished and how they present themselves.

The SAT is a pretty good predictor of what one’s grades will be like in their first year of college. That’s about it.

If it’s not a good predictor, but that’s what’s being used, what can we do to change the metric?