You are far more intelligent than that.<\/p>\n
I wrote about how scientists disproved<\/a> the hypothesis that right-brained people are creative and left-brained people are analytical. Our creative and analytic skills live in both halves of our brains. Everyone possesses both artistic and logical capabilities.<\/p>\n When you designate yourself as right-brained creative or left-brained analytical, you put limits on yourself that don\u2019t exist. The same is true of thinking you are a visual learner rather than a verbal or auditory one.<\/p>\n Everyone has taken a course, not studied enough, gotten a C or a D or an F, and then blamed either the teacher or \u201ctype of teaching\u201d favored by the teacher. Will everyone who\u2019s done this raise a hand? I am raising my hand.<\/p>\n To convince ourselves we are smart, we tell everyone we are so dumb we can only learn through one technique. That\u2019s not that smart.<\/p>\n The truth is, we didn\u2019t try hard enough. We didn\u2019t make the effort on our own to learn something new and now we don\u2019t want to admit it. Sometimes, the course material is difficult, or we don\u2019t have enough time. More likely, unjustified feelings of inadequacy keep us inadequate. When I started teaching, the role that fear and expectation play in a classroom surprised me.<\/p>\n My first class of students made me immediately aware of the entitlement to intelligence we carry. We don\u2019t just want to appear to know everything; each one of us believes we should know everything. Our vast ignorance, individually and collectively, is an affront.<\/p>\n We won\u2019t acknowledge it either. Don\u2019t let any self-deprecation fool you. I know the faces and reactions of students when they are caught oblivious. We take classes, not because we are ignorant, but because we just haven\u2019t opened that book yet.<\/p>\n We\u2019re not stupid, you know.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u201cIf I don\u2019t make an effort, I won\u2019t fail\u201d is a coping mechanism reaching epidemic proportions.<\/p>\n The truth becomes hard to distinguish: no one else can learn for us. Sure, some teachers engage more than others, but good students study and learn regardless.<\/p>\n The natural learners of the world have tried to make studying easier for centuries. They created books, libraries, the Dewey Decimal System. Plenty of current world leaders became brilliant with just a library card. Many other \u201cautodidacts<\/a>\u201d lead without a college or high school degree.<\/p>\n They weren\u2019t born smart. They pursued the specializations that made them successful on their own, and they didn\u2019t even have the Internet yet. The Web and smartphones will give many more the opportunity.<\/p>\n