July is well underway, and we are celebrating Dis/ability Pride Month. I had the opportunity last week to attend a conference with veterinary medical educators focused on teaching innovation. I gave a presentation on my research that called into question the concept of smartness. If you’re like most folks, you probably refer to some people as smart without putting too much thought into what “being smart” means, or the implications of labeling some people as smart in the way that it then contrasts other people as not smart or less smart.
In many STEMM disciplines, including veterinary medicine and other biomedical sciences we associate someone being smart by their grades or exam scores. Yet this measure tends to value learners who are good test takers or good at memorizing over those who excel in emotional intelligence, or collaborative or social skills. These “soft” skills are relegated to not necessarily requiring one to be smart.
Beyond this, it’s important to also look at the history of standardized and high stakes tests in the United States. For instance, the IQ test was promoted by eugenicists and used as a tool to affirm that white, neurotypical people were the smartest as “proven” by their performance on such tests, which were (not coincidentally) developed by white, neurotypical people. These tests were used as an intelligence differentiator by race and ability to justify violence against people or color and/or neurodiverse people including through sterilization of some groups and/or institutionalization and segregation of oppressed groups.
Today we see implications of this sordid history. Black and Brown students in K-12 schools are disproportionately sent to special education and white students are disproportionately sent to gifted and talented programs, even when presenting with the same behaviors and aptitudes. Systems like racism and ableism converge to create a standard of smartness that simultaneously castigate many people of color as well neurodiverse people to the margins of this realm.
We need to question the construct of smartness, and acknowledge the history and polarizing effect of that construction that has negated the brilliance of many!
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