Scott Barry Kaufman: Redefining Intelligence

As a child, psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman is told by a school psychologist that he's doomed by a low IQ score.

Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, is an author, researcher, speaker, and public science communicator who is interested in using psychological science to help all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and meaningful life. He is a professor of positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of 7 other books, including Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined and Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (with Carolyn Gregoire). His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review, and he writes a blog at Scientific American called Beautiful Minds. Kaufman is also host of The Psychology Podcast.

This story originally aired on Dec. 22, 2017 in an episode titled “The Science of Growing Up.”

 
 

Story Transcript

So about a couple of weeks ago, I was in a really, really good mood.  I was in Philadelphia.  I was walking through the park and the birds were chirping and the sun was out and I was really happy, and I looked over and I saw an older man on the park bench holding his nose.  His nose was bleeding.  I looked at him and, suddenly, a feeling of dread came over me.  I wasn’t quite sure why. 

I sat at a park bench near him and started thinking to myself, “Why am I feeling this way?  I’m feeling scared.  I’m feeling like I’m a little kid again.  This is terrible.  I was in such a good mood.”  And then it all comes back. 

I remember the first couple of years of my life I was practically deaf.  I had a lot of fluid in my ears and they diagnosed me with a learning disability, Central Auditory Processing Disorder.  I was placed in special ed.  I had to repeat third grade as a result of this.  I remember being bullied a lot in third grade over this and kept in special ed.  I was kept in special ed until ninth grade, kind of unquestioningly.  I felt as though I was capable of more challenges, but I felt like who was I to question any of the authorities on this? So I was kept in special ed until ninth grade. 

I remember this one day in ninth grade when they had us go to a special room where you retake tests that are untimed during the regular period because you're in special ed, and there was this teacher who took me aside after class and said, you know, “Why are you here?” 

I said, “Well, first of all, I’m sorry for not taking this test.  It’s untimed.  I have the rest of my life to take it so I've kind of been daydreaming.” 

And she's like, “You know, I think I see you.  Why are you here?” 

I started thinking to myself, “Why am I here?”  And it quickly turned into, “Yeah, why am I here?  Why am I here?” 

And I decided to just take myself out of special education.  I had a big meeting with everyone, the school psychologist and everyone, and they let me out on a trial basis.  They were like, “If you fail, you're gonna have to come back.” 

And I was like, “Thanks for that vote of confidence, guys.  That’s really supportive, full supportive.” 

So when I got out, I signed up for almost every class I could imagine.  I signed up for the school orchestra.  My grandfather was a cellist in the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and he taught me how to play cello.  And my senior year I had a whole bunch of friends in gifted education and I decided that I wanted to join gifted education. 

So I went up to the gifted education teacher and I said, “You know what?  Could I join gifted education?” 

The teacher said, “You certainly look gifted.” 

I was like, “Okay.”  I guess that’s good, a good start. 

“The only thing is you have to get a formal diagnosis.” 

I was like, “No.” 

“You should have to go to the school psychologist.” 

I'd been trying to keep my label totally secret up to that moment.  It’s like senior year of high school and I was like, “Please, don’t look at my past.” 

So I went to the school psychologist and the school psychologist looked at me, he's like, “Oh, yes.  She's right.  You do look gifted.  Why don’t you just sit here?  I just need to check your IQ score when you're eleven years old.  I’m sure it’s high.” 

I’m like, “What?  No.” 

So he comes back after the file and his entire demeanor has changed.  He's like, “Have a seat.”  And he pulls out a napkin and draws a bell curve on the napkin and he starts at the far right. 

He's like, “Look, these are basically all your friends.  These are all your friends in gifted education.”  He moved to the left, he moved to the middle line, which is average IQ, and he kept moving.  I was like, “When is this guy gonna stop?  How dumb am I?  I didn’t know I was that dumb, jeez.” 

And he moved to the left.  He said, “This is you.  I’m sorry.  You don’t qualify.” 

But I’m getting straight A’s and on honors classes.  I went from a C-D student, by the way, to straight A’s after I took myself out of special ed.  And I’m thinking to myself, “At what point does achievement trump potential?”  I didn’t say that out loud, but I was thinking that to myself.  I was really angry.

And he's like, “Sorry, these are the rules.” 

I checked out a book in the library on intelligence and it said what IQs are capable of achieving in life and then, my IQ, I found where it just told me and it said “not likely to graduate high school.”  I was like, “Screw that!” 

So I applied to Carnegie Mellon University which has a really good psychology program and I put in my personal statement how I want to redefine intelligence.  I don’t think the standard metrics are good indicators of intelligence.  They rejected me.  They said, “Sorry, your SAT scores aren’t high enough to redefine intelligence.” 

I was like, “That’s the most ironic bullshit I've ever heard.”  So I was like, “Do you hear yourself?”  Anyway, I was like…

So I got rejected because I wanted to redefine intelligence, my SAT scores weren’t high enough.  And so I looked at the different departments to see which departments didn’t look at SAT scores.  Of course I found the Opera Department. 

So I walked in the following week to the Opera Department and I was like, “Hi.  I've always wanted to be an opera singer,” and I sang “Stars” from Les Miserables, one of my favorite songs.  They apparently thought I was good.  They accepted me on a partial scholarship at Carnegie Mellon for my vocal abilities.  Don’t make me sing.  Apparently, the departments don’t talk to each other at Carnegie Mellon, because they’d just rejected me.  I was so happy they didn’t talk to each other. 

So I felt like a fraud, of course, imposter.  The whole first year I took dance classes, I did all these things I was terrible at.  I was like, “Why am I here on a partial scholarship for this?”  But anyway, by end of my freshman year I went to the Psychology Department.  I was so nervous.  The secretary was there kind of eating a bologna sandwich.  It was lunchtime and I was so nervous. 

I was like, “Look, I just took a course in psychology and I love it.  Do you think I could be a minor in psychology?” 

She said, “Sure, just sign this piece of paper.” 

I remember skipping home in my tights later that day because I had come from dance class earlier.  Wow, all that fighting and it all came down to just “sign the paper”?  Really? 

So I went back the following semester and I said, “Look, I took another course I loved even more.  Do you think I could be major in psychology?” 

She said, “Yeah, just sign these two pieces of paper.”  Sheesh, no one’s ever been this excited to be a minor in psychology at Carnegie Mellon. 

So I graduate Phi Beta Kappa in psychology as a major.  Thankfully, they never looked at my IQ score at age eleven or else it wouldn’t have been possible to predict that.  So I graduated and then, thankfully, I was accepted into Yale to do a PhD.  And in 2009 I did come up with a dissertation and redefined intelligence in my dissertation. 

That’s the most applause consecutively ever that I've ever received.  Thank you. 

So I’m back on the park bench, kind of the whole story just goes through me again, and then it hits me.  This guy with a bloody nose next to me is the school psychologist that I haven't seen in 20 years.  That’s where I know him from.  That’s why I’m feeling dread. 

So I think to myself, “What do I do?  This is crazy.  Do I punch him and give him a bigger bloody nose?  Do I show compassion?  I don't know what to do.”  So I just go really nervous.  I’m really nervous, I stand up, and I go to him.

I’m like, “Hey,” and I remembered his name.  I said, “Are you so-and-so?”

He said, “Yes, yes.” 

I said, “I was a student of yours a long time ago.” 

He's like, “Oh, that’s wonderful.” 

I was like, “Do you think maybe I could just sit down and talk to you for a second?” 

I sit down and he's like, “Sorry, you know, my nose bleeds periodically.  So anyway, I wanna tell you there's this kid that I’m helping who is just a really stupid kid.  He just got 85 on his IQ test…”

And I’m like, “Really?  This guy hasn’t changed at all?  After 20 years we picked up exactly where we left off?”  I didn’t say that.  I’m thinking to myself, “I can’t believe he's telling me this story.” 

He's like, “Yeah, this kid, I’m helping this kid.  He's young.  His parents have abandoned him…”

But then I just calmed down a second.  I just look at him for who he is and I see, I realize, wow, he's human.  Yeah, he's telling this story but also he's bleeding.  He has a bloody nose.  He's in a vulnerable position right now and he also genuinely cares about helping this kid despite the sort of model that he's working under. 

Then I realize, wow, this person, I've been demonizing this person for 20 years.  In all my stories, he's been the evil school psychologist.  And I realized it’s just a matter of information.  He's just kind of looking through the lens of trying to help this kid of what he knows. 

So I said, “Look, just tell me one good thing about this child.  I work in the field of twice exceptional children.  This is the field that I've gone into.  You actually inspired me to go into that field.”  I didn’t really tell him too much of the story.  “And these kids simultaneously have an area of giftedness but also learning disability -- could it be that this is what you're dealing with here?” 

He thought about it.  He's like, “Wow, no one’s ever asked me that question before.  You know what?  He's a DJ.  He actually loves Dj-ing and he's good at that.” 

I was like, “You just told me for like ten minutes all the things bad about this kid.  Maybe you could kind of build off that.”

Then we had another fifteen minutes of discussion, pleasant conversation, and we said our goodbyes.  As I’m walking away, I feel all that dread just completely leave my body.  This entire narrative this story, what I built him up to be, all these feelings, resentment that I've held towards him just disappeared.  And I realized that that’s my purpose in life.  Just share the information.