Nigel 
January 8th, 2010
I'm not very bright, but I'm cute and I love you.
This is a question many people ask themselves, and sadly the answer can feel devastating. In the last twenty four hours I’ve encountered a couple of items which give a strikingly fresh perspective on this.
Was Franco intelligent?
We recently caught a TV program about the Spanish civil war. It was interesting, and highlighted my ignorance on the matter. I knew it happened in Spain (obviously) during that odd period of unrest and depression between the two world wars. I knew the winners were led by a guy called Franco. And that was it. So I borrowed a couple of books from the library.
The Nationalists were battling the Monarchists. Each group was made up of a pretty mixed bunch of people who spent a lot of time and effort disagreeing with each other rather than cooperating to win the war. A key difference was that the Nationalists were led by Franco, yet oddly he is described as ‘not one of the century’s great intellects’ and characterised by the statement that ‘his head was a cemetery of dead ideas’.
So if the guy was so stupid how come he won? It seems a key factor was his ability to lead. He brought the bickering groups on his side together, enabled them to see that their differences were minor compared with what they had in common, and acted as a single figure head for his side. Now that kind of skill is rare. We could do with more of it in our schools, hospitals, businesses, political parties, even charity shops. Franco may have been what some people call ‘thick’, but there was at least one way in which he displayed awesome intelligence. I guess he just wouldn’t have passed many exams.
Is Lenny Henry intelligent?
Lenny is a successful and much loved comedian here in the UK. This morning on the radio he described how as a youngster he was troubled by not being able to do Maths. This made him feel totally useless. If you can’t do Maths, what can you do? Well quite a lot actually. He certainly did. Now if we were looking for someone to head up the astrophysics department Lenny’s would not be the first name to come to mind. But so what?
During the post grad year of training to be a teacher I wanted to do my dissertation on intelligence but was dissuaded. Intelligence, the man said, is far too difficult a topic for you. You’re not an expert trained in psychology.
Hmmm.
Looking back, this advice said more about the lecturer’s failure to sort ideas out in his own mind. At the level of a dissertation ‘intelligence’ could have been fascinating. Okay, so there’s a range of theories. To some extent these are just different ways of looking at things. Let’s consider one approach.
In 1983 Howard Gardner published his ground-breaking book “Frames of Mind”. I’ve got a copy in the attic. It’s not written as popular science, so you might prefer the summary here on Wikipedia. In outline he suggested that there is not just a single ‘intelligence’ thing as supposedly found using IQ tests. He identified seven different types of intelligence, each of great value. We’re all good at some, weak at others, and the mix is part of who we are. It influences what types of stuff we’re most likely to do well at.
Franco must have been very strong in interpersonal intelligence. He was good at dealing with people. He knew how to influence and motivate them.
Lenny Henry would also score high on this one, but also is good with bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence. Watch the way he uses his face and body and voice.
I could get hung up over finding it so hard to remember names and faces. But it’s rather more sensible to feel good about what I can do, and choose a direction based on the talent that is there.
Books quoted above
The first statement above about Franco is from “Aspects of European History 1789-1980″ by Stephen J. Lee (first published 1987).
The second is from “The Spanish Civil War” edited by A.Puzzo (published 1969).
Yes, I unearthed them in my old school library.
