I’m not so sure that intellect makes that much difference. Near as I can tell, how much of our brain power we use is decided before we even start school. I think conversation is how parents teach their children how to think. Families that talk with each other – hold real conversations – is the key. Reading is a poor substitute for conversation.
Some families talk about everything from personal problems, to jobs, each other, laundry, cooking and current events. Without conversation, thinking is invisible. Through conversations children learn how people use their minds to sort out information, put ideas together, learn, exchange information, form opinions, etc. Since children in these families are constantly exposed to “thinking out loud” they learn to think.
Conversation encourages children to think out loud, so adults know what they are thinking, how they are thinking or if they are thinking at all. When my kids were young, a lot of their friends commented on how much they loved eating dinner with our family – because we talked. These children were hungry for conversation – not food. Quite frankly, that always made me uncomfortable. It seemed to me, that their parents should know how their children think – not me.
Children who rarely hear conversations at home, have no idea how to think. Interestingly enough, I noticed that families where regular conversations were not part of their daily lives were usually conventional (meaning patriarchal). These father knows best, no explanation expected or allowed families also relied on authority figures to work things out for them.
It’s not intelligence, but the ability to use intelligence that matters.
Most of my most ultra-conservative friends got vaccinated before I did. Why? Because they have so much experience talking to people, they trust themselves to judge the quality of information people share with them. These grassroots conservatives are the only people who can reach the no-vaccine people and they are doing all they can. Unfortunately, even though they are authority figures in their social groups, they can’t compete with Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump.
