Benjamin Franklin, Woody Allen, and brilliant authors Mark Twain and Bernard Shaw are examples of men we'd describe as having brilliant minds.
Their great successes probably came as a surprise to their teachers because they were far from brilliant at school. In fact, they did very poorly in the academic setting.
When Albert Einstein was a young boy, he was expelled from school for his appalling academic performance. The teachers bluntly told his parents that he was just plain stupid and would never amount anything.
So, what happened? Did Einstein develop genius over time? No, his genius was there all along but he wasn't learning in a way that was optimal for him.
All of us are born ignorant but nobody's born stupid. It's education and the way we learn that shape us. If we learn the right way, our brilliance will be shaped early on.
If we’re not learning the right way, we can really struggle and be told by others (and convince ourselves) that we're dumb.
The above examples have driven some radical scholars to argue that formal education can actually kill intelligence rather than foster it.
It's a compelling argument because oftentimes, formal education systems don't address the ways in which people learn.
However, intelligence never dies. It can be revived when we start learning the way we should.
