My IQ is 140, am I too smart to be a teacher?

Principal wrote:

I'm a high school principal, and I'm in charge of hiring staff. I hire only intelligent people with strong content knowledge, amazing interpersonal skills, and unflinching perseverance. For me to hire you, you have to be a fantastic teammate and be willing to grow and adapt with experience.

I like that you've state that you're passionate about the field, but I question the strength of your character based on your premise that teachers aren't smart. Your inflated ego could be a hindrance. My whole staff is at least slightly above average intelligence, but there's no correlation between excellent teaching and genius.

In short:,if you want to teach, go for it, but get over yourself first.

I'll bet you think of yourself as detail oriented and don't miss a trick from or by those kids or teachers. Never change.

By virtue of asking the question, I'd say you're too dumb to be a teacher. Your lack on understanding is profound.

The principalship is nothing of what you imply. Seeking control is a recipe for disaster in school administration. Dealing with kids like you has its challenges, but those pale n comparison to adult work.

Worm's eye view wrote:

I don't know about teaching, but you're too smart to be posting on Letsrun.

Huh? He's right in the middle of the LetsRun bell curve.

Paul Newman, BA wrote:

I'm shipping off to college in a couple months. I'll be going to a state school where I'll likely graduate at the top of my class. The thing is, since the beginning of my life, I've wanted to teach. My dream is to teach high school biology.

The only problem is I think I might be too smart. I'm already more intelligent than any teacher in my current high school. I'm worried that if I become a teacher, there will be a lot of tension because I'll be overwhelmingly smart. I understand a lot goes into being a good teacher, but I believe being a good teacher has more to do with practice rather than brains. Is it a good idea for me to pursue teaching, or does my intelligence rule out that field for me?

It depends on what your particular aptitude pattern is. IQ score alone doesn't tell us what you would be good at. If you possess high structural-visualization ability, you would most likely be bored and restless as a teacher. If you have a slow flow of ideas, you will be a dull, ineffective teacher. If you are an introvert, you won't be able to handle the politics of running a classroom. Maybe you should look into teaching at the college instead of secondary level.

Trooled in 6 pages maybe you are a genuis

Principal wrote:

I'm a high school principal, and I'm in charge of hiring staff. I hire only intelligent people with strong content knowledge, amazing interpersonal skills, and unflinching perseverance.

Oh, really? Is that why the US lags most developed countries in literacy, math and computer skills? Thanks so much for all your hard work ensuring our numeracy and problem-solving skills fall decidedly below the international average!

10/10, even with your acknowledgement the troll lives on and on! I'm expecting to see it soon in email form being forwarded to me.The birth of an urban legend.

Conundrum wrote:

Josh Hamilton's Addiction wrote:

Ha. I completely forgot about this thread. Paul Newman, BA is me--BA standing for "bad *ss," because Newman was definitely a bad *ss dude. To clarify, it was a troll attempt, obviously.

Were you ever tempted to out yourself as a troll when a number of posters called troll? Even outing yourself a 1/2 year later is very rare.

It is amazing how many people didn't realize it was a troll.

My public school and my state as a whole outperform the world on international measures which, by the way, is comparing apples to oranges. We test all of the kids (and all of the kids get equal access to education). This is not the case in all of the developed world.

More so, we, as a nation, have developed a haves and have nots society in which educational performance isn't valued or aspired to by a growing segment of our society. Schools can't fix that. Realize that 2000 total U.S. high schools produced 70% of the nation's dropouts. If I gave you a map, you could highlight where those schools are located. The vast majority of U.S. schools are producing a higher quality graduate than ever before. But the disparity between the best and worst performing schools is growing. Again, that's primarily a side effect of culture. The best teachers (and school systems) can't fix families, neighborhoods, crime, and poverty----they can be a part of the solution----but holding schools entirely accountable for student underperformance is for intellectual weaklings.

The chances are that you're more academically prepared than your parents unless you're from a "red" state or you're a minority from a large urban center. Fortunately there are millions of exceptions to this generalization.

Yup, 140 is not that rare. Mine is 153 (proctored Mensa testing) and I regularly meet people with aptitudes that surpass mine in certain areas.

Most people can be anything they want. If you want to teach, then teach. Having an IQ of 140 means you should be able to attain the necessary credentials, and once you're there, you'll have additional problem solving skills and creativity that others don't.

Go for it... and let go of the idea that IQ is an allocation parameter.

IQ of 140 on what test? Not saying your dumb but some tests aren't very reliable measures of IQ. Indeed, the IQ test itself has come under scrutiny as a measure of intelligence. It's not uncommon to meet people who claim they have an IQ of 120+, only to actually get to know them and suddenly start questioning how the heck they got even halfway to 120.

Just because you have a high IQ doesn't mean you're too smart to be a teacher. Chances are YOU WILL find a student in your teaching CAREER who knows he is/thinks he is/is SMARTER THAN YOU.

iq'd out wrote:

138 here and I sweep floors for a living and totally happy. Can't stand dealing with people. If I was any smarter I could see myself living in a tree-house in the middle of no where.

I remember the real guy you're referring to. He actually had an IQ of 175 and was a custodian.

I can sort of relate to you. My IQ is in the 103-105 range

(i.e. significantly above average). I find most people boring.

You do know those indices include all school districts? There have been studies that show if you pull out major metro areas in the US (ie think urban districts) that the US is doing fine. Sorry to burst your bubble on this one, but it is the urban centers of the US that make it appear as if the US is performing horribly. If you went to a suburban HS, chances are your education was fine.

LOL lol LOL lol LOL lol LOL wrote:

Principal wrote:

I'm a high school principal, and I'm in charge of hiring staff. I hire only intelligent people with strong content knowledge, amazing interpersonal skills, and unflinching perseverance.

Oh, really? Is that why the US lags most developed countries in literacy, math and computer skills? Thanks so much for all your hard work ensuring our numeracy and problem-solving skills fall decidedly below the international average!

I'm not fine. 2 years ago, I could get by because I had $500 coming in a month but now I don't. I have nothing.

Honesty You Did Not Expect wrote:

Most teachers are of above average intelligence.

Debatable in some (many) communities.

I call B$! If your IQ were 140 you would be WAY too smart to ask absurd questions like this pn a forum where you cannot expect straight answers. I suspect you are not the right person to be teaching our next generation. Good luck in the next career choice though.

[quote]Paul Newman, BA wrote:

You come off as quite ignorant

Sooo, I recently looked over my GRE scores and realized they indicate an IQ of 142ish, and it made me think of this thread since I want to become a teacher in a few years. I actually have some teaching experience at the high school level, and I can say that for me, my intelligence was definitely an asset, but it made it VERY frustrating to deal with the bottom quartile of students in the classroom. I'm not sure being dumber would really help much with that though.

Where it definitely helped a lot was both in understanding the perspectives of the students and anticipating their questions and hangups and my ability to effectively stimulate and guide the advanced students in the classroom. A big problem with education for the top kids in school is that they're more "cognitively able" than most of their teachers, and this creates problems for both. Having an IQ that was as high as any of the students in my classes coupled with my much greater knowledge of a wide variety of things allowed me to offer many stimulating tidbits to them and helped them feel like there was a point to being in school. Part of the reason high ability students drop out of high school is because they see it as wasting their time, and many (if not most) teachers don't really understand what it's like to be someone with an IQ 2+ SDs above the norm, so having a teacher like them gives them someone to relate to, someone to look up to, someone to confide in, someone who can provide them with meaningful guidance.

All that said, the most important qualities for teaching I think are simply being able to tolerate a lot of abuse and be immune to insults and snotty brats. Being charismatic and caring are important too, but so many people take jabs from students personally or think every student needs to sit quietly in their desk every day all day long, and this just isn't realistic.

So, to answer the thread's questions, an IQ of 140 is definitely not too high to be a teacher IF you possess a lot of other qualities helpful in teaching, and it would actually be very beneficial to a lot of students to be exposed to someone with an IQ that high or higher, especially in an educational environment.

Just my three cents.