Inteligence, Overrated?

Being smart does not guarantee that you have friends. People who lock themselves in their rooms studying all day may not have many friends to be with. If you look at grades, some people who are failing can have friends, and they are classified as "dumb". Being smart does not mean social skills. The two may not come hand-in-hand, but it may help. Learning how to interact with other people is a key skill to learn, and is probably one of the most important skills to have. Intelligence is, in fact, overrated. Intelligence is not a ticket for having friends, and your friends usually could care less whether your smart or not. People like Charlie, the main character in "Flowers for Algernon" who has a mental disability, face daily difficulties of fitting in and understanding others. Then there are people who don't have mental disabilities and they too may have troubles fitting in and making friends. Charlie says he wants to become smart, have friends. When he wants to have friends, he really means that he wants the skills to interact with other people and learn how to be with other people other than the people in his special school.  Everyone is born with a certain IQ, but if they don't use the skills of their brain, their IQ won't be used to the full potential it is capable of. Intelligence and amount of friends does not move together, it all depends on whether or not you apply yourself and have the skills to interact and communicate with other people.

By: Amanda Parry and Bryan Croce