Today I am writing about something that is not done anymore at schools here.
In the years when I taught all kids had to write an IQ test at the age of 12 or 13 years.
This was a test with questions on which they had to give their own answer.
The reason for this was that each child had his own “Ed lab”(Portfolio ) that was kept under lock and key in the safe.
Their immunization history was on there as well as their IQ results, and things he or she did at schools like performance and behavior.
This was top secret to all parents, as this went with the child when he or she went to another school.
It was sent by registered post to the next school.
The reason for this was that parents never had to know their child’s IQ for a reason.
Some parents would put a lot of pressure on children to do more than was necessary, but children must stay children as long as possible and enjoy life.
The division of the IQ was as 110 – 140 plus the children all went to the same class as they learned a little faster and no one wanted them to get bored.
These classes were a little bigger.
The children with IQ -110 and less were all put together in smaller classes so that they could get more attention from the teacher with fewer children per class.
Children with an IQ of -85 all went to a special class and there were seldom more than 12 to 14 children in this special class, which really helped them learn a lot better.
All these children were taught the basic elementary work which would be needed later in life.
I always said that I could look into a child’s eyes and guess his IQ, I was never more than maybe 5 points wrong either way.
I can still do this today, and always laugh at my wife when she says what is my IQ and I bring it down by at least 20.
She knows her IQ and always wants to have a heart attack when I do this but tell her it is her old age that has done that to her.
When a child comes from another school you have to wait for the portfolio to come through the post, this gives you the opportunity to find out most of this child’s pedigree and help you to place them in the right class.
The real story I want to tell you is one child that I totally misjudged. According to her portfolio, her IQ was a 148 which is actually brilliant.
But her marks did not show more than 60% which made me think that someone had made a mistake with her test. Even her eyes did not look like a child with that high an IQ.
I decided to take her to our school psychologist and have her IQ retested. To my shock, he found her a 150 IQ.
This did not show in her marks at school and I decided to go to her home to see what the circumstances were. She never complained and was just a very nice child.
When I went to her house I was so sad because she had an alcoholic for a mother.
The mother was just not interested in her daughter, and she was all alone except for her father whom she totally worshiped as he was her pillar of strength and very good to her.
They had a wonderful relationship, even more than most fathers have as he felt so sorry for her but was at work most of the time.
He did everything in that house fed them, did their washing, you name it he did it.
Now was time for me to step in.
I took her to the school psychologist every Friday for more than a year.
It was about 20 km from where she lived.
While there, I use to sit in the corner and just listen to what they were discussing.
He always used a picture of a bird flying over the wall and explained to us that when she was young she was not stimulated enough and she had to fly and go through the wall to unblock her brain.
Once she was through things changed dramatically in her academic work and she never got under 80% plus for any of her subjects.
It went so well that she received the trophy for being the best student in her group.
Then tragedy struck again, while her father was on his way to the prize giving he walked across the street to the school and a man who was driving under the influence ran over him and killed him on the spot. This child was devastated. Can you imagine the one person who really loved her was gone?
I took this poor child back to the school psychologist, whom she really trusted as he had helped her before.
After a long time things became better for her again and today she is an advocate highly qualified in one of the biggest cities in South Africa.
One thing I did not mention before is that your IQ is not the only thing needed to succeed you also need creativity and the way you grow up has a big influence on your life.
I have found that children with very high IQ’s and good creativity can really succeed in life. They think outside the box where kids with no creativity cannot do that.
This is a true story, and I really hope people do not push their children to hard.
Have a wonderful day from me here at the Wild Coast.
