What is Intelligence?

I have been thinking a lot about intelligence lately.

In reading about standardized testing and IQ, I learned that these tests were originally created to identify children who might need support. But somewhere along the way, they became something else. They became a way to rank. To sort. To define worth.

And I keep asking myself:

What is intelligence?

Is survival intelligence different from book intelligence?
Is emotional intelligence different from academic intelligence?
Is memorizing information and getting an A the same as understanding something deeply?

As a music teacher, I see this every week.

I see students who cannot memorize quickly but can feel a phrase of music in a way that gives me chills. I see children who struggle with reading but can improvise melodies that are honest and alive. I see sensitivity, imagination, resilience — none of which can be captured by a standardized test.

Artificial intelligence can now write code, compose songs, generate images in seconds. It can solve mathematical problems faster than any human. Does that mean it is more intelligent? Maybe in one narrow category.

But intelligence without empathy? Without love? Without moral depth? What kind of intelligence is that?

I have met highly educated people who were emotionally cold. I have met multimillionaires without degrees who were incredibly perceptive and intuitive. I have met artists who dedicate their lives to beauty without caring whether they ever become wealthy. I have met people who sacrifice their time to help others without expecting anything in return.

Who is more intelligent?

For so long, society has measured intelligence by productivity. By usefulness. By efficiency. By how much you can produce and how fast you can do it.

In schools, this becomes very clear. Children are sorted into categories. Tests become skills of their own. Taking a test well is not necessarily a sign of wisdom but it is often a sign that you have learned how to perform correctly under pressure.

You learn how to give the teacher what they want.
You learn how to answer “the right way.”

But does that measure your humanity?

There was even a time when ideas about intelligence justified eugenics - the belief that some humans are more desirable than others. That we can decide whose genes are valuable and whose lives are not. That thought terrifies me. It is the ultimate arrogance - humans deciding who deserves to exist.

When intelligence becomes tied to productivity, we slowly reduce human beings to output.

We see it everywhere now. Efficiency. Metrics. Performance tracking. Even employees being monitored for how fast they move.

But what about the parts of us that cannot be measured?

The only place I have consistently felt free from measurement is in unconditional love from my grandmother, from my daughter, even from my animals. That love is not based on efficiency. I did not earn it by being productive. It just exists.

And maybe that is the most intelligent thing of all.

As a music teacher, I do not see children as raw material to be shaped into productive adults. I see human beings already whole. Already carrying something unique.