GENERAL  INTELLIGENCE

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but  maybe  we  can  help  out  by  giving  you  a  few  synonyms
or  brief  definitions  of  the  word.  I  am  sure  that  Mr.  Lambert ­
  could  do  that.  For  my  part,  I  should  like  to  suggest
Cental  alertness,  the  ability  to  analyze  a  situation  and
also  to  follow  instructions.
Mr.  L:  I  suppose  that  does  cover  the  ground  pretty
Well,  only  I  should  say  that  intelligence  was  simply  ability
to  learn—to  catch  on  or  take  hold  as  the  foremen  would
say.
Miss  N:  And  would  you  apply  these  definitions  to  all
intelligence  whatsoever?
Mr.  L:  Yes,  I  should.  Except,  of  course,  that  there
ar e  degrees  of  intelligence  just  as  there  are  of  everything
e lse.  Still  I  believe  that  all  intelligence  can  be  boiled
down  to  ability  to  learn.
Miss  N:  Then  what  would  you  say  to  a  case  like  this?
^ v ’hen  I  taught  school,  I  had  some  children  who  were  very
good  in  arithmetic.  They  could  learn  to  do  a  problem  in
half  the  time  usually  required  by  the  slower  pupils  of  the
class.  They  seemed  to  have  a  special  faculty  for  catching
as  you  termed  it,  or  for  taking  hold  of  arithmetic.  And
yet,  these  very  same  pupils,  when  it  came  to  geography,
s bowed  the  utmost  denseness.  On  the  other  hand,  I  had
Pupils  who  were  very  good  in  geography  and  very  poor  in
arithmetic.  Now  which  of  these  pupils  would  you  call
t be  more  intelligent,  Mr.  Lambert,  those  who  could  learn
ari thrnetic  best  or  those  who  could  learn  geography  best?
.  bdR.  L:  I  don’t  think  that  I  should  call  either  more
}utelligent.  I  should  simply  say  that  each  group  was
’Utelligent,  but  in  a  different  way.
Miss  N:  That  is  exactly  what  I  thought,  and  that  is  the
Problem  which  always  confronted  me  in  my  school  work.
tver y  pupil  seemed  to  have  his  own  peculiar  aptitudes.