Maria McFriendly was profiled in Millionaire Women Next Door and in an earlier blog. Maria was raised in an environment that was anything but nurturing. Her father was a chauvinist and an elitist. He often told her that she was not college material, “she repeatedly scored in the 900s [out of 1600] on her SATs.” She did graduate from college and paid for 100% of her fees and expenses. I believe that SAT scores reflect one’s analytic intellect. But there is another form of intellect, creative intellect.
Maria possesses an uncanny ability as a headhunter matching the analytically gifted, those with advanced degrees in physics and engineering, with ideal job opportunities. Not one of the 100s of people whom she successfully placed ever asked her about her SAT scores.
In a recent article in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, there was an interesting profile of Tonya Lanthier who was trained as a dental hygienist [one of 192,330 in this country] and built a multi million dollar business based upon, what I believe, is her extraordinary creative intellect.
Dentists with jobs to fill constantly asked [her] to recommend good workers. They knew the dental hygienist pulled shifts as a temp in lots of offices and had plenty of friends in the business.
Because she had so many requests, she decided “to launch a national on-line job site for the dental industry.” The site now has more than 400,000 registered users.
How does someone with no previous business experience, no business degree, no marketing background or previous computer experience build a successful internet business? People with these skills can be hired, but it was Tonya’s creative intellect (vision) which is reflected in her company’s offerings. Also, as highlighted in the article, Tonya has demonstrated tremendous perseverance and leadership qualities.
It is a shame that children in this country are not educated in terms of topics which stimulate creative intellect. Nor do achievement tests tap one’s innate level of perseverance, leadership, initiative, etc.
When you say that students are not educated in “topics which stimulate creative intellect” which topics are you referring to?
I have actually found that the American Ed system turns out the most creative people in the world. Just look at the myriad businesses that are started and created here while many countries thrive at copying us. What is a shame is that University admissions focus so much energy on the analytics and test scores.
Recent survey by a French mag (can’t remember the name) showed that the most innovative companies in the world are predominantly found in the US. To be innovative, I assume that you must be creative.
I think that our school system lets us down on the analytical side of the coin as evidenced by our science and math scores lagging other countries, but we continue to lead the world in innovation because we are so creative. Just another viewpoint of American Ed from a homeschool father of 6.