Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is often used in grouping students in school from primary grades up through higher education. While employers seek to fill positions by examining a variety of scores in a particular field of expertise, I would not be surprised if some still take a peek at an applicant’s IQ score. Personally, I’d rather not know my own score.
This particular number seems to follow you for a lifetime. If charted using the curve above, most of us have an IQ which hovers around 100. Slower students would have a score around 70, whereas students with giftedness generally have scores above 130 (Pennsylvania Standards and Regulations). What is important: Regardless of an achieved score, ALL students need an appropriate education developing abilities they are born with.
I’m sure there are any number of personal qualities beside intelligence that can be graphed according to the normal distribution curve. For example, type of body physique. I used to envy the few boys in my high school gym class who were extremely muscular by nature: mesomorphic ("Your body type — Ectomorph, Mesomorph, or Endomorph?” by Damien Mase, MuscleAndStrength.com).
They did n
othing to achieve their ripped, hunk-like physiques—simply put, they were born with them. By the same token, there were those of us who were somewhat scrawny, like me, ectomorphic (“Your body type - Ectomorph, Mesomorph, or Endomorph?” by Damien Mase, MuscleAndStrength.com), and gained little weight or muscle mass regardless of food habits and/or exercise.
But what we must not forget: ALL of us were born with different traits, intelligence, body types, and we all seek respect and love. We cannot cease to be because we do not fit some normal curve distribution. All of us fit somewhere on the that curve.
Several years ago when I taught my middle school class, the teacher in the classroom next door taught students who where diagnosed as seriously emotionally maladjusted. I deliberately use the word maladjusted because I hated the word disturbed then, and I hate it even more now.
On a normal curve, maladjustment can be objectively measured and compared to a regular student’s adjustment by observation; judging emotional disturbance seems more like subjective guesswork. Of importance here is that a student, whether maladjusted or normal, can be taught how to adjust to various circumstances.
The Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and the Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953) known jointly as the Kinsey Reports, use a 0-6 scale to chart strictly heterosexual behavior, a “0”, as opposed to purely homosexual behavior a “6”. These scores were then converted to percentages.
Article comments
1 - Cindy
Very insightful article Mr. Schilken! I appreciate the way you broke down the "normal" curve as I have heard the term many times but never knew just what went into determining it. Interesting statistic too, 46% of men! Never would have thought it too be that high!
2 - Cindy D
Best to differentiate one commenter from another. I should read this, I'd like to know how gay I could be. :-)
3 - Rege
Hi cindy! In my opinion, ALL of us, male or female, fit somewhere under the normal curve. Thus, you or I would have to be at least two standard deviations and then some to be purely female or male. We cannot help our natures. We are born that way. We have no choice. There is no sense fighting against NORMAL innate abilities or tendencies because they are what is n-o-r-m-a-l for each and every one of us. To resent or restrict our normal urges leads to psychological problems. The fault lies with society: "we are underlings."
Regis Schilken, author of article