Is it within the realm of normalcy to possess intellectual acumen?

Only complete idiots judge intelligence by something as laughable as an "IQ". No, I don't care about your little group. Intellectual capacity in and of itself is by no means interesting and building a little group around it instead of a more interesting subject baffles me.

Sounds like your mother used the soft-spot on your head for a bongo.

Genius is always misunderstood.

gr8 b8 m8 i r8 it 8/8 i h8 to st8 it's too l8 but at any r8 gr8 is a tr8 of this b8.

You don't know me, so I fail to see how you can give me an accurate estimate of my intelligence.

P.S. Careful about posting here, Mr. Gribble.

No thesauri were harmed in the making of this post.

I am not entirely sure what to make of it, honestly. Part of it, I think, is at least due to what passes as 'education' amongst our species. An educational system more structured around something like that posited by John Dewey might be more palatable, in which multiple different forms of learning are used and the students have a more intimate connection with the things they learn, as opposed to what we have currently (in Murka, at least). The current system we are using is one in which a single person has non-democratic control over a group of people who are generally unschooled in the thing which they are being spoken to about, and their ignorance on the subject, compounded by what could be described as a completely non-participatory environment makes for a learning environment in which learning is the among the least of the things taking place. The learning should be somewhat participatory, should involve learning practices which prioritize experience (instead of the current methods, which stymie curiosity by imposing authoritarian, rote-learning paper work on children, thus removing the capacity for the student to make mistakes and learn from them), and should seek to bring the information down to earth and connect it intimately to the child's world (placing all sorts of facts and figures in a book disconnects it from the world of the child; in turn, it loses relevance to the student and facilitates compartmentalization of what they learn).

I believe that early experiences and habits we develop can wire our brains in certain ways that control the trajectory of our future learning and development. Personality is of great importance in the facilitation of intellectual development, of course; an eager buffoon will learn more than a lazy person with preternatural intellectual abilities. In a way, our persons are not simply shaped by what we are currently, or from that which we have come, but also by the direction in which we are heading.

Though savants may exist, I generally question the notion that intelligence is primarily a genetic trait or that biology is destiny. It might provide a sort of foundation, but it will take an environment conducive to fostering further growth upon those foundations for the genetic foundations of intellect to be of any real significance.