Curious Researcher: Assignment Analysis

Reading “Pages 1-19” in The Curious Researcher was a homework assignment I was just going to read and get it done with. Page by page I read through and rolled my eyes when the author talked about writing a real research paper, a better research paper. I’ve written and read many papers before guys, what else could this guy have to teach me? Then it was on page 12 that I started to read through “Theories of Intelligence” written by the author of the book. This might have been the first time a book had caught my full attention in years; for once my phone could buzz all it wanted but it was going to have to wait. I don’t know why but it seemed like everything Mr. Ballenger talked about was so relatable. I’ve been very close to someone who had a

mom that was an alcoholic. No doubt she had a good set of parents but there was always issues when her father left town. I didn’t realize how good life was until I met a girl that was scared to go home at night because her mom had been texting her and she can tell her mom had been drinking. Sometimes the best people come from the worst of places and you can see that in the story he tells. That is only one of the many things that he talked about that I felt I could relate to. Mr. Ballenger also talked about how his mom stated that his father was “Just too smart for his own good”. I knew someone who was extremely intelligent, I thought he had the best life. I thought he was always happy and always going to one up everyone; he was a bully though. He made fun of everyone that wasn’t one of his friend, he made fun of me my freshman year.

After 2 years he left after easily being accepted into UGA. I thought he was going to be successful no matter what happened to him. It turns out later even I was sad to hear he tried to kill himself. Now I try not to judge anyone by their behaviors and intelligence because sometimes there are people that are too smart for their own good. I don’t know what he saw in the world but I hope he can find happiness. Lastly and one of the most relatable theory of intelligence that Mr. Ballenger talked about was that there are different kinds of intelligence. I’m not very book smart, my memory is awful (don’t be made when I forgot your name), and I can’t spell to save my life. At the same time algebra and physics come very naturally to me, so there are different kinds of intelligence. I think most of my intelligence sides on the “street smart” style of intelligence. Mr. Ballenger did a great job on writing his research and sold me the idea that there is more behind a research paper than claim, evidence, and interpretation. He was able to make the essay very personal and connect to the audience while he was still discussing his theories of

intelligence.