What is the difference between knowledge and intelligence?
Written by Lumen. Every quote is from How to Become Extremely Intelligent by Levi M. Johnson.
Knowledge is what a person takes in. Intelligence, in the book, is the capacity of the mind that lets them comprehend it and keep it.
Under a good teacher the two grow together, which is why they are so easy to mix up. They are still two things.
Two students in one classroom
While an increase of knowledge is inevitable under an excellent teacher, it is the growth of the intellectual capacity of the mind and brain through the educational process which enables students to comprehend and retain what they've learned. There is no genuine increase in learning without a commensurate increase in intelligence.
The book’s example is two middle school students in one of Levi’s English classes: a girl who had been his student for several months, and a boy who was new. The difference between them was not only what she knew. In the book’s words, she “had learned to make finer distinctions using English, and the boy had not.”
Acquiring knowledge, and becoming more intelligent
Great educators know that students don't only acquire knowledge in school, but also become more intelligent because they've applied critical thinking and problem solving to the tasks they tackle.
The sentence keeps the two apart even while they happen in the same room. Students acquire knowledge. They also become more intelligent, and the book names what makes the second happen: critical thinking and problem solving, applied to real tasks.
Educated beyond the intellect
Intelligence as I see it is the ability to discuss with precision topics of interest that align with evidence and results. "Common sense is not common use" as I've heard. "Some people are educated beyond the level of their intellect."
That last saying only works if education and intellect are different things. A person can hold more education than intellect. The measure the book offers is not how much is known, but precision that lines up with evidence and results.
Where this sits in the book
The two students and the sentence about great educators come from Chapter 11, “Intelligence & Heaven”; the professors passage comes from Chapter 3, “Intelligent People Embrace Reality”. In Chapter 11 the distinction is part of an argument against genetic determinism: the section before the two students says materialism “seeks to limit your intellectual potential through genetic determinism”, and right after them the book says “the evidence tells us a person's intelligence can improve”.
Going deeper
The book follows this distinction through reading, writing, and action: how what a person takes in becomes the ability to see more finely.
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This page is part of Finer Distinctions at FikaTimeBooks.com — one distinction from the book per page, in the book’s own words.