This was prompted by a message from a student sent to me on Myspace:

While I do think there is a measurable difference between smart and dumb people on the average, I think “smart” means too many things for most people to be differentiated by the term.  For example, you are probably much more smart on the concert scene here in NYC than I am, but I know more about the concept of Manufacturing Consent as professed by Noam Chomsky.  In other words, I think most people are smart in regards that I am not, and I thus have things to learn from them.  On the other hand, I do believe that there are some people whose knowledge banks could be completely stored within mine - in other words, I know everything they know that is important, and more.  Most of those people AREN’T children.  Children have access to information that a lot of people simply don’t.  They are a living definition of novelty.  It is only those who stop trying to learn as they get older who seem dumb to me.

But what do I know?