Before there was ChatGPT, before there was Google, there was Marilyn vos Savant – certified by Guinness World Records as having the highest IQ ever recorded: 228.

For decades, she's answered questions in her weekly Parade Magazine column, ranging from complex probability puzzles to philosophical inquiries about human nature. Yet her most valuable insights may be about our education system itself.

The Monty Hall Showdown

In 1990, a reader asked vos Savant about a probability puzzle based on the game show "Let's Make a Deal." Imagine you're on a game show with three doors:

Behind one door is a car; behind the other two are goats.

You pick Door #1.

The host, who knows what's behind each door, opens Door #3 to reveal... a goat!

The problem: Should you stick with Door #1 or switch to Door #2?

Now, stop and think for a minute. Most people instinctively believe it doesn't matter whether you switch or not. After all, there are now just two doors left, so it seems like a 50/50 chance. The car is either behind your original choice or the other remaining door—flip a coin, right? WRONG!

Vos Savant correctly stated that switching doors doubles your chances of winning—from 1/3 to 2/3.

Think of it this way: When you first picked a door, you had a 1/3 chance of being right. That means there's a 2/3 chance you picked wrong. Nothing about the host opening a door changes your original odds. If you initially picked wrong (which happens 2/3 of the time), switching will ALWAYS win. If you initially picked right (which happens 1/3 of the time), switching will ALWAYS lose. Since you're more likely to have picked wrong initially, switching is the better strategy.

The backlash to her explanation was immediate and fierce. Nearly 10,000 readers – including hundreds of "expert" mathematics professors – wrote in to tell her she was wrong. Many were condescending:

"You blew it, and you blew it big!" wrote one Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Some even suggested gender played a role: "Maybe women look at math problems differently than men."

Despite the overwhelming criticism, vos Savant stood firm. She encouraged readers to test it themselves by running simulations. The computer models added evidence to her logical proof, and many critics admitted their error.

But this wasn't just about a math problem. The controversy revealed something deeper about how we learn and think. Here are five lessons from the world's smartest person about what's wrong with education:

Lesson 1: Standardized Schooling Creates Intellectual Passivity

"One of the problems is compulsory schooling," vos Savant explains, "Children are sitting there and they are taught and told what to believe. They are passive from the very beginning."

The highest measured intelligence in history pinpoints a fundamental contradiction in education: Our system treats all children as identical units in an assembly line, processing them through the same curriculum at the same pace regardless of their unique abilities, interests, or learning styles. Yet children are wildly different from one another—some visual, some verbal, some fast, some methodical, all curious in their own ways.

This one-size-fits-all approach doesn't just fail to serve individual needs; it actively damages children's natural learning instincts. Traditional schooling methodically replaces active exploration with passive absorption in the name of standardization.

The result? "They never learn to think independently."

Lesson 2: True Intelligence Requires "Intellectual Aggression"

Vos Savant credits her extraordinary intelligence partly to being "very aggressive intellectually." This doesn't mean being combative, but rather taking an active approach to learning rather than passively accepting information.

"Right from the beginning, people begin to believe what they're told and begin to read what they read, believe what they read in the newspapers, what they hear on the radio, what they hear on television," she observes. "They're quite prone to just be counting on someone else telling them what to think."

The Monty Hall controversy perfectly illustrated this problem. Even highly educated mathematicians couldn't overcome their strong intuitive belief when confronted with a counterintuitive result. They trusted their instincts and existing knowledge rather than working through the problem with fresh eyes.

Lesson 3: Multiple Sources Are Essential for Critical Thinking

Vos Savant's solution isn't more rigorous academics—it's teaching critical analysis of information.

"I would teach children how to read different sources," she explains. "Get them a paper that leans left, get them a paper that leans right that day, and show them the difference in the headlines."

This approach—comparing multiple perspectives rather than absorbing single viewpoints—builds the foundation for critical thinking in a world of conflicting information.

Yet how many schools teach students to deliberately seek out contradictory viewpoints? How many parents encourage their children to understand arguments they disagree with?

Lesson 4: Extraordinary Permissiveness Creates Extraordinary Minds

Vos Savant also attributes her intellectual development to something surprising: extraordinary permissiveness in her upbringing.

"As young as I was—and this goes back as far as my memories take me—I didn't have a curfew. I had to take care of my own meals, took care of my clothing."

When she asked her mother typical childish questions, the response wasn't a quick answer. Instead: "I'm not here to entertain you. You should go out and find the answer to that question."

This approach taught young Marilyn to solve problems independently rather than relying on authority figures—perhaps the most valuable lesson any parent could impart.

Lesson 5: Motivation Trumps Natural Ability

Despite her record-setting IQ, vos Savant doesn't attribute intellectual achievement primarily to genetic factors. "I think motivation plays a far greater part than most people realize," she explains.

Intelligence is not something fixed that you're either born with or you aren't.

She uses stroke recovery as a powerful analogy: When someone recovers from a stroke despite brain damage, they're effectively using different parts of their brain to compensate. This shows how motivation can help people tap into previously unused neural pathways and abilities.

"I think we are born with vast potential and that very few of us use it," she concludes. "If we all used our potential, all of our potential, then we would find out who the brightest people are."

What We're Still Missing

Decades after these insights, our education system remains fundamentally unchanged. We still:

• Force children to sit passively for hours each day
• Prioritize memorization over independent thinking
• Rarely teach critical examination of multiple perspectives
• Frame education as compulsory obligation rather than self-driven exploration
• Value credentials over demonstrated capability

As AI increasingly handles routine knowledge work, the ability to think independently becomes not just intellectually valuable but economically essential. Perhaps now we're finally ready to listen to what Marilyn vos Savant has been telling us all along.

What aspects of your child's education help them think independently? Share your thoughts by replying to this email.

Further Reading

• Marilyn vos Savant's 1986 Interview - The source of many quotes in this article
• The Time Everyone "Corrected" the World's Smartest Woman - A detailed account of the Monty Hall controversy
• The Monty Hall Problem Explained - A deeper mathematical explanation of the probability puzzle
• Marilyn vos Savant's Parade Magazine Column - Where she's been answering readers' questions since 1986
• The Power of Logical Thinking - Vos Savant's book on reasoning and problem-solving

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