My grandmother emigrated from Finland when she was fourteen after her family lost their wealth and estate due to civil war. Her family cleared and worked a small farm in N. MN where they lived in their sauna for the first year. She still managed to graduate high school by the usual age, and then wrote for the community news-paper until she married poorly (an alcoholic). My father, who grew up in poverty was the first of his family to graduate college. As I was growing up, my friends� parents (many who were university professors) would tell me how intelligent my father was. I assumed they were just being polite

Anyway, I always knew my grandmother was intensely intelligent (and didn�t suffer fools gladly), but for all appearances, she was just another poor, immigrant mother and my father was just another mid-level manager (who occasionally worked for well connected idiots).

I never take for granted that a laborer is less intelligent than a PhD.