Intelligence is often prized in our society. If you’re smart, you can get a leg up on the business competition: The co-workers you are competing against for advancement to the “elite” positions in a company or maybe even your competition for your romantic interest. Knowledge is essential to succeeding in any career, which is the only way you can really make the large sums of money, which is why we emphasize garnering knowledge too.

Honestly, the quest for knowledge and increasing our intelligence is the reason that many of our parents support our coming to college. (Obviously, many of us have other goals and motives for coming to college. But even then, I would like to think improving our minds is one of them, even if it is buried at the bottom of the pile, below such altruistic endeavors as partying and chasing the opposite sex.)

But we need some way to measure just how intelligent we are and how much information we are retaining. Thus, we have the acronym tests: SAT, ACT, LSAT, etc.; and our beloved course grades. In theory, scoring high on a standardized test and receiving good marks in some random course means you’re following the necessary path.

You’re well on your way to future occupational success, large sums of money, expensive cars, a showcase house and perhaps even a trophy mate who is so jaded by your financial success he or she will lie to you just to be able to share your wealth. Ah, the good life!

So, this is the reason we roll out of bed in the morning, despite our bodies desperate pleas for just another hour of blissful sleep. This is the reason we sometimes stay up well into the night, re-studying material that seemed pointless at first sight, and holds no deeper significance upon reassessment, for the sole purpose of being able to shade in the correct tiny circle the following day in class. This is the reason we sit in crowded classrooms on beautiful days, listening to the soothing monotone voice of a poorly-dressed professor and taking in the wonderful odors our less-than-cleanly classmates emit on humid days.

But, wait, what if college is not a necessary prerequisite to success? And what if intelligence isn’t best judged by some arbitrary test or a letter grade?

My dad never went to college. His grades in high school didn’t exactly put him in the running for valedictorian or even give him a chance for consideration for the honor roll. When he would leave notes on the kitchen table for my family concerning some task he wanted done that day while he was out working, it often took both my mom and I a considerable amount of time to discern exactly what many of the words were.

My dad’s not real big on spelling. Even today, he often spells his brother Brian’s name “Brain.”

Yet, my dad has to be one of the smartest people I have ever met.

He started his own successful business. He’s coached championship Little League teams and undefeated grade school basketball teams. He can essentially build a house himself, doing everything from drawing the architectural plans to pouring the foundation to wiring the entire house. He can even do the work of the average mechanic, replacing blown out engines and even doing all the body work after his journalist son fell asleep at the wheel on the highway in high school and took out some road signs.

Perhaps this whole college thing isn’t necessarily the only option in life. It seems it is possible to be very successful without some kind of fancy degree you can brag about, and obviously my father is only one of thousands of examples of that.

An even crazier thought is that success may not even be the most important thing in life! I know it’s a revolutionary concept, but maybe I can be happy five years down the road even if I am just a local reporter, covering high school sports teams with names like the Golden Holsteins and the Spuds for the Podunk (Idaho) Daily Reporter.

In fact, it may be time for many of us currently experiencing the benefits of higher education, and those who have graduated before us, to stop looking down on those who have chosen a different path. College isn’t for everyone, but not because some people are incapable of handling the “high standards of excellence” most colleges pretend to demand.

Rather, many people have enough faith and knowledge to be happy without paying tens of thousands of dollars to get a slip of paper.

That choice seems pretty intelligent to me.