Granted the potential is there, but no-one is born a genius or stupid. They nurture and learn from what life experiences they gain. There are exceptions to every rule, like Einstein, but his is an extreme exception. So unless you work on the potential to become smart by feeding your intellect, you will remain at the level you start off with.
The debate about nature and nurture still continues in sociological circles, as far as I am aware. Whether we are born a blank canvas or not. I believe some people are born with the
potential to become genius and some who are born lacking that particular
potential. Of course there are many shades of grey between that. The same with physical prowess. I agree with you that nuture plays a great part in reaching ones fullest intellectual potential. Knowledge and what can be learned is not the sum total of the intellect, intelligence, I believe is more than that.
I believe people all have different gifts and shades of gifts. There are many different shades and areas of genius... the arts, mathematics, literature and the such like. Could we have swopped Picasso and Einstein and Mozart so that they could have been equally as successful as each other in each other's fields... I do not think so. In each, I believe, there was an innate and particular born giftedness that was nurtured to a particular point where it was recognised as genius.
I completely agree with you when you say 'So unless you work on the potential to become smart by feeding your intellect, you will remain at the level you start off with'. I think this is why the standard of intellectual ability today seems somewhat dumbed down compared to days gone by... I think things come too easy to people today so people do not feel such a need to work at things. So a glossy magazine style of knowledge has generally replaced the dry old books crammed with details. This seems to be the same in the arts also. Craft around an idea has been replaced by the idea without great craft.
Back to the initial subject of this thread... It is unthinkably crazy for anybody to be labelled perverted for photographing their own children, but it does not look like that was happening in this news story, regardless of the title of the article. I think in this case it was all being inflamed by a wretched busy body with a bee in her bonnett trying to argue he was taking pictures of other people's children and simply wouldn't let it go. It is a shame that simply having a camera on a family day out can bring out the worst in people with an axe to grind.