Sky: Working Classes Have Lower IQs

says some academic, after a 'study', I suppose.

Well, FANCY THAT!

I dont know HOW that could happen in the UK, as there's never been a 'class divide' - Us v Them attitude, there. {/sarc}

For you Brits, .. you know I love ya.. but you dont have to hang around long to discern the reason. Rule out all other variables like drug use alcoholism, schools, etc.. and you will STILL see it.

It's called 'Expectations'. And how many parents will treat a child who endeavors, or dares to aspire higher.
The prof is a putz to not recognize THAT as the primary reason.

 

I love the photo of the kid with the broken pencil.

I seem to remember a study about ten years ago coming out of the UK that compared childrens IQ to the status of their parents. Children of a single parent had the lowest IQ, but only slightly higher in second-to-last place was children with two PhD parents. Interesting and surprising results.

I agree with Petty in that it pretty much comes down to expectations and parenting. The prof is a putz but if people would stop trying to make everything equal for everybody then we would not have guys going around giving stupid explanations as to why things arent equal.

And before anyone has a cow, I'm talking about equal numbers of every sub-class in a given category rather than equal opportunity, equal access, and equal laws. The latter is all you can do. Trying to achieve equal numbers of every sub-class, whether it be race, gender, or socio-economic condition, in every desireable profession and university is a waste of time.

This same thing happened a few years back when Harvard's president suggested that differences in the brain explained why less women were in science and engineering. A completely idiotic statement but if people would stop blaming sexism for the fact that less women went into science stupid statements like this might not be uttered.

 

In fact, Mo... not to top you but to enlarge the conversation, I just saw an article the other day that suggested that women might lag in enrollment in the Sciences and Engineering BECAUSE THEY WERENT INTERESTED IN IT! weell, DUH!
Why ARENT they interested in it? Hmmm could it be due to thousands of years of genetic selection? Thus their brains are genetically wired to nurturing and nesting? Not an absolute, by any means... but definitely a 'tendency'
Vive La Difference!
Sorry, Mo... you cant pick and choose your Darwinist traits.
It either works .. or it doesnt. Same thing I tell 'equallist humanists' and Creationists who livestock farm.

But that gets down to the subject of higher education, in the first place. Where is it written that everyone should go to college?

That seems to be the view of our erstwhile pols... especially Dems. WHY!

how about elevating HS instruction?

I should get one of my dad's early 20th century HS science textbooks. You simply would not believe the content level.
- - - -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - -

Now, to argue with myself... somewhat.

Also just read... California AFFIRM ACTION on admissions:

Qualification PSAT scores African American 800, White 1000, Asian 1100.

And there's no shortage of female Asian Engineer/Scientists.

Expectations.. PLUS I bet MOST of those asian women nerds are also musicians. There's a tie-in.

 

I dont know how much nuture and nesting has to do with women not wanting to go into science and engineering. I think it has more to do with our culture and its views on math and science. Less white American men also go into science and engineering relative to their Asian counterparts. Our culture doesnt care about or value science and math as much as other cultures.

I have a friend who is a math professor from Brazil. She said she was shocked to see how few women were in her classes when she first started teaching in the states. She thinks a big difference between Brazil and the US is that here people say "math is hard" and that is okay. She says in Brazil you would never say that because it's viewed as too important. It would kind of be like saying learning how to swim is too hard.

I do think the "nuture and nesting" can effect women's success in the sciences and the decisions that they make which affect their careers, I've seen it many a time.

I agree about why does everyone have to go to college. That attitude more than anything has driven up the cost of college tuition. Not that I would ever discourage someone from going to college - provided they want to and are prepared! I think that we should have vocational options that are relative to today's job market available at our schools.


How about elevating HS instruction in the right way. I dont like all these AP courses that are suppose to be college level; how about mastering the high school level first. Case Western U. has had to stop letting high school students who've exhausted their HS AP courses take classes there. The reason is because even though the HS kids think their AP courses are equivalent to college courses, they arent. So college classes get bogged down wiht these HS kids trying to beef up their college resumes. Stop trying to be in college before you've done and mastered the HS work.