dermot: December 2007 Archives
(As an aside it is wonderful that this level of intelligent discussion is available for free online).
Social Memory Complex blogs about it here. I had the thing bookmarked to read before Dave Pollard point out the Social Memory Complex link on his Saturday links.
Gladwell says
Social Memory then commentsThe psychologist Michael Cole and some colleagues once gave members of the Kpelle tribe, in Liberia, a version of the WISC similarities test: they took a basket of food, tools, containers, and clothing and asked the tribesmen to sort them into appropriate categories. To the frustration of the researchers, the Kpelle chose functional pairings. They put a potato and a knife together because a knife is used to cut a potato. “A wise man could only do such-and-such,” they explained. Finally, the researchers asked, “How would a fool do it?” The tribesmen immediately re-sorted the items into the “right” categories. It can be argued that taxonomical categories are a developmental improvement—that is, that the Kpelle would be more likely to advance, technologically and scientifically, if they started to see the world that way. But to label them less intelligent than Westerners, on the basis of their performance on that test, is merely to state that they have different cognitive preferences and habits. And if I.Q. varies with habits of mind, which can be adopted or discarded in a generation, what, exactly, is all the fuss about
My opinion is that the “fuss” is all about making people dependent on the artificial, rationalized, predictable world of abstract systems, which can be mediated and tuned by authority. Because we never look deeply at the assumptions and premises of modern education, we’re apt to take the system’s agenda as the human agenda. It’s not so.He also namechecks John Taylor Gatto and Alfie Kohn in his comments. Actually I lie. Kohn isn't referenced anywhere - though I swear that I saw his name somewhere in relation to this.
Gladwell's article is worth reading in full.
Flynn then talked about what we’ve learned from studies of adoption and mixed-race children—and that evidence didn’t fit a genetic model, either. If I.Q. is innate, it shouldn’t make a difference whether it’s a mixed-race child’s mother or father who is black. But it does: children with a white mother and a black father have an eight-point I.Q. advantage over those with a black mother and a white father. And it shouldn’t make much of a difference where a mixed-race child is born. But, again, it does: the children fathered by black American G.I.s in postwar Germany and brought up by their German mothers have the same I.Q.s as the children of white American G.I.s and German mothers. The difference, in that case, was not the fact of the children’s blackness, as a fundamentalist would say. It was the fact of their Germanness—of their being brought up in a different culture, under different circumstances. “The mind is much more like a muscle than we’ve ever realized,” Flynn said. “It needs to get cognitive exercise. It’s not some piece of clay on which you put an indelible mark.” The lesson to be drawn from black and white differences was the same as the lesson from the Netherlands years ago: I.Q. measures not just the quality of a person’s mind but the quality of the world that person lives in.That last line is worth repeating
"I.Q. measures not just the quality of a person’s mind but the quality of the world that person lives in."
Richard Nesbitt in the NY Times writes on IQ. Something for James Watson to read. Nesbitt is the author of the excellent "The Geography of Thought"
What do we know about the effects of environment?
That environment can markedly influence I.Q. is demonstrated by the so-called Flynn Effect. James Flynn, a philosopher and I.Q. researcher in New Zealand, has established that in the Western world as a whole, I.Q. increased markedly from 1947 to 2002. In the United States alone, it went up by 18 points. Our genes could not have changed enough over such a brief period to account for the shift; it must have been the result of powerful social factors. And if such factors could produce changes over time for the population as a whole, they could also produce big differences between subpopulations at any given time.
In fact, we know that the I.Q. difference between black and white 12-year-olds has dropped to 9.5 points from 15 points in the last 30 years — a period that was more favorable for blacks in many ways than the preceding era. Black progress on the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows equivalent gains. Reading and math improvement has been modest for whites but substantial for blacks.
Most important, we know that interventions at every age from infancy to college can reduce racial gaps in both I.Q. and academic achievement, sometimes by substantial amounts in surprisingly little time. This mutability is further evidence that the I.Q. difference has environmental, not genetic, causes. And it should encourage us, as a society, to see that all children receive ample opportunity to develop their minds.
OK I love Christmas. I love the run in to Christmas, the lights, the buzz. I love the long holidays. This is not the USA, in Ireland we take at least a week off if we can. My aim is for as much time off as possible. Its about relaxing with the people you love. Eating too much food and generally unwinding. My absolute love of Christmas comes from the unfettered joy we had as children. It was traditional. There was midnight mass. Most loved for the singing with my Dad in the choir. But mostly it was a non-religious festival.
As we grew up opening presents after we came home from midnight mass. When we were younger haring in and looking at the tree and finding what Santa had left for us. Once I got up at 4am to get my Scalectrix set and couldn't get it going. An uncle got up to get it working for me. Getting my first bike which my parents hid at a neighbours. Eating Jacobs choc mallows before going to bed on Christmas eve. Visiting my Grannys on Christmas morning and meeting the cousins. The Turkey dinner at home with the family + some family who came every year. Food and lots of it. Mum forgetting the stuffing or the gravy after putting everything on the table. Being 'volunteered' to do the washing-up by my cousin. My Mum getting high tea for my Granny only a few hours after finishing dinner and my parents and uncles and aunts and granny playing cards after tea. A turkey sandwich, tayto crisps and a coke for tea on Christmas night (one tradition I still keep).
It wasn't about religion and its important to remember that the midwinters feast was hijacked by the early Christian church. Many of the old traditions are almost pagan ones.
So sorry Penelope though an avowed agnostic I still love Christmas. And now with kids around it has become even more special. So I guess its my happy memories v's Penelopes view. I'll take my view thanks
OVERWORKED nurses have been ordered to stop all medical work five times every day to move Muslim patients' beds so they face towards Mecca.No. I guess not. Not a very funny one even if it was.
McWilliams made reference to "Ethelred the Unready" on the radio this evening in relation to the Stamp Duty and it uselessness. A more general point might be made about how small minded the current government appear to be. Where are the big ideas. Where were they for the past 5 years when we needed to figure out ways to really make the economy hum. Too little done. Too much time and money wasted.
Why do people call things Centers of Excellence. Its unspeak. Its newspeak. Its rubbish. If they really were excellent then you wouldn't need to use that phrase. Nothing wrong with excellence, It is a good thing. But putting lipstick on a pig and calling it Miss World don't cut it. Hopefully our 8 regional cancer care COE's will have more going for them than lipstick.
