1. It’s anecdotal and old, but she was a teacher and that was the thought among the teachers there at that time. You don’t have to jump all over it (unless you want to.)
2. Who says IQ is constant? I’m no expert (as you are acutely aware), but it seems like bad health could take it down. Don’t you know people who’s health is run down and they can’t think like they used to?
3. Re: Head Start or school lunch— I’d guess regular meals will help you learn. Also, I read that kids who take vitamins score higher on tests. The bummer is that the families who are providing vitamins are also most likely to provide a diet that already contains plenty of vitamins in the food. Those who are poorly feeding their kids don’t give them vitamins, either.
4. The La Leche League people, after some study, insist that a full course of breast feeding is worth an extra 8 IQ points. Obviously, you don’t receive the 8 points in a package on the day you are weaned. The points had to be building up while you were accumulating the nourishment. So there has to be some movement in IQ.
I love anecdotal firsthand accounts, and I know NOTHING about IQ, but the points you're sharing are truly interesting, and I'm utterly unfamiliar with them.
Indeed, the ONLY thing I know remotely about this is that protein is supposed to be superior brain food. But.... that it is a fruit, BLUEBERRIES, which seem to be superb in preventing damage from strokes.
Elsewise, I know NOTHING, and it intrigues me that someone who LIVED there PERSONALLY had such an interesting firsthand account. I wonder if our American children would all be far healthier if they were all breastfed and not weaned for several years?
Education does not produce a significant increase in IQ. There are only 3 ways of reliably increasing a population’s average IQ:
1. Improved nutrition with more animal protein in the diet can create something like a 10 pt increase in IQ. (Implemented by all industrialized countries)
2. Selecting immigrants with higher IQs. (Implemented by the U.S from the 1890s to the 1930s, China present day, Singapore present day)
3. Eugenics/Selective breeding aka get higher IQ individuals to have more kids, lower IQ individuals to have less kids. (Implemented by the U.S up to the 1930s and by Singapore in the present day)