Posted on 02/22/2012 5:33:47 PM PST by Nachum
(CNSNews.com) - John P. Holdren, the top science adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote in a book he co-authored with population control advocates Paul and Anne Ehrlich that children from larger families have lower IQs.
The book—"Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions"—argued that the United States government had a “responsibility to halt the growth of the American population.”
“It surely is no accident that so many of the most successful individuals are first or only children,” wrote Holdren and the Ehrlichs, “nor that children of large families (particularly with more than four children), whatever their economic status, on the average perform less well in school and show lower I.Q. scores than their peers from small families.”
Holdren and the Ehrlichs published "Human Ecology" with W.H. Freeman and Company in 1973. In June 2000, a study published in American Pyschologist debunked the notion that children in larger families have lower I.Q.s. But when Holdren appeared in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in 2009 for a confirmation hearing on his appointment to run the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, he continued to argue for the benefits of “smaller families” on other bases.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Maybe, I should have used the word “helps” falsify since it could be an exception—but then, my problem was with the entire premise which makes false assumptions. It is not worth refuting with a scientific paper.
First born children are most likely to get more individual attention which correlates with intelligence.
Oldest children are more likely to be the scientists and innovators, etc., because of the unshared attention given by adults. They learn far more than with siblings, close to their own age-—which takes up their time, but is not particularly stimulating to the intellect. In fact, it could retard language development and intellectual concepts and take away time from pursuits, such as music lessons, known to increase IQ.
The more individual time spent with adults, increases IQ—it is why Lenin invented Day Cares so children would learn conformity and be less intelligent.
Many so called parents put their children in day cares which retards intelligence since they copy other 2 year olds instead of adults. They pick up bad behavior and simplistic language instead of complex language and civil, polite behavior which should be modeled from the nurturing mother who should be the first teacher in the formative years of life so trust in human beings form.
We have destroyed the family unit—which is what transfers the ability to be an exceptional, moral person whether the 6th or 7th child. I was the 4th and did quite well in school and life, and my 5th brother is far more intelligent than any of his siblings.
Here’s the accomplishments of the 12 siblings in my family:
BSCE, Licensed Civil Engineer, Master’s in Strategic Planning, 30+ years US Army/Army Reserve
BSEE, Licensed Electrical Engineer (power systems)
Bookkeeper and stay-at-home mom
BA, and stay-at-home mom
BA, Accountant, Nursing Degree and stay-at-home mom
BA Special Education degree & teacher’s certification
BSEE, Licensed Electrical Engineer (computer memory)
BSEE, Licensed Electrical Engineer (power)
BA, Accountant and stay-at-home mom
BA, JD, Lawyer
BA, Teacher
BA, Bookkeeper and stay-at-home mom
...so I guess we’re all just a bunch of dopes. good thing we didn’t have a really big family.
My Dad (RIP) would be really pissed to find out he wasted a lot of college money...
Yes, but just think how smart Benjamin Franklin would have been if he had been an only child. Instead of just inventing bifocals, lightning rods, Franklin stoves, electricity, and a few other things, he might have invented computers, televisions, and microwave ovens.
I have 8 kids with the same woman. What are the rest of you doing?
Actually I hate the fact that the number of children anyone has is a subject that people want to inject their opinions. You have none and I will have 10 and later we will go out for beers.
“Many so called parents put their children in day cares which retards intelligence since they copy other 2 year olds instead of adults. They pick up bad behavior and simplistic language instead of complex language and civil, polite behavior which should be modeled from the nurturing mother who should be the first teacher in the formative years of life so trust in human beings form.”
This is a most succinct explanation for this “phenomenon”.
I had sixteen years of the full and undivided attention of a stay-at-home mom who graduated college at 18. I would not compromise on this point with my ex. I told her I would work three jobs or possibly rob banks if she would stay home for five years after we had a child (in reality, we could have made it on either of our incomes at the time).
Well, I don’t have any kids.
If you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth.
And if IQ is a genetic trait...how can the genes of a child be affected by the number of children the mother has. ..the genes of child one does not know if it going to be one of one or one of a hundred>
“Lies, damn lies, and statistics being used by eugenists”
There are scientific studies (which almost never rely solely on statistics) and then there are polemics. This is an example of the second. Today many intelligent people opt to have small families in the more developed countries. Therefore the statistical findings indicate no cause dealing with the size of the family.
"What a complete jackass!"
Interesting. Of my working class parents, neither of whom advanced beyond the eighth grade, three of their six sons qualified for Mensa.
Wow, Obama must really be anti-science if the guy he selects to run the office of Science and Technology has published junk-science papers that were later debunked in the scientific press......
I suppose that it depends on how it is broken down on demographics. I bet it is different on conditions that would get me banned from FR if I enumerated them
This explains the Kennedy family.
I’m the 5th of 10 very blessed and successful kids.
Well, do have kids-—we need parents like you.
I raised 5 (stay at home) and I told my husband I would go on welfare before I would allow strangers to shape the worldview of my children.
He was softly suggesting that I could get a job besides raising children. He soon realized how stupid it would be to have the most important experience in life traded for a 9-5 job and allow a minimal wage person give “care” and “love” our children who didn’t give a damn about them and probably resented blowing their noses much less changing dirty diapers.
Children need to be able to see their parents when they look up and are hurt so they learn love and trust and loyalty. Deserting children to daycares teaches children to throw their parents in nursing homes the minute they take effort and time. They learn that time with parents is meaningless and unimportant.
Daycare invented by Lenin is actually Marxism—to destroy biological relationship and loyalty—to destroy trust in little kids by separating them from the most important people in their lives. They will have attachment issues for the rest of their lives-—which will negatively affect all future long term relationships.
It took the communist feminists many decades to convince women to throw their kids in daycare. They had to change the name (as Marxists do) to the term “preschool” to make it acceptable-—stupid mothers didn’t realize that their children learn far more at home with one on one time with the mother-—daycares create high stress in kids and stress blocks learning. Daycares are chaos and kids hate it and are frightened by it (they should be). Teachers have little one on one time and are just giving simple orders most of the time.
(I know—I taught in a Montessori school for a year-—it is a crime to take little kids away from their mothers in the first seven years of life.
For the most of the US history, kids hardly went to schools and then when they did—they were at least 7 and like Mark Twain—they quit when they were 13. Schools teach children to be infantile and dependent. They humiliate children who think outside the box or are individualistic. They want group think.
Just wow. What a loon!
Eat my shorts, TXnMA!
You must be a scientist to have taken my comment personally. Suspect you are probably involved in AGW research or some other worthless junk-scientific field.
I have a geology degree. What field of science do you specialize in, Jackass?
Well I know my 12 Aunts and Uncles in my dad’s side of the family and sometimes I might wanna agree with this..
Seriously.......
Where do these liberals get this crap?
“3. Force everyone to use birth control?”
Perhaps they will attempt to mandate that. If they do, don’t be surprised to see forced sterilization of the lesser races (i.e.: Republicans, conservatives, anti-AGW, home schoolers, Christians, Jews and anybody else that isn’t going along with their program).
NAZI Germany redo, eh?
The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.
Erma Bombeck
The family is the most basic unit of government. As the first community to which a person is attached and the first authority under which a person learns to live, the family establishes society's most basic values.
Charles Caleb Colton
Home is the place where boys and girls first learn how to limit their wishes, abide by rules, and consider the rights and needs of others.
Sidonie Gruenberg
To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
Confucius
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