Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Western Civilization Dumber Than 100 Years Ago
Breitbart's Big Government ^ | May 23, 2013 | William Bigelow

Posted on 05/23/2013 5:19:17 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A new study may stimulate the old adage of respecting your elders; it says the general level of intelligence in the Western Hemisphere has declined since the Victorian Era. The study claims the IQ numbers are 14 points lower than from the 19th century.

One of the authors of the study, Dr. Jan te Nijenhuis, professor of work and organizational psychology at the University of Amsterdam, says the cause of the movement toward stupidity is that smarter women have fewer children while those of lower intelligence have more children.

But Dr. Gerald Crabtree, professor of pathology and developmental biology at Stanford University, disagreed. He stated:

The reduction in human intelligence (if there is any reduction) would have begun at the time that genetic selection became more relaxed. I projected this occurred as our ancestors began to live in more supportive high density societies (cities) and had access to a steady supply of food. Both of these might have resulted from the invention of agriculture, which occurred about 5,000 to 12,000 years ago.

The study examined results of 14 intelligence studies conducted between 1884 to 2004 that measured participants' so-called visual reaction times....

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: adhd; alzheimers; areosalsprayingsky; autism; cancer; chemicalsoup; education; electronicsoup; flouridewater; gmo; gmofood; goengineering; heredity; hfcs; intelligence; iq; monsanto; radiation; roundup; vaccines
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: rlmorel

LOL. That movie gets closer to reality every day...


41 posted on 05/23/2013 5:56:42 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

At my local bakery, the customer in front of me in line orders two items, and by the time the clerk brings them and packs them, I know how much is owed. The clerk, who looks like a college graduate, but a high school graduate should know what he’s doing, uses a calculator to figure out the amount, and often enough makes a mistake and has to repeat the calculation.


42 posted on 05/23/2013 5:57:26 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RFEngineer
I'm trying to wrap my head around the AKS proof this week. Agrawal, Kayal, and Saxena were pretty smart folks.

I'm not firm on the math quite yet.

I'm not using a pencil. I'm using Perl code and a spreadsheet to try to come to grips with the fundamental core of it.

Doing arithmetic with a pencil would NOT help in my quest.

/johnny

43 posted on 05/23/2013 5:59:33 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

44 posted on 05/23/2013 6:03:48 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibWhacker

I.Q. and heredity are known to be factual.

What we should be concerned with is the lack of moral clarity and personal responsibility.


45 posted on 05/24/2013 12:02:23 AM PDT by ChiMark (America no more)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

Education back then was not polluted with leftist thought and had a lot more religion in it. The focus was also strictly on the family, that being the basic unit of society.


46 posted on 05/24/2013 12:18:24 AM PDT by Olog-hai
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel; 2ndDivisionVet
I'm not so sure. Of course our technical society has altered the basic way natural selection works, but that kind of change takes many many thousands of years to have an effect. Genetics is much more complex than the simple meme of "stupid people have more children and intelligent people have fewer, therefore the world is getting less intelligent".

So I rather doubt that people today are less intelligent. What IS true is that they know less, certainly about things that matter.

47 posted on 05/24/2013 12:49:37 AM PDT by Vanders9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: albionin

Agreed. A lot of it is, at its root, an excuse for laziness.


48 posted on 05/24/2013 12:51:26 AM PDT by Vanders9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Huh? I didn’t realize Western Civilization still existed. I was pretty sure it had finally committed suicide by dilution with cretins.


49 posted on 05/24/2013 3:06:45 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I fully believe we are devolving.

Just look at the music people listen to now, and what they listened to a hundred years ago, and then what they listened to two hundred years ago. Look at the modern attention span. If it doesn’t flutter by the screen, it’s “boring”. Look at old movies. People were expected to follow a plot, to pay attention to a script. Now everything is visual stimulation.

Kids were expected to learn Latin and Greek in school. They would learn famous quotes and memorize poetry. They are continually dumbing down tests, such as SATs.

I watch a lot of old movies. They often reference history and events, and expect the audience to get the references. Heck, I remember a line from “Beach Blanket Bingo” where someone says, “He probably doesn’t even know who President Wilson was!”, and they expected young kids watching the movie to understand the joke. Nowadays kids don’t even know the current vice president.


50 posted on 05/24/2013 3:10:09 AM PDT by I still care (I miss my friends, bagels, and the NYC skyline - but not the taxes. I love the South.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Revolting cat!
...by the time the clerk brings them and packs them, I know how much is owed.

That's because wyatt people have all the advantages!

51 posted on 05/24/2013 3:10:21 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: EEGator

” Don’t worry, scrote. There are plenty of ‘tards out there living really kick-ass lives. My first wife was ‘tarded. She’s a pilot now.”


52 posted on 05/24/2013 3:17:42 AM PDT by Third Person (Welcome to Gaymerica.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

That’s nothing - the White House is dumber than ever in recorded history.


53 posted on 05/24/2013 3:22:26 AM PDT by Jack Hammer (American)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vanders9

I think they were more thoughtful, and paid closer attention to the things around them.


54 posted on 05/24/2013 3:38:59 AM PDT by rlmorel ("We'll drink to good health for them that have it coming." Boss Spearman in Open Range)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: I still care

I’ve been in a local production of the musical, “Annie.” Many cast members thought President Roosevelt was fictional, they had no idea who Herbert Hoover was, and some didn’t even know who Harpo Marx was.


55 posted on 05/24/2013 3:48:26 AM PDT by HomeAtLast
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: JCBreckenridge

“I would dispute that.”

Which part?


56 posted on 05/24/2013 3:53:31 AM PDT by RFEngineer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

100 years ago, the parents were in charge of their children’s education. No the schools are run by bureaucrats, unions, and government certified teachers.


57 posted on 05/24/2013 4:15:33 AM PDT by freedomfiter2 (Brutal acts of commission and yawning acts of omission both strengthen the hand of the devil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

If course we appear dumber than our ancestors of even 100 years ago. We aren’t, really - but we are surely no smarter either. Why we appear so dense is easy to explain: political correctness, and the infusion of modern liberal ideals that favor some idealistic fantasy over cold hard reality. This of us at this other end of the political spectrum just shake our heads at the antics of the left. We are not surprised by all the “unexpected” consequences of their actions.


58 posted on 05/24/2013 4:29:27 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EEGator
Yeah, I'll probably post another Games thread. The Regionals started last weekend. The Games start in late July. NorCal is the big region this weekend to keep an eye on. Most everything that is going to be broadcast will be here.
59 posted on 05/24/2013 4:52:01 AM PDT by Future Snake Eater (CrossFit.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: dalereed
"The high school education my mother and father received 100 years ago is equivalent to a PHD today! What they teach in todays high school wouldn’t be adequate to pass the 6th grade when I went to school!"

I teach science in a suburban high school, and my husband and I have two sons aged 17 and 20. What I see makes me very concerned about our future. If the average IQ has dropped, I would love to see the distribution. Perhaps the shape of the curve is changing.

The intelligent, intrinsically motivated young people are still among us. If they have decent parents and good schools, they are doing very well. If anything, some of them are being pushed too hard in pursuit of AP courses and things that look good on a transcript at the expense of a well-rounded life. Our sons have been exposed to books, technology, Scouting, travel, and high-quality classrooms. They have many peers.

In contrast with the intelligent and high-performing youngsters, I am seeing far too many who seem dull and dumbed down. Some of them are truly unintelligent. There have always been very low-IQ people among us, but today we insist on mainstreaming them into regular schools and pretending that they can do all the same things that brighter kids do. Many can't and it can cause frustration and disruption.

Finally, there is the great middle - the typical kids who grow up to hold most of the jobs and raise most of the next generation. Our society and our educational system are failing these kids in huge numbers. I am seeing low levels of literacy and numeracy. Many of them can't read well enough to extract meaning from their textbooks or understand what I think of as 4th grade math. They may be able to add or subtract, but don't know when to use which function. If I hand back a test with 40/80 on it, many of these kids can't figure out the percentage and ask what it means. Much of the problem is lack of work ethic. They've been raised with massive social promotion, 'group work' with little individual accountability, and schools where they are not permitted to fail. I am not permitted to give quarter grades below 60% - and this is in a parochial school. Most of these kids are smart enough to do much better, but by the time they're in high school, they have lived with institutionalized laziness, falling standards, and muddled leadership for most of their lives. It's hard to hold them to a high standard, but some of us try. These are the kids who go on to fill the lower-tier colleges and universities. It's easy to see why colleges are finding it necessary to place more and more incoming freshmen into remedial classes before they can handle college-level work.

Holding these average kids to a higher standard is something we used to do better. We can do it again, but it requires schools and parents to acquire some backbone and collectively act like adults. The early elementary grades are absolutely critical. We are failing to develop in these kids a strong academic foundation and failing to instill a proper work ethic (let alone basic courtesy and decorum). Small wonder they can't keep up with higher-level work, act up in class, and come across as know-nothings. Many know little and lack basic tools for living.

60 posted on 05/24/2013 5:15:06 AM PDT by Think free or die
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson