CLASS WARFARE:BESIEGED SCHOOLS, BEWILDERED PARENTS, BETRAYED KIDS AND THE ATTACK ON EXCELLENCE

vanity | 2002 (Book Review) Encounter Books/315 pages/San Francisco | By J. Martin Rochester

[shrinkermd]

I did this book review for my two children who have children of their own. It is a marvelous book and the Profesor's journey makes for easy and interesting reading.

[HumanaeVitae]

I wonder what accounts for the high IQ's of Russian Jews, as opposed to Ashenazi or Sephardic Jews (not noted in your piece). This is not a rhetorical question...it's an interesting divergence.

A friend of mine (white male) graduated from an elite tech university at 20. He told me that many of his betters at university and in his industry are Russian immigrants, both Jewish and non-Jewish...

[SauronOfMordor]

What educators are trying to do, is lower the standards sufficient to blur any ability difference between children as well as the races. No doubt about it, the educators believe this to be a laudable goal and well worth the sacrifice of the 20% of the gifted and able students who want and need a rigorous academic program.

It is the top 20% which supplies the professionals and business creators in the society. The US cannot survive if the top 20% are crippled

[Marie]

Thank you for this wonderfully well-worded piece.

Only about one-half of all parents believe intellectual development is the primary goal of education.(23)

This statement weakened my knees. If the primary purpose of education is not intellectual development, then what is it??

[AdamSelene235]

ping

[SauronOfMordor]

I wonder what accounts for the high IQ's of Russian Jews, as opposed to Ashenazi or Sephardic Jews (not noted in your piece). This is not a rhetorical question...it's an interesting divergence.

One theory has to do with Russian Jews having been concentrated in the occupations of merchant, moneylender, and craftsman: trades where IQ has a good influence on your success in that field (and thus your ability to keep your family from starving). The evolutionary pressures in favor of selecting for IQ are evident.

[SauronOfMordor]

4. Because of number three, the only way the establishment can achieve equity of outcome is to "dumb down" or otherwise destroy any academic and social gradient based on academic achievement and ability.

My cynical viewpoint on this is that the elites desire to have their own children inherit their positions of power and wealth. This is hard to do in the face of serious competition from the children of the middle class -- the middle-class, being a much larger group, will produce a large number of intelligent and energetic people. The solution is to cripple the intellects of the children of the middle class, so that they will not become competitors to the children of the elite (who do not go to public schools)

[Bob Mc]

" If the primary purpose of education is not intellectual development, then what is it??"

"Socialization".

Or in other words, State indoctrination to socialist ideas.

[Question_Assumptions]

Bump for later.

[SauronOfMordor]

In my opinion, Professor Rochester faced four issues when he began his educational crusade:
1. The progressives (liberals) who run the educational system believe its primary goal is to achieve equity of outcome. Radical egalitarianism is the norm and not the exception.
2. The schools of education and other aspects of the educational establishment control the system because they control who is "certified" not who is "qualified" to teach.
3. In spite of their egalitarian wishes, the educational establishment faces the certainty that intelligence is distribution on a bell curve and there are racial and ethnic differences in IQs. These differences are currently not amenable to any known remedy.
4. Because of number three, the only way the establishment can achieve equity of outcome is to "dumb down" or otherwise destroy any academic and social gradient based on academic achievement and ability.

ping

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[HumanaeVitae]

Possible, but notice that many of the great mathemeticians (and most of the great chess masters) are Russians, both Jewish and non-Jewish. For instance, the Stealth technology that the B-2 employs was discovered by a Soviet-era Russian mathemetician. It was published in an obscure Russian math journal and ignored by the Communists. The U.S. picked it up and the rest is history...

The Russian intellectual tradition, especially in the hard sciences, seems to be a thing of its own.

[Jason_b]

read later

[Jim Noble]

>>After Sputnik, as previously mentioned, the top 20% became the focus of additional attention and effort. Finally, beginning in the 90's, and especially the late 90s, educators lowered standards for the top 20% of students<<

I went to public school from 1955-1968. I remember vividly taking home a letter from third grade to my parents mentioning Sputnik and explaining why our science and math were being ramped up. I was a beneficiary of the described attention to the top 20%.

When my sons went to public school beginning in 1985, I was shocked at how bad it had become. Their high school is repeatedly listed in "top ten" public HS lists-if that is true, wow-the bad ones must be bad beyond description.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

The solution is to cripple the intellects of the children of the middle class, so that they will not become competitors to the children of the elite (who do not go to public schools)

Wow, well said.

[Jim Noble]

I think you can leave race out of it.

It's very simple. Children with IQs of 85 and below cannot-cannot-complete a legitimate academic high school program, any more than I can play in the NFL.

Focussing on white students exclusively, when I went to my (100% white) public school system, we had a large nonacademic track (called "the dumb track"), and many of its inhabitants were out of school by tenth grade.

What evidence is there that twelve (or more) years of schooling is necessary, appropriate, or even possible for kids with IQs of 85. Answer-none whatsoever.

It does not matter if a low IQ child is black or white-what matters is that, if he or she is in an academic HS they are in the wrong place.

Contrariwise, I would hope if an econ grad school were picking students, they would have the smarts to pick Dr. Sowell instead of me.

I agree completely that public high schools, flooded with children who do not belong there and are incapable of achievement, are falling apart.

They have been given a foolish and impossible job, and it shows.

[Red Jones]

It is the top 20% which supplies the professionals and business creators in the society. The US cannot survive if the top 20% are crippled

you're so correct on this. I think your daughters are probably going to get a good home school education though. I HATE the way after 5'th grade or so I got a very poor education despite a good faith effort by me. I'm one of the talented high aptitude types and they tried to make me mediocre. 'Cult Of Mediocrity' is a term that has been used to describe it.

But here's another aspect of our situation. Reasonably, the only way you can come out of high school in america prepared to really make it at an elite university is if you go to a high quality education system in grades 1-12. Nobody in america gets that except upper income people. Upper income people can live in upper income communities unlike lower income people. In America most upper income communities bar by law the construction of homes for lower income people. We are segregated actually and stratified by income according to government zoning laws. I'm not exaggerating or making this up. So, lower income people are forced into dysfunctional schools. And talented high aptitude kids from those lower income areas don't stand a chance.

[Red Jones]

I read something relating. I read that during WW1 the army tested every recruit for IQ levels. Jewish people tested 10 points below the average. Then, in WW2 the army had another huge group of people and tested them again. Jewish people tested 10 points above the average. So, this raises the possibility that an entire group raised its' IQ.

I agree with Sowell in the article when he said that cultural pathologies are causing IQ problems for some groups. I also think public schools and bad tv habits are causing low IQ's for many people. You must read what smart well trained minds wrote and let your own mind be trained by them in order to develop a high IQ.

[shrinkermd]

There is something called the "Flynn effect" that has been confirmed by numerous studies. Usually there is a pattern of an average increase of over three IQ points per decade. This is found in virtually every type of intelligence test, delivered to virtually every type of group. The increase was highest, 20 points per generation (30 years), in Belgium, Holland and Israel, and lowest, 10 points per generation, in Denmark and Sweden. Although the data are limited, it moreover seems that the increase is accelerating. In Holland, for example, scores went up most (over 8 points) for the last measured period, 1972 to 1982. For one type of test, Raven's Progressive Matrices, Flynn found data that spanned a complete century. He concluded that someone who scored among the best 10% a hundred years ago, would nowadays be categorized among the 5% weakest. Essentially, this is why IQ tests must be re-standardized.

The explanation for this is unclear. At least one item is that nutrition seems to be a crucial variable on the left hand side of the bell curve. Also, there is a suggestion that learning how to deal with timed tests, having taken other tests may play a part as well.

As far as Black/White IQ's see Rushton's Book Review of Jensen's book on the "g" factor. It is found on Stalking the Wild Taboo. The difference has been constant for over 80 years. Controlling for socio-economic background makes at most a four point difference. Both culture fair and non-verbal tests do not improve things. Blacks for 80 years have also consistently scored lower than Native Americans, Mexicans and Asians.

It really is too bad everyone has become upset about this. The real problem is a solution. Jensen found 40 years ago that on rote learning and shor-term memory tests Blacks score very favorably as compared to Whites. So what do liberal educators discourage? You got it --rote memory.

While there are always quarrels as to what an IQ test measures and whether it is valid, remember that we now have evoked potential and other physiological tests that correlat quite well with what is called "g" or general intelligence.

[SauronOfMordor]

I read something relating. I read that during WW1 the army tested every recruit for IQ levels. Jewish people tested 10 points below the average. Then, in WW2 the army had another huge group of people and tested them again. Jewish people tested 10 points above the average.

All Army IQ testing can do is measure the IQs of people who decide to show up to go into the Army -- which might not be a representative sample of the population.