On Tue, 28 Sep 2004, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> It is much worse in most high schools - where athletics is king and showing
> any interest in the intellectual contents of instruction can turn one into a
> dork which is far worse than being fat, lazy and dumb.
>
> So yes, most US-ers receive much more formal education than any time in the
> past - but most of it is mere going through the motions to obtain proper
> credentials.
But formal standardized tests of vocabulary, math skills, and logical reasoning--like the Stanford-Binet--show that people in general are not just "going through the motions": they demonstrate way more academic acumen than their parents and grandparents. (If you think it's bad now, it was fucking awful back when!)
>
> As far as IQ tests are concerned - I am really surprised that anyone on this
> list even mentions them. They are a bunch of crap - not worth the paper
> they are printed on. The only thing they test is IQ testing ability, which
> correlates well with parental income and nothing else.
To put it bluntly, this is a goofy claim contradicted by a mountain of data. I have my criticisms of IQ testing, but the research is unambiguous on this: if you want to predict who is going to succeed in intellectually challenging settings (e.g., med school, grad school, theoretical physics), IQ tests are very effective. There are many manifestations of what I consider intelligent behavior that are not accurately predicted by IQ, but it's a gross misrepresentation of the data to claim that IQ only correlates the parental income.
> > I really don't get Woj's need to trash-talk the general
> > population. We're amazing in terms of what we accomplish
> > everyday, and we should take credit for it.
>
> USA! USA! USA!
Strange leap: how do you get from recognizing the contributions of workers to blind patriotism to the USA? Fuck the US, I'm talking about the workers! I'm just as amazed by the resourcefulness of street vendors in India.
Miles