[lbo-talk] a nation of haves & have-nots? Americans equally divided...

[Miles Jackson]

W. Kiernan wrote:
> Miles Jackson wrote:
>  >
>  > if you took a person who scored 100 on a IQ test
>  > today and sent them back in time to take the 1920
>  > IQ test, they would score about 135 (near genius
>  > level).
> 
> Bet you'd drive a car nearly as well as a old-time racing champion too, 
> from all the practice you've got that they didn't have.  I mean we've 
> had decades of refining teachers's techniques of training kids to excel 
> at answering short snappy quiz questions.  You don't really suppose that 
> we're actually a whole lot smarter today than they were a century ago, 
> do you?

I agree that IQ tests don't measure general intelligence, the claims 
of IQ test enthusiasts notwithstanding.  When you look at the items on 
the Stanford Binet or the WAIS, it's clear that IQ tests measure 
academic skills (e.g., math, geography, vocabulary, logical 
reasoning).  There is a lot more to intelligence than academic smarts.

Miles