This poses an interesting dilemma:
Tests carried out in 1980 and again in 2008 show that the IQ score of an average 14-year-old dropped by more than two points over the period.
Among those in the upper half of the intelligence scale, a group that is typically dominated by children from middle class families, performance was even worse, with an average IQ score six points below what it was 28 years ago.
Tehre are those of course who claim that IQ is largely heritable. And there are those who insist that it is malleable. Leave aside who is correct here. The malleable lot are those who are in charge of the education system. And who have designed the education system that we have, that we\’ve moved to over the past 30 years. Yet more comprehensivisation.
Taking them at their own word, that IQ is indeed malleable, the system they\’ve designed to do the malling seems to be entirely cocked, doesn\’t it?
I wonder if they accounted for the growth in the middle classes and immigration between these two dates? The effect of just these would probably swamp their results.
I thought it was only the curriculum being dumbed down!
More seriously- could it be that fewer pupils are preparing for IQ tests as part of the 11+ and therefor IQ test results are declining- they’re only a measure of one aspect of intelligence, and scores do improve with practise.
It is of course illegal to think that immigrants have any differences from the native population, hence no published results verify the suggestion that they may be bringing the average intelligence level down.
My initial hypothesis is that there is a positive correlation between IQ test score and time spent making airfix models. Maybe I could get a grant……?
“My initial hypothesis is that there is a positive correlation between IQ test score and time spent making airfix models”
Quite correct. Anyone who didn’t have an Airfix Spitfire dangling from their ceiling as a teenager shouldn’t be in public life.
Intelligence can, and should, be nurtured. But no-one gets paid to nurture intelligence in babies. You can’t do it by fiat.
Children are designed to be curious, and speculative. They have a right to be protected from a society which is totalitarian, and obsessed with control of individualism. In such a cesspit, ignorance is much more acceptable than flair, and talent.
IQ is obviously malleable – do you feel quite as bright “the morning after” as when sober ?
Alan Douglas