I do not agree with a previous poster throwing out a very debatable and highly offensive claim that has been used to justify racist policies as if it were uncontrovertible fact.
How can we have an honest discussion about something when people shout others down just for bringing up the idea?
"Herrnstein and Murray rely heavily upon the work of Richard Lynn, whom they described as "a leading scholar of racial and ethnic differences", from whose advice they have "benefited especially". "
This was an Acknowledgement for advice on "psychometrics and testing." It was in a list of other names.
Dozens of people were named in the Acknowledgements section.
The "leading scholar" note was in a different part of the book and referred to a review Lynn wrote on IQ in Asia.See, this is what I mean about shouting. The guy who wrote the Scientific American article was distorting the truth.
It is a matter of shame and disgrace that two eminent social scientists, fully aware of the sensitivity of the issues they address, take as their scientific tutor Richard Lynn, and accept uncritically his surveys of research.
has ~1,000 references. Exactly 24 of them are Lynn's. Chapter 13 is the first/main chapter on race/IQ differences. It includes references to critiques of Lynn's work (e.g ref #s 3, 4, possibly 1). It makes 24 references to Lynn's work and 126 to other papers. Half (12) of the Lynn references refer to a single point. There is also a very, very big discussion about difference of opinion on the subject and the importance of environment.
More distortion.The Bell Curve is a dry scholarly work that cites the literature every time a claim is made. It says that "the first thing to remember is that the differences among individuals are far greater than differences between groups. If all the ethnic differences in intelligence evaporated overnight, most of the intellectual variation in America would endure." (p. 271.) The Preface indicates that many of our social problems come from failure to acknowledge that some individuals just aren't as smart as others. I submit that encouraging everyone to go to college is one example of a bad way to try to solve a social problem.
I'd like to toss out some thoughts in a very gentle way.
Folks here complain regularly about teachers who don't believe that HG+ kids are as capable as they are --- almost as though such a thing as reading by age 3 is
simply not possible. Many of us have also complained about the damage caused by those who are uninformed about giftedness and ideas such as "all children are gifted." It's as though people use these ideas to deny the reality of HG+ kids.
Perhaps the truth of a self-taught toddler-reader makes people very, very uncomfortable. This can't be.I would like to submit to the group that the data in
The Bell Curve also makes people very, very uncomfortable. This can't be.Well, why not? No one disputes that other differences between races/ethnic groups exist (skin color, height, eye color, hair color, ability to win marathons, ability to jump, etc. etc. etc.). Why not IQ?
This is not a judgment of anyone's relative worth, nor does it claim that everyone in a group has a certain IQ. Individual differences exist.
I believe that pretending they don't creates barriers to solving problems, just like pretending that everyone evens out by third grade creates a barrier to educating gifted kids.
