The thread I started a while ago about genetics got me thinking about my own family history. And lead me to wonder about my father and one of his brothers in particular. I have no idea whether my father ever did an IQ test, and he's passed away so I can't ask him. But I do know that he topped the state in high school, which from the number of children born the year he was puts him somewhere around 1/17000 for achievement. He was offered a full scholarship to an overseas university (which he did not take).
This was 40 years ago, as a child of parents who may not have finished high school and certainly did not attend universtiy, no tutors and no tiger mums pushing :-). I am wondering what the likelihood is in this context that there is a fairly direct relationship between achievement and giftedness? One of his brothers took a very different path, but I would describe as having equal or greater depth of thinking and equal or greater exceptionality in his achievement (all be it in a direction that many/most people may not go looking for the "gifted").