[Marxism] IQ and race

["Charles Brown" <charlesb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis Proyect 


http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2007/12/17/071217crbo_books_gladwell



James Flynn, a social scientist at the University of Otago, in New
Zealand, received a large package in the mail. It was from a colleague
in Utrecht, and it contained the results of I.Q. tests given to two
generations of Dutch eighteen-year-olds. When Flynn looked through the
data, he found something puzzling. The Dutch eighteen-year-olds from the
nineteen-eighties scored better than those who took the same tests in
the nineteen-fifties-and not just slightly better, much better.

Curious, Flynn sent out some letters. He collected intelligence-test
results from Europe, from North America, from Asia, and from the
developing world, until he had data for almost thirty countries. In
every case, the story was pretty much the same. I.Q.s around the world
appeared to be rising by 0.3 points per year, or three points per
decade, for as far back as the tests had been administered. For some
reason, human beings seemed to be getting smarter.

^^^^^^^

CB: How about people who live in a society where knowledge about these
tests and their characteristics have been seeping more and more into the
general population , teacher student population have been learning more
and more about the tests. So, they are getting smarter about the tests,
not just generally smarter.


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