My Father was a school administrator on an Indian Reservation that today,
when the mines are shut down and no more new dust is being put into the
wind, registers the number one super fund site for lead contamination in
America. It is supposed to stunt the growth of anyone man, woman, child,
male, female etc. who breathes the stuff. It is true that my math
concentration on those tests was very poor. It is also true that we
tested initially in the 15% of the nation. It is also true that by the
time I graduated we were testing school wide in the 85% and I tested 88%
along with the section leader of the Contra-bassoon section of Solti's
Chicago Symphony who was my classmate.
Since that time, a series of typical non-Indian administrators (who know
nothing about the "blanket culture" nor would care if they did) have taken
the schools back to the low levels that they were and the town has died
through their individualist policies rather than the "communitarian"
policies of my father.
So how did I get my test scores up enough to win a full scholarship at the
most expensive private university in the state in spite of the blue
cuticles? There were no affirmative action programs at the time and
indeed they still fight about "Indianness" ("They say we got everything by
imitating or marrying 'white folks'") having a total ignorance of the
history of Indians in the Arts before the depression destroyed the Indian
schools and set the theft situation in motion that today has the current
Secretary of Interior in "contempt of court" for government theft of Indian
royalties that runs into the many billions of dollars.
So maybe we should give IQ tests in theft for "White folks."
I took those tests that Keith mentioned. They were called "preference"
tests at the time and were supposed to indicate vocational talent. When I
went before the board who was supposed to inform me about the test results
for my "preferred" vocation they just looked at me with a quizzical look on
their faces. On the one hand I didn't show much and on the other they were
a private company and I was the son of the Superintendent who hired them to
give the test. Having met plenty of such "psychometric salesmen" in my
role I recognized the look. Then one piped up and said "What do YOU want
to do?" I saw my opportunity since my father had been bugging me about
not making a living in music, and I answered: "I want to be a concert
pianist!" He said "Great! then you should." And that was that.
I got my voice lessons and piano lessons assured.
The tests that I excelled in were "Analogy" tests given on the high school
level. It seems they measured things that I enjoyed solving and not the
kind of literal "pinhead" thinking that the lead interfered with. At this
point I think I was blessed, if you get my drift.
Dad went on to put his practical knowledge together and collect two
Education Doctorates and become an expert in "Psychometrics." In spite
of his experience with the lead he too loved Husserl. I think it must
come with the turf, psychometrics that is. My Mother who had the really
bad effects on her emotion from the lead, went on to double their retirement
playing the money market and give us all a little nest egg when she left.
What the hell. The people in the West are still benefitting from the lead
pollution practiced in early Rome. Why do you think they needed such
rigid laws? When the world is as strange as this pollution makes it, you
really have to nail things down or you become Caligula, screw your sister
and sleep with horses. Or was that Catherine the Great? I just can't
keep these "civilized folks" straight.
Ray Evans Harrell
----- Original Message -----
From: "William B Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 11:16 AM
Subject: Re: A simplistic picture
> Keith,
>
> Something I forgot to mention but Koya Asumi brought it up. When
> accepting graduate students into a program, I always add 200 points to
> African American scores to estimate a true GRE. I have never been
> disappointed which suggests to me quite a cultural bias.
>
> By the way, we had a woman from China live with us for a year who got a
> 2300 on her GREs. I guess she blew the English part and only got a 700.
>
> Bill Ward
>
> >
> > You are speaking of different IQ scores by groups. One fundamental
> > issue
> > is how IQ is measured. Is there now some standardized measure that
> > is
> > applicable equally across languages and cultures? Is there an IQ
> > test that
> > does not use a written language (such as English, Chinese, etc.)?
> > Is there
> > a test that is universally applicable?
> > >>>>
> >
> > Yes, chronometric tests, which are culturally objective, and which
> > measure
> > reaction times to very simple perceptual choices, or prompts, have a
> > high
> > correlation with the rather more typical IQ performance-tests which
> > have
> > been developed in the last 50 years or so. Such chronometirc tests
> > also
> > correlate closely with non-verbal, and largely culture-free IQ tests
> > which
> > use choices between graphic symbols of well-known (often natural)
> > objects.
> > Average IQ scores for the three main races of mankind -- African
> > blacks,
> > European whites and Orientals -- also correlate with average brain
> > size
> > (80/1267cc;100/1347cc;106/1364cc respectively).
> >
> > (AC)
> > >>>>
> > How do you know that the Ashkenazi Jews IQ is 116 and that of
> > Chinese in
> > coastal region is 106? Did they take a same test? Or were they
> > tested in
> > their respective
> > languages? If so, are the tests comparable?
> > >>>>
> >
> > Yes, care is taken to correlate them carefully in order to avoid
> > the
> > cultural bias that could otherwise invalidate results. I'd refer you
> > here
> > to books such as Arthur Jensen's "Bias in Mental Testing", "IQ and
> > the
> > Wealth of Nations" by Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen, and "Race,
> > Evolution
> > and Behavior" by J. Philippe Rushton, which correlate and compare IQ
> > test
> > results among different races.
> >
> > (AK)
> > <<<<
> > There are individual variations in IQ. Some people are more
> > creative than
> > others, but are there group variations in creativity? I am not at
> > all
> > convinced that there are.
> > >>>>
> >
> > Creativity certainly depends on other factors than IQ (such as
> > persistence
> > at a particular skill or a particular problem) and there appears to
> > be no
> > direct relationship of creativity with IQ, but studies tend to show
> > that
> > almost all highly creative people (Nobel Prizewinners, for example)
> > seem to
> > require IQs above about 120/130. Arthur Jensen has written an essay
> > on this
> > -- "Giftedness and Genius: Crucial Differences" -- and this is in
> > "Intellectual Talent" (John Hopkins Univeristy Press), edited by C.
> > P.
> > Benbow and D. Lubinski.
> >
> > (AK)
> > <<<<
> > I'd much rather assume that all persons and groups are potentially
> > equally
> > creative. We know that creativity is culturally channelled.
> > Depending on
> > what is considered
> > important, people focus their creative vent in different
> > institutional
> > realms such as religion, art, music, literature, polity, etc. and
> > not
> > necessarily science and technology.
> > >>>>
> >
> > Yes, I'd like to assume this, too.
> >
> > (AK)
> > <<<<
> > If the Ashkenazi Jews seem to have the highest IQ among the human
> > race,
> > then that has to be explained. If coastal Chinese have higher IQ
> > than
> > inland Chinese, that has to be explained.
> > >>>>
> >
> > As far as the Ashkenazi (central European) Jews are concerned, a
> > sort of
> > double selection event seems to have taken place. Firstly, King
> > Boleslav of
> > Poland granted a charter to Jews from the east in 1264 (which
> > probably
> > attracted the more enterprising and intelligent), followed by
> > further waves
> > of Jews (again likely to be predominantly of successful Jews such
> > as
> > bankers who upset the powers-that-be) who were persecuted in
> > countries of
> > western Europe during the next few hundred years. By the mid 17th
> > century
> > about 30% of all the Jews in the world lived in Poland. From then
> > onwards,
> > all these Ashkenazi Jews in central Europe were then subjected to
> > repeated,
> > and often terrifying persecution which meant -- one assumes -- that
> > only
> > the brighter part of their population managed to survive. Then, of
> > course,
> > great numbers of the survivors left in a whoosh for America from
> > about
> > 1870s onwards, and a great deal of the remainder for Israel after
> > WWII.
> >
> > As for the Chinese (and Japanese, of course) of the eastern seaboard
> > of
> > Asia, it is now being increasingly believed (on the basis of DNA
> > sampling)
> > that this high-IQ branch of the human race arose from the first
> > large
> > migration out of Africa and along the sea coast eastwards at the
> > time of
> > the retreat of the penultimate Ice Age. By the time that the last
> > Ice Age
> > came down there was probably a distinct north-south divide in IQ.
> > When the
> > last Ice Age retreated and further migrations out of Africa took
> > place,
> > then a new "hybrid" east-west mixture of intermediate IQ developed
> > -- the
> > Europeans.
> >
> > (AK)
> > <<<<
> > Your post seems to imply that an important determinant of IQ is
> > education.
> > I agree. It is nurture and not nature. Dividing people by their
> > ascription
> > (as in Ashkenazi Jews and coastal Chinese) does little to explain
> > their
> > achievements.
> > >>>>
> >
> > Most of those who are actively engaged in studying and researching
> > IQ are
> > in large agreement that IQ depends mostly on genes but, of course,
> > cultural
> > and educational environment are also very important. It's a very
> > contentious subject, of course. I was very much a "nurturist" for
> > the first
> > -- what? -- 40 years of my life and I found the gathering evidence
> > from
> > research scientists to be very uncomfortable indeed because it ran
> > counter
> > to the whole of my political philosophy up until then. As for me, I
> > decided
> > over the last few years that the evidence wasn't going to disappear
> > and I
> > gradually became persuaded that individual achievement is due both
> > to genes
> > and environment.
> >
> > But I hope you will not be offended if I say that I don't want to be
> > drawn
> > into a controversial discussion of nature versus nurture. This
> > debate is
> > being carried on by far more knowledgeable person than me. The
> > reason I
> > wrote my original piece this morning is that I wanted to try and
> > sketch
> > what I thought would be the hubristic consequences of the clique
> > that is
> > now gathered around Bush in its desire to dominate future supplies
> > of
> > Middle East oil and gas.
> >
> > Keith
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> > --------------
> >
> > Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
> > Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail:
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> ________________________________________________________________________
> >
> >
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
> Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
> Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
> http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
