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This is the story of educational romanticism in elementary and secondary schools —its rise, its etiology, and, we have reason to hope, its approaching demise. Educational romanticism consists of the belief that just about all children who are not doing well in school have the potential to do much better. Correlatively, educational romantics believe that the academic achievement of children is determined mainly by the opportunities they receive; that innate intellectual limits (if they exist at all) play a minor role; and that the current K-12 schools have huge room for improvement. Educational romanticism characterizes reformers of both Left and...

<p>Why are our owners so obsessed with finding out how intelligent we are? All they need to know is that we got it going on upstairs. How else to explain us living in their homes, eating their food and having them pick up our feces? And all of that without us paying them a dime.</p>

Breastfed babies are more intelligent than those weaned on formula milk, according to the most comprehensive study conducted on the issue. Doctors followed nearly 14,000 children over six and a half years and found that those who were breastfed fared significantly better in IQ tests. At the age of six and a half, children who had been exclusively breastfed scored 7.5 points higher in verbal intelligence tests and 5.9 points higher in overall IQ tests. Teachers also rated the breastfed children higher at reading, writing and solving mathematical problems. The finding, which confirms earlier research, raises the question of whether...

Simple brain exercise can boost IQ 22:00 28 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Alison Motluk Can mental training improve your intelligence? No video game or mental puzzle has convincingly been shown to work. But now a group of neuropsychologists claims it has found a task that can add points to a person's IQ – and the harder you train, they say, the more you gain. So-called "fluid intelligence", or Gf, is the ability to reason, solve new problems and think in the abstract. It correlates with professional and educational success and it appears to be largely genetic. Past attempts to...

Until a week ago, her instinct was always the same: any time she was away from home, Halimahton Yusof would scan the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of her daughter's face. "I always looked for her. For the past few years I didn't even know whether she was alive," she says, her eyes moist with tears. "Every time there was a story on the news about an accident, or a death, I feared the worst. I just wanted to know she was alive." Child genius and now prostitute: Sufiah Yusof attended Oxford University at just age 13 Then, last...

Minorities, poor get "highly gifted" lift A new DPS system awards some kids an extra boost to make things more equitable.By Jeremy P. Meyer The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 03/04/2008 06:34:50 AM MST Polaris at Ebert second-graders Guinness Vanos, left foreground, and Jlynn Terroade, both 8 years old, join other students in learning dance techniques during a physical-education class.(Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post) More minority and poor students in Denver are being classified as highly gifted under a new system that gives extra credit to children who are economically disadvantaged or nonnative English speakers. Denver Public Schools is...

Some people think that TV rots your brain, but the head of an organization for smart people has a list of what he said are the smartest shows ever made. Jim Werdell, the chairman of Mensa International, gave his list of the 10 most intelligent shows ever in honor of the end of the Hollywood writers' strike. In an interview with Fancast.com, he said the top 10 shows of all time are: "M*A*S*H" "Cosmos" (with Carl Sagan) "CSI" "House" "West Wing" "Boston Legal" "All in the Family" "Frasier" "Mad About You" "Jeopardy" He said some excellent current shows are "NCIS,"...

With television writers – presumably the brains of the whole operation – going back to work after their four-month strike, it seemed like the perfect question to ask: What are the smartest TV series of all time? Star Trek? Hill St. Blues? Taxi? West Wing? Boy Meets World? Fancast posed the question to Jim Werdell, Chairman of MENSA International, the worldwide organization for “people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2 % of the population.” In addition to a soaring intellect, the 63-year-old retired Northern California government official enjoys his TV. Werdell keeps his set...

Most of the problem solving we do in order to get through a day involves the use of what's referred to as "working memory." it acts a bit like RAM; we store information we need for the task at hand temporarily, but don't necessarily commit it to permanent memory. A recent study has probed the qualities of visual working memory, and has come to the conclusion that we have a finite and well-defined capacity for visual items, a finding that may have far-reaching implications for one simple reason: that capacity may be what's stressed by IQ tests. The study appeared...

Twin Brothers Get Perfect ACT Scores One Twin Had Three TriesPOSTED: 11:42 am EST January 17, 2008 UPDATED: 1:03 pm EST January 17, 2008 BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Brian and Ross DeVol are a perfect match, genetically and academically: The identical twins earned perfect ACT scores. The seniors at suburban Bellevue East High School both scored 36 on the college entrance exam, though Ross DeVol needed three tries. One of his earlier tries netted a 35. The 18-year-old brothers have maintained straight As through high school, and both are in the running for class valedictorian. "We're pretty competitive," Ross DeVol said....

Experts Urge Complete Global Access To Iodized Salt; Prevents IQ Loss And Brain Damage In Babies ScienceDaily (Dec. 13, 2007) — World experts in iodine deficiency today urged renewed international commitment to help prevent loss of IQ due to fetal brain damage by facilitating access to iodized salt for the final 30 percent of world households that don't yet have it -- most of them found in just 20 countries. At United Nations Headquarters, New York Weds. Dec. 12, the Network for Sustained Elimination of Iodine Deficiency and other issue stakeholders mark a major public health advance achieved in two...

JAMES WATSON, the 1962 Nobel laureate, recently asserted that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” and its citizens because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.” Dr. Watson’s remarks created a huge stir because they implied that blacks were genetically inferior to whites, and the controversy resulted in his resignation as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. But was he right? Is there a genetic difference between blacks and whites that condemns blacks in perpetuity to be less intelligent?...

JAMES WATSON, the DNA pioneer who claimed Africans are less intelligent than whites, has been found to have 16 times more genes of black origin than the average white European. An analysis of his genome shows that 16% of his genes are likely to have come from a black ancestor of African descent. By contrast, most people of European descent would have no more than 1%. The study was made possible when he allowed his genome - the map of all his genes - to be published on the internet in the interests of science. “This level is what you...

STAUNTON, Va. -- As Jackie Robson rushed off to Japanese 101, a pink sign on the main door of her college dorm reminded her to sign out. There were more rules: an 11 p.m. curfew, mandatory study hours, round-the-clock adult supervision and no boys allowed in the rooms. Jackie is 14. She never spent a day in high school. Like the other super-bright girls in her dorm, the Fairfax County teen bypassed a traditional education and countless teenage rites, such as the senior prom and graduation, to attend the all-female Mary Baldwin College in the Shenandoah Valley. The school offers...

PARIS (AFP) - Genes that can be pinned to intelligence are proving frustratingly hard to find, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue. Researchers led by Robert Plomin of the Institute of Psychiatry in London obtained intelligence scores for 7,000 seven-year-olds based on verbal and non-verbal reasoning tests. They also took DNA samples from the children in the hope of identifying genetic differences between the high and low scorers. The huge trawl identified 37 variants in six genes that appear to be play some role in differences in intelligence. But the individual effects of these genes was...

My mother, rest her merry, brainy soul, convinced me early on that I was - as she liked to put it, quoting the cartoon character Yogi Bear - "SMARRR-ter than the average bear!" I happily assumed that my Yogi-like intelligence would ensure great things. My sense of entitlement grew when I easily won good marks in school, then grew some more when three different college professors told me I had a talent for writing. Rising to the top, I gathered, was a matter of natural buoyancy. The reality check came in my twenties, when nearly a decade of middling effort...

Gene 'links breastfeeding to IQ' The government advises breastfeeding for first six months A single gene influences whether breastfeeding improves a child's intelligence, say London researchers. Children with one version of the FADS2 gene scored seven points higher in IQ tests if they were breastfed. But the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study found breastfeeding had no effect on the IQ of children with a different version. The gene in question helps break down fatty acids from the diet, which have been linked with brain development. Seven points difference is enough to put the child in the top...

British brains dominate list of living geniuses By Aislinn Simpson Last Updated: 1:07am GMT 29/10/2007 Britain has more living geniuses per head of population than anywhere else in the world, according to a new survey which reveals the country's influence on science, technology, business and the arts. Almost a quarter of those featured in the list of 100 living geniuses are Britons, including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web, in joint first place, and physicist Stephen Hawking at seven in the list. British artists and musicians feature heavily, including Brit Art leader Damien Hirst at number 15,...

James Watson, the Nobel laureate who sparked an international furor last week with comments about intelligence levels among blacks, has retired from his post at a prestigious research institution. ADVERTISEMENT Watson, 79, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York announced his departure Thursday. Watson was chancellor of the institution, and his retirement was effective immediately.

<p>No excerpting because of copyright. The essay is at http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3075642.ece .</p>

Statement by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Board of Trustees and President Bruce Stillman, Ph.D. Regarding Dr. Watson’s Comments in The Sunday Times on October 14, 2007 Earlier this evening, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Board of Trustees decided to suspend the administrative responsibilities of Chancellor James D. Watson, Ph.D., pending further deliberation by the Board. This action follows the Board’s public statement yesterday disagreeing with the comments attributed to Dr. Watson in the October 14, 2007 edition of The Sunday Times U.K.

One of the most respected scientists is embroiled in an extraordinary row after claiming that black people are less intelligent than white people. James Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has provoked outrage with his comments. The 79 year old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas the the testing says not really."

'Black people are less intelligent than whites', claims DNA pioneer One of the world's most eminent scientists is at the centre of a row after claiming black people are less intelligent than whites. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has drawn condemnation for comments made ahead of his arrival in Britain tomorrow for a speaking tour. Dr Watson, who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, made the controversial remarks in an interview in The Sunday Times. The 79-year-old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect...

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE by James R. Flynn Reasons For This Book Review I have limited this review to three broad purposes: (1) To explore the nature of the Flynn Effect; (2) To introduce Dr. Flynn’s latest thoughts on re-defining intelligence; (3) And, to discuss the black/white IQ gap. Introduction In 1994 Herrnstein and Murray published The Bell Curve. Rising IQ test scores over time were enigmatic. Since James R. Flynn had focused attention on this finding, Murray and Herrnstein labeled this as the “Flynn Effect.” This persistent and progressive IQ increase was thought to be a result of better nutrition...

One of the longest-running controversies in history has been that between those who believe intelligence to be inherited and those who see it as determined by environment. If time has not resolved that question, it has at least led to sharper definitions of the question and a muting of some of the dogmatism among those on both sides of this issue. The eugenics movement of the early 20th century was based on the fear that, since people of lower mental ability tended to have more children than people of higher mental ability, the average level of the nation's intelligence would...

A 62-year-old man from northern Sweden faces a date in court after trying to eat his accounts when his home was raided by police, Västerbottens Kuriren reports. Having forced the man to stop chewing his books, police conducted a search of the house and found large quantities of gold as well as almost 800,000 kronor ($120,000) in cash. In 2005 and 2006, the suspect placed a number of ads in local newspapers offering goods for sale at attractive prices. But despite an obvious entrepreneurial streak, he had failed to declare an income for several years. As tax authorities became increasingly...

A nice phenomenon of the past few years is the diminishing influence of I.Q. For a time, I.Q. was the most reliable method we had to capture mental aptitude. People had the impression that we are born with these information-processing engines in our heads and that smart people have more horsepower than dumb people. And in fact, there’s something to that. There is such a thing as general intelligence; people who are good at one mental skill tend to be good at others. This intelligence is partly hereditary. A meta-analysis by Bernie Devlin of the University of Pittsburgh found that...

...One justification for keeping the arts has now become almost a mantra for parents, arts teachers, and even politicians: arts make you smarter. The notion that arts classes improve children's scores on the SAT, the MCAS, and other tests is practically gospel among arts-advocacy groups. A Gallup poll last year found that 80 percent of Americans believed that learning a musical instrument would improve math and science skills. But that claim turns out to be unfounded. It's true that students involved in the arts do better in school and on their SATs than those who are not involved. However, correlation...

Ingeniously: Albert Einstein had a IQ of 160. The intelligence quotients of personalities of the last centuries were determined by psychologists.IQ 86 - Andy be-get (painter, film producer)IQ 117 - John F. Kennedy (politician)IQ 122 - Napoleon Bonaparte (politician, army leader)IQ 125 - George W. Bush (politician)IQ 126 - Abraham Lincoln (politician) Übersicht 1 / 55 (Overview 1-55)

A new study by U.S. scientists finds that people with blue eyes are likely to achieve more in life, intellectually, at least, than those with brown. Scientists who conducted the tests said brown-eyed people performed better at reaction time, but those with lighter eyes appeared to be better strategic thinkers, the Daily Mail reported. Brown-eyed people also succeeded in activities such as football and hockey, but lighter-eyed participants proved to be more succesful in activities that required skills in time structuring and planning such as golf, cross-country running and studying for exams, the scientists said. Read the whole News.com.au story...

When you think of Jesus of Nazareth what descriptions come to mind? Do you imagine a holy man who, while off pondering deep thoughts, is not particularly brilliant? Christians might wear the fashionable bracelets with the initials WWJD, “What would Jesus do?” which demonstrate that they at least think him to be an ethical role model. However, do his followers also think of him as the smartest man in the world? I believe the way in which we think of Jesus’ intelligence directly impacts how we submit to him as Lord and King. In chapter three of Dallas Willard’s book,...

WASHINGTON: Psychologists that the University of Oregon say that the capacity of short-term memory is a strong predictor of an individual's IQ level and scholastic achievement. A study conducted by them has shown that an average person can think only about four items at a time, but people with high IQ levels can remember more articles. Professor Edward Awh and Professor Edward Vogel of the university conducted laboratory experiments to test their hypothesis that the memory capacity might be influenced by the complexity of items being stored, something that might cause a four-item limit for most people. The study showed...

Neb. Prodigy, 14, Dies in Apparent Suicide By JOE RUFF : Associated Press Writer Mar 18, 2005 : 8:04 pm ET OMAHA, Neb. -- A musical prodigy who completed high school at age 10 apparently killed himself at 14, authorities said. Brandenn E. Bremmer, who taught himself how to read at 18 months and began playing the piano at 3, was found dead Tuesday at his home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff's officials said. Patricia Bremmer said her son showed no signs of depression, had just finished the art for the cover of a...

Mom Tries to Rationalize Prodigy's Death By SHARON COHEN He started reading as a toddler, played piano at age 3 and delivered a high school commencement speech in cap and gown when he was just 10 - his eyes barely visible over the podium. Brandenn Bremmer was a child prodigy: He composed and recorded music, won piano competitions, breezed through college courses with an off-the-charts IQ and mastered everything from archery to photography, hurtling through life precociously. Then, last Tuesday, Brandenn was found dead in his Nebraska home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head. He was just...

Her parents knew Georgia Brown was bright. After all, she could count to ten, recognised her colours and was even starting to dabble with French. But it was only when their bubbly little two-year-old took an IQ test that her towering intellect was confirmed. Georgia has become the youngest female member of Mensa after scoring a genius-rated IQ of 152. This puts her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as physicist Stephen Hawking. According to an expert in gifted children, Georgia is the brightest two-year-old she has ever met. Parents Martin and Lucy Brown have always...

Her parents knew Georgia Brown was bright. After all, she could count to ten, recognised her colours and was even starting to dabble with French. But it was only when their bubbly little two-year-old took an IQ test that her towering intellect was confirmed. Georgia has become the youngest female member of Mensa after scoring a genius-rated IQ of 152. Georgia Brown has an official genius-rated IQ - Intelligence Quotient - of 152 This puts her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as physicist Stephen Hawking. According to an expert in gifted children, Georgia is the brightest...

Firstborn sons have higher IQs than their younger brothers, and their social status within the family may explain why, say Norwegian researchers. They add their findings should equally apply to women. Dr Petter Kristensen of Norway's National Institute of Occupational Health and colleagues report their research in today's issue of the journal Science, and online ahead of print publication in the journal Intelligence. Kristensen and team analysed military draft records for more than 240,000 Norwegian men and found that firstborns had an edge of 2.3 IQ points on their next oldest brothers, who in turn beat brothers born third by...

The eldest children in families tend to develop slightly higher I.Q.s than their younger siblings, researchers are reporting, based on a large study that could effectively settle more than a half-century of scientific debate about the relationship between I.Q. and birth order.

WASHINGTON -- Children at the top of the pecking order - either by birth or because their older siblings died - score higher on IQ tests than their younger brothers or sisters. The question of whether firstborn and only children are really smarter than those who come along later has been hotly debated for more than a century. Norwegian researchers now report that it isn't a matter of being born first, but growing up the senior child, that seems to result in the higher IQ scores. Petter Kristensen and Tor Bjerkedal report their findings in Friday's issue of the journal...

If you're particularly good with puzzles or chess, the reason may be in your genes. A team of scientists, led by psychiatric geneticists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has gathered the most extensive evidence to date that a gene that activates signaling pathways in the brain influences one kind of intelligence. They have confirmed a link between the gene, CHRM2, and performance IQ, which involves a person's ability to organize things logically. "This is not a gene FOR intelligence," says Danielle M. Dick, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author on the study. "It's a...

Mother's rows in pregnancy 'affects IQ of baby' By Nic Fleming, Medical Correspondent Last Updated: 2:05am GMT 27/01/2007 Children born to mothers who had relationship problems during their pregnancies have lower than average intelligence and are more prone to anxiety, scientists say. Women who reported high stress levels in the months before giving birth had babies who scored lower in mental development tests than those whose mothers had calmer pregnancies. Researchers found that stress caused by rows with or violence by a partner to be particularly harmful. They believe high levels of the stress hormone cortisol can affect unborn babies...

A man walked into a very high-tech bar. As he sat down on a stool, he noticed that the bartender was a robot. The robot clicked to attention and asked, "Sir, what will you have?" The man thought a moment, then replied, "A martini, please". The robot clicked a couple of times and mixed the best martini the man had ever had. The robot then asked, "Sir, what is your IQ?" The man answered, "Oh, about 164." The robot then proceeded to discuss the theory of relativity, inter-stellar space travel, the latest medical breakthroughs, etc. . The man was most...

There used to be a time when the left proudly carried the banner of reason and science; and disdainfully viewed religion as a superstition or at best an antiquated myth. In the name of science they advanced an agenda on several fronts. In economics, central planning was described as a rational systematic alternative to the chaotic free-for-all of the market. In human relations, what was previously viewed as a moral failing was now a condition amenable to social engineering. Social science, we were assured there was such a thing, would provide the guidance and justification for the socialistic regulations required...

Half of all children are below average, and teachers can do only so much for them. Education is becoming the preferred method for diagnosing and attacking a wide range problems in American life. The No Child Left Behind Act is one prominent example. Another is the recent volley of articles that blame rising income inequality on the increasing economic premium for advanced education. Crime, drugs, extramarital births, unemployment--you name the problem, and I will show you a stack of claims that education is to blame, or at least implicated. One word is missing from these discussions: intelligence. Hardly anyone will...

Giving pre-school children toys to play with boosts their mental development even if they suffer from malnutrition, a report said on Friday. The report, published in the Lancet medical journal, said several studies had found a clear link between intelligence and child's play. "We have done play programs in Bangladesh where the children are severely malnourished and we have produced up to a nine-point improvement in the IQ of these kids -- just with play," said author Sally McGregor of the Institute of Child Health at University College London. "Malnutrition on its own is a problem. Malnutrition without mental stimulation...

Swedes smash Christmas SMS record Swedes set a new record for text messages on Christmas Eve, according to Telia. On December 24th a total of 9.3 million text messages were sent via the Swedish telecom giant's network. That compares to just 6.2 million SMS messages sent on Christmas Eve last year. In Telia's annual Christmas survey, 12 percent of customers said that they would prefer to send their seasonal greeting by SMS, while 16 percent would rather make a phone call. The majority, 64 percent, sent their greetings in the morning but a quarter left it until after 4pm, when...

Frequently dismissed as cranks, their fussy eating habits tend to make them unpopular with dinner party hosts and guests alike.But now it seems they may have the last laugh, with research showing vegetarians are more intelligent than their meat-eating friends. A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say it isn't clear why veggies are brainier - but admit the fruit and veg-rich vegetarian diet could somehow boost brain...

http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/article2024763.eceCan only link to the article. We cannot post Independent UK materialLINK

On November 28 the American Enterprise Institute held a symposium on the persistent gap between the average IQ test scores of black and non-Hispanic white Americans. The question: Is the gap closing? The presenters at AEI were James Flynn, a philosopher who taught at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and Charles Murray, a scholar at AEI and the co-author of The Bell Curve. Flynn is famous for having discovered in the 1980s that average IQs in many countries have been drifting upward at about 3 points per decade over the past couple of generations. In fact, the average...

The London School of Economics is embroiled in a row over academic freedom after one of its lecturers published a paper alleging that African states were poor and suffered chronic ill-health because their populations were less intelligent than people in richer countries. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist, is now accused of reviving the politics of eugenics by publishing the research which concludes that low IQ levels, rather than poverty and disease, are the reason why life expectancy is low and infant mortality high. His paper, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, compares IQ scores with indicators of ill...