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New brain science shows poor kids have smaller brains than affluent kids
Washington Post ^ | April 15, 2015 | Lyndsey Layton

Posted on 04/16/2015 5:12:57 AM PDT by reaganaut1

New research that shows poor children have smaller brains than affluent children has deepened the national debate about ways to narrow the achievement gap.

Neuroscientists who studied the brain scans of nearly 1,100 children and young adults nationwide from ages 3 to 20 found that the surface area of the cerebral cortex was linked to family income. They discovered that the brains of children in families that earned less than $25,000 a year had surface areas 6 percent smaller than those whose families earned $150,000 or more. The poor children also scored lower on average on a battery of cognitive tests.

...

In another study that has been accepted for publication in Psychological Science, a team led by neuroscientist John Gabrieli of MIT found differences in the brain’s cortical thickness between low-income and higher-income teenagers. The study linked that difference for the first time to standardized test scores: Fifty-seven percent of the poor children scored proficient in math and reading tests given annually in Massachusetts, compared with 91 percent of the higher-income students.

...

But James Thompson, a psychologist at University College London, has a third theory.

“People who have less ability and marry people with less ability have children who, on balance, on average, have less ability,” he said. Thompson noted that there is a genetic component to intelligence that Noble and Sowell failed to consider.

“It makes my jaw drop that we’ve known for years intelligence is inheritable and scientists are beginning to track down exactly how it happens,” Thompson said. “The well-known genetic hypothesis has not even had a chance to enter the door in this discussion.”

Charles Murray, a conservative political scientist who argues there is a relationship between intelligence and economic class in his book “The Bell Curve,” said genetics cannot be ignored.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: bellcurve; iq
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It is not the role of the government to equalize results, whether they are incomes or the test scores of children of different classes and races.
1 posted on 04/16/2015 5:12:57 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

What about the Duke brothers in “Trading Places”, lol? Seems a lot of rich kids like Obama and Hillary and Warren, so brain size difference is not so much of an issue as compared to how it is actually used.


2 posted on 04/16/2015 5:17:15 AM PDT by OttawaFreeper ("Keeping your stick down used to be a commandment, but not anymore" Harry Sinden, 1988)
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To: reaganaut1
“People who have less ability and marry people with less ability have children who, on balance, on average, have less ability,”

Imagine that. Stupid people have stupid kids!

3 posted on 04/16/2015 5:19:53 AM PDT by petercooper ("How To Destroy The Country In 6 Short Years" by Barack Obama & the Democrats)
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To: reaganaut1
So what they're saying is that these guys...



and their children are very wealthy?
4 posted on 04/16/2015 5:20:19 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: reaganaut1
The author seems to think that wealth causes the brain to be larger.

I believe the truth is a larger brain leads to wealth/prosperity.

People with larger brains tend to be more successful. A larger brain is something you are born with (genetics), not something that the government can give you "Executive Action" or passing a series of utopian laws ("War on Poverty," "Affirmative Action," etc.)

Just as Liberals have only recently discovered that there are differences between men and women, they may someday discover that there are differences between the races.

5 posted on 04/16/2015 5:20:59 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Isn't it funny that Socialists never want to share their own money?)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
And these guys?


6 posted on 04/16/2015 5:21:13 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: reaganaut1

How long before #brainprivilege becomes a thing?


7 posted on 04/16/2015 5:26:41 AM PDT by IllumiNaughtyByNature ($1.84 - The price of a gallon of gas on Jan. 20th, 2009.)
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To: reaganaut1

It’s not hard. Affluent people value education, they expose their kids to reading at an earlier age.

Enter a culture where teens breed with multiple baby daddies and the children are essentially left to fend for themselves.

A brain that gets a workout develops to a greater degree than that of a feral kid.


8 posted on 04/16/2015 5:27:16 AM PDT by Gamecock (Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once, and He volunteered. R.C. Sproul)
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To: reaganaut1

Mandatory lobotomy program for brain tissue redistribution to follow.


9 posted on 04/16/2015 5:27:20 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: reaganaut1

Government operatives controlled by “The 1%” are sneaking in to the homes of poor people at night and harvesting brain matter from their children.

Either that or their harvesting it from them in the public schools.

It’s the only possible explanation...


10 posted on 04/16/2015 5:27:32 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: reaganaut1

back to phrenetics (or however it’s spelled) we go!


11 posted on 04/16/2015 5:28:03 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature

#checkyourbrainatthedoor

Oh, wait, the democrats are already using that one...


12 posted on 04/16/2015 5:28:35 AM PDT by WayneS (Barack Obama makes Neville Chamberlin look like George Patton.)
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To: reaganaut1

Maybe they’re born that way...like Gays.


13 posted on 04/16/2015 5:30:38 AM PDT by AdaGray
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To: Gamecock

In addition to your comment, add that carbonated drinks in baby bottles and potato chips for dinner don’t grow healthy cells either.


14 posted on 04/16/2015 5:31:51 AM PDT by jch10 (Obama, the first Muslim in Chief.)
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To: reaganaut1

To show how idiotic the premise is here: just look no further than the Kennedy clan.


15 posted on 04/16/2015 5:32:14 AM PDT by jettester (I got paid to break 'em - not fly 'em)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
And these guys

GUYS???? All woman actors.

The garbanzo brain people of Talos IV.

BOOOOOP.

16 posted on 04/16/2015 5:33:46 AM PDT by Vaquero (Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
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To: OttawaFreeper
Well, this is the point of "The Bell Curve" by Murray and Hernstein. They were right after all.

I read another study on families---I think by Kay Hymowicz, but I could be mistaken on the author---that said that poorer mothers, even "good ones," will interact with a kid differently than more educated mothers (though not necessarily more affluent). For ex., a poorer mother who even reads to her kid will read the word "dog" and the kid will repeat "dog." And that is the end of it, where as more educated mothers will say, "And what sound does the dog make? And what sound does the cat make?" and start a whole learning conversation.

17 posted on 04/16/2015 5:33:51 AM PDT by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: reaganaut1
I think this is also linked to nutrition

The stark difference between what poor babies and rich babies eat

18 posted on 04/16/2015 5:36:28 AM PDT by Cooter (Radicals always try to force crises because in a crisis, everyone must choose sides. - J. Goldberg)
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To: reaganaut1

Children of liberals forced to be vegans typically have brain defects as a result.


19 posted on 04/16/2015 5:37:19 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The only thing the Left has learned from the failures of socialism is not to call it that)
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To: reaganaut1

Sounds to me like they needed to “normalize” for some other factors.


20 posted on 04/16/2015 5:38:00 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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