"Working class 'has lower IQ'" (Hey Obama!)

Yahoo News ^ | May 22, 2008

[Bushwacker777]

Hey, maybe Obama can get this guy to serve as Education Director in his administration if he gets elected! Considering Obama's statements about rural and working class Americans this could be used by him to validate his apparent attitude that he is a genius and those who vote for him are merely showing how smart they are too.

[Vaduz]

Obama shoe size and IQ the same number.

[The_Republican]

British must have some sort of IQ Complex.

This guy is going off and a few months back their was another Nobel Prize winner or something who opined that Humanity would split into two species - a super intelligent beings and other animal like, due to the IQ discrepancies.

[Rippin]

Of course in England, they track kids in school based on IQ from a very young age. So working class is determined based on IQ from the git go.

[ClearCase_guy]

Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University, suggested that the low numbers of working-class students at elite universities was the "natural outcome" of IQ differences between classes.

Evolutionary psychiatry, huh? How does this guy feel about eugenics? The left has a bad track record of jumping to conclusions about evolution and how society ought to act toward the *ahem* less desirable.

[penowa]

"The working classes have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed."

Fine excuse to explain why the universities are filled with legacies. Many of the people I've known from wealthy families are not only dumber than a box of rocks, but also would be unable to survive, even with welfare, if they didn't have trust funds to support them. Doesn't mean they have not managed to get through most of the "elite" institutions of higher learning.

[NucSubs]

He’s probably right.

[GOPJ]

In a true meritocracy, the “gentlemen C” students - those with well placed parents - would be the country’s future plumbers - rather than Oxford grads...

[DieHard the Hunter]

> “Yet in all this debate a simple and vital fact has been missed: higher social classes have a significantly higher average IQ than lower social classes.”

If this is so, then there is an unacceptable bias in the IQ tests being used. They are supposed to be an absolutely neutral measure of intelligence.

[MortMan]

That’s only true if he lops off his toes, IMO.

[snoringbear]

“Obama shoe size and IQ the same number.”

Yeah, for sure. And, while we're at it, let's not forget that bright bulb of Chappaquiddick, Senator Teddy Kennedy! Yes, indeed! An, exemplary example of the correlation between wealth and IQ!

[squarebarb]

Well, that’s the Left in a nutshell.

[Delta 21]

...and we all know where we will be without plumbers.

[squarebarb]

Plus, the welfare state (t.v., single mothers, booze, drugs, gangs) does tend to make people stupid.

[JamesP81]

Evolutionary psychiatry, huh? How does this guy feel about eugenics? The left has a bad track record of jumping to conclusions about evolution and how society ought to act toward the *ahem* less desirable.

I suspect you've pinpointed the skeleton in this guy's closet. Too bad we'll never hear about it in the media.

[Onelifetogive]

This guy is going off and a few months back their was another Nobel Prize winner or something who opined that Humanity would split into two species - a super intelligent beings and other animal like, due to the IQ discrepancies.

Maybe the same thing should be done at FR...

[Jakarta ex-pat]

"He’s probably right?"

He is right, except for the one percent who are; and will always remain 1.

As for Obama, I have more inteligence in my little finger than....

[9YearLurker]

Actually I think he’s more reacting to the social engineers who want to be the ones to make sure that the demographics in higher education at the highest level proportionally represent students from all socioeconimic strata. That is, he is probably fighting against centralized government planning.

[cartan]

It is true, but the politically correct establishment has agreed on never mentioning it. Those who violate the taboo will be given the same treatment as the authors of The Bell Curve.

[LongTimeMILurker]

With people like the Kennedys, the reason may not be a low IQ, but being raised in an environment with no consequences, leading them to be reckless, thinking that even the laws of nature don’t apply to them.

In general, extremely high IQ students may not do well in college because they were never challenged academically before college.