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High school science fair project questioning African American intelligence sparks outrage
Sacramento Bee ^ | 2/10/2018 | Diana Lambert and Anita Chabria

Posted on 02/10/2018 9:06:09 AM PST by vox humana

Students, parents and staff at C.K. McClatchy High School are upset over a science fair project by a student in its elite magnet program that questioned whether certain races of people lack the intelligence to handle the program’s academically challenging coursework.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article199440204.html#storylink=cpy

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: africanamerican; bellcurve; intelligence; iq; racism; science
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To: lastchance
I am bothered more by the use of “Scotch” tape on the science project board than the contents of his project. I mean a student in an elite magnet school turns in that mess?!?!

See my post # 19

Some years ago, one of my niece’s son was staying with me for a week while his parents went to California for a wedding and then their own delayed mini-honeymoon. My great nephew was in middle school and was a very bright kid but somewhat, in fact very lazy and very much the procrastinator when it came to school work which was causing him some bad grades.

Half way through the week I found out he had a science project due that following week and hadn’t even started on it or had even chosen a topic. But he did love baseball. So I made the suggestion that he incorporate his love of baseball into his science project, something like the aerodynamics and physics of various types of pitches and how baseballs are made today vs. in the past and how that effects their trajectory and distance when pitched and hit, etc.

It took him to the library, then to the craft store for poster boards and card paper, etc. and also helped him to search on line for articles and to use my computer and printer.

I gave him guidance and advice, but made him do the actual work. I also told him that it wasn’t enough to just tape some pictures on a poster board, that there had to be science content, a hypotheses and conclusions and that the presentation had to look neat. OK. I helped a bit on the neatness part, but he actually did much of the rest of work himself, abet with a bit of prodding from me.

He got an A on his project and I got I think an A for being such a good Auntie : )

101 posted on 02/10/2018 10:26:44 AM PST by MD Expat in PA
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To: vox humana

In this environment I question the developers intelligence.


102 posted on 02/10/2018 10:27:34 AM PST by Retvet (Retvet)
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To: CodeToad

“Those GDPs, are we talking South Africa which was settled by the British until it is being destroyed now by blacks??”

No. But because most people that spout off about the place never bothered to read about it (I was that same way), the cliched reply you gave isnt that surprising.

Ghana, one of the first independent nations in Africa, had a huge run of high GDP early in its history, as an example.


103 posted on 02/10/2018 10:27:47 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: VanDeKoik

> It [the study] is so against the nature of this nation, that it is stomach-turning. <

Very true. European society was once based on the notion that the nobility was naturally superior to the peasantry. And you were either born a noble, or a born peasant. It was in the blood.

We rejected that crap in 1776.


104 posted on 02/10/2018 10:28:32 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: vox humana

All evidence shows an association between race and intelligence, the problem is while there is an association it get used by some as a universal indictment.

If one race on average tends to have lower intelligence, that doesn’t mean all members of that race are less intelligent than all members of another race.

To say race a has a lower average intelligence then all members of that race are too stupid for X is just ignorant and not remotely factually true.


105 posted on 02/10/2018 10:28:39 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: vox humana

Lol, truth is hard


106 posted on 02/10/2018 10:29:19 AM PST by RightGeek (FUBO and the donkey you rode in on)
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To: Safetgiver

“...Maybe because they have yet to come out of the Bronze Age?”

I swear sometimes I cant tell the difference between the posts coming from conservatives on FR and the ones coming from leftist on Reddit.

Was you post meant to be non-serious or do you really not know what I’m talking about?


107 posted on 02/10/2018 10:30:03 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: Will88

> Not enough of the right people qualified taking the tests, so other methods had to be found. <

Yep. The correct solution would have been to ramp up the education of those groups that fell short on the tests. But that would have meant taking bold action at the high school level. Unfortunately, no one wanted to rock that boat. So, as you said, other methods were used.


108 posted on 02/10/2018 10:33:41 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: generally
Re: 16

Good comment, and agreed. God made the first man and woman in His image, and we are all their off-springs and ‘cousins’.
Each family brings different abilities to the table, but all have the stamp of God’s image.

109 posted on 02/10/2018 10:37:44 AM PST by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: CodeToad

Then you haven’t checked. They certainly kill each other and are at constant war.

Most “wars” in Africa are localized uprisings, and it is astonishingly rare for those conflicts to cross over international borders the past 40 years. The vast majority of the deaths the past few years were due to religious wars like the Islamic rebels in N. Nigeria, the Islamic attacks against Christian S. Sudan, uprising in DR Congo and the usual mess of Somalia.

WW2 in E. Europe alone still dwarfs the scale of any of those.


110 posted on 02/10/2018 10:37:59 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: vox humana

To all concerned:
The one good thing about the No Child Left Behind initiative was the standardized testing and the results of the testing. What is shown is the direct correlation between the percentage of students receiving free and reduced lunches and the percentage of students scoring proficient on the standardized test.

When one looks at the free and reduced lunch rate for example a 30% rate in a school the percentage of students scoring proficient will be 70% plus or minus 3%. This number is true across the nation for the state administered benchmark test. If a school has a 10% F&R lunch rate then one will see @ 90% proficient test scores.

The conclusion one may draw is that proficiency is a function of class not of race. These results hold true across all school populations acrossvthe nation. Students at or below the poverty level score lower due to reduced learning opportunities, reduced emphasis on the value of education in their environment, lack of positive roll models, family structure, etc.

What one may not conclude is intelligence based upon race. I hope all will fact check this with your local school districts and raise the level of discourse on this thread. After all, as a man of faith and seeing the results of the Human Genome project, there literally is not a spit of difference between us.


111 posted on 02/10/2018 10:40:43 AM PST by Billyv ( Ephesians 6:11 for we battle not against flesh and blood...Pray for our leaders and nation!)
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To: Leaning Right
The correct solution would have been to ramp up the education of those groups that fell short on the tests.

Many methods have been tried since the 1960s, beginning with Head Start and other jewels such as Upward Bound and the Jobs Corps. The Feds and states have been throwing money and endless programs at the problem for more than 50 years now.

They've tried endless ways to close the achievement gap and endless ways to find new admission "standards" to various schools and professions.

112 posted on 02/10/2018 10:45:08 AM PST by Will88
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To: SoConPubbie

I personally know several highly intelligent black people.

My doctor is female and black. She was raised in a two parent home in a middle class neighborhood, not the ghetto. She raised her three kids in a two parent home in a middle class neighborhood. All three are honor students and in college.

I saw a documentary one evening discussing the lower IQ’s of mostly black kids raised in the inner cities and the ghetto’s. Common denominators were no two parent homes with parental guidance and expectations, peer pressure to NOT learn or succeed in life, and environmental factors like living in old rundown buildings that still have lead paint and pipes. These kids have no incentive to learn, to succeed, or to learn to speak understandable English. Most have criminal records by the time they become teenagers. These families have been taken care of the government for so long that they have no desire to do better and even if they do they don’t know how. By the time they are old enough to work and take care of themselves they have a criminal record, dropped out of school, take drugs, and can’t get good jobs.

Living in poverty can drop the IQ of any race.


113 posted on 02/10/2018 10:48:54 AM PST by Tennessee Conservative
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To: vox humana

114 posted on 02/10/2018 10:52:36 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>)
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To: Will88

> They’ve tried endless ways to close the achievement gap and endless ways to find new admission “standards” to various schools and professions. <

The problem is that all those endless ways were touchy-feely, politically correct ways. I’m a veteran urban high school teacher. And we went through a brief golden age back in the late 90’s when my district decided to rigorously enforce the attendance and discipline codes.

And the honors program was expanded.

Those were a few good years. Most kids rose to the challenge. Then a new central administration came in. And they listened to the parents who complained about too much homework, too strict a grading policy, etc. Poof! All those great reforms were discarded.

Now our policy is, among other things, the minimum score on any test must be 50 points. So if a kid puts his name on the test, then goes to sleep, 50 points!


115 posted on 02/10/2018 10:55:41 AM PST by Leaning Right (I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: Spok

Frequency histograms of applicants trying to enlist in the U.S.Military, over the years show test results by race/ethnic categories.
In a nutshell, Orientals and Caucasians scored highest, followed by Hispanics and Hispanics were followed by Blacks.

The Military entrance tests tested for aptitude and knowledge. Low scores could be due to poor English, a poor academic background or a lower intellect.


116 posted on 02/10/2018 10:57:58 AM PST by OldArmy52 (The Republicans support Trump with the same energy they opposed Obama /s)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature

There are perhaps a lot of Orientals who look down on Blacks for the kind of behavior Blacks generate in the news....if Ferguson, Chicago, Baltimore, etc.

Can’t blame them really.
In Japan an electical blackout did not generate violence and looting. In USA, such did.

Facts are facts, PC or not.


117 posted on 02/10/2018 11:02:11 AM PST by OldArmy52 (The Republicans support Trump with the same energy they opposed Obama /s)
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To: IllumiNaughtyByNature

“Racist” remarks? Says who?

GlowBull Warming/Climate Change/Evolution . . .I thought libs Blinded Us With Science?


118 posted on 02/10/2018 11:03:57 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat (Another Islamic terrorist event, and no “outrage” from the “Muslim community”. Again)
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To: Crusher138
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/the-real-problem-with-charles-murray-and-the-bell-curve/

I would also point out that IQ tests are not always accurate or necessarily a good predictor of an individual’s future success in academics or in life in general.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/kinks-in-the-curve/162800.article

Again, I tend to think while the statics are interesting, the raw statics alone do not account for social conditioning.

When a black child has a strong two parent household (or in the case of Ben Carson, a very strong and dedicated mother who pushed him to succeed) and an appreciation of and love for reading and learning and are taught values morals at home and to value achievement, they will more often than not go on to academic and economic success and score well on IQ tests. If they come from broken homes and or with no known father, a mother who is on drugs and are neglected and left to run feral, put in public schools that pass kids on even as they can't read or do simple math, more often than not they will fail in both areas and test low on IQ tests. But the very same can be said for white children raised similarly.

I just do not see a racially genetic basis for it. I know of now “smart gene” yet identified. But I do see a lot of social and social economic reasons for it.

In most Asian and in many Indian homes there is very push for their children to achieve academically and financially sometimes to an extreme, i.e. "tiger moms".

Even Murray co-writer Richard Herrnstein in the Bell Curve accept that environmental influences account for 20 per cent to 40 per cent of population variance, so should we focus on environmental manipulations to effect changes?

119 posted on 02/10/2018 11:04:05 AM PST by MD Expat in PA
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To: vox humana

Some projects are best not tried as they need a lot more context than can be addressed in the constraints of a school project.


120 posted on 02/10/2018 11:10:45 AM PST by Reno89519 (Americans Are Dreamers, Too! No to Amnesty, Yes to Catch-and-Deport, and Yes to E-Verify.)
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