Thought this may bring up some discussion about our responsibility as a society to help those in need, especially if poverty keeps them from performing fully in this world.
Okay, I feel like I should weigh in on this being in the trenches and everything. First of all this research isn't new, it's what I see everyday and it's why I have a job. A job to close the achievement gap. The article touched on it. The most important time in the development of a child's brain is in the early stages of life. How often does a child who's parent is working 3 jobs to put food on the table have time to talk to, read to, take to museums? Even the good parents who work hard aren't always able to give their child everything the parent living on Park Ave can. (Don't even get me started on the people that shouldn't be parents, I almost cried the other day when a mother was cussing out her 2 year old because he couldn't walk up the subway stairs fast enough. She was carrying a 3 month old in a baby carrier. "hurry the hell up, stop you whining, shut the f--k up, I've had enough of your sh-t." I wanted to throw up! And I wonder why my students do 7th and 8th grade math but can't read at a 3rd grade level. No surprise they need 6 hours of academic classes a day to catch up.
Katie- I remember doing my laundry in a laundromat in Greenpoint, and watching a mother beat the crap out of her 3 year-old girl every five minutes. It was so unreal.
While I recognize that the brain is not like a muscle physically -- I think someone has already made this point -- the analogy is still apt. Although intelligence is an inherited trait, it is also malleable. Study after study has shown that an enriched intellectual environment increases IQ. On the other hand, the age-old adage also applies to the brain: use it or lose it.
One of the most famous of these is a Milwaukee study in which a group of poor children were randomly selected for a Head Start intervention program. Not only did the kids attend the enrichment program, but the mothers received job training and were sent to school so as to improve the children’s environment at home. When the children started school, the "experimental group" had an average IQ of 120.7 whereas the control group’s average was 87.2.
The malleability of human intelligence is also suggested by the Flynn effect (from James R. Flynn) -- that IQ scores are rising in various countries by approximately three points per decade. Human evolution can't take place this quickly, so the conclusion is that the increased intelligence is due to environmental factors such as improved education, better nutrition and health.
Of course, this is true of adults as well. Place yourself in an intellectually enriched environment, like a lively Harvey discussion, and you'll find yourself getting smarter. On the other hand, if you spend your time watching reality TV, you risk becoming an idiot.
Ask Dan about the mother who hit a child at his after school program (not her own child mind you) because he had hit her son. He has some pretty unbelievable stories.
4 comments:
Okay, I feel like I should weigh in on this being in the trenches and everything. First of all this research isn't new, it's what I see everyday and it's why I have a job. A job to close the achievement gap. The article touched on it. The most important time in the development of a child's brain is in the early stages of life. How often does a child who's parent is working 3 jobs to put food on the table have time to talk to, read to, take to museums? Even the good parents who work hard aren't always able to give their child everything the parent living on Park Ave can. (Don't even get me started on the people that shouldn't be parents, I almost cried the other day when a mother was cussing out her 2 year old because he couldn't walk up the subway stairs fast enough. She was carrying a 3 month old in a baby carrier. "hurry the hell up, stop you whining, shut the f--k up, I've had enough of your sh-t." I wanted to throw up!
And I wonder why my students do 7th and 8th grade math but can't read at a 3rd grade level. No surprise they need 6 hours of academic classes a day to catch up.
Katie-
I remember doing my laundry in a laundromat in Greenpoint, and watching a mother beat the crap out of her 3 year-old girl every five minutes. It was so unreal.
While I recognize that the brain is not like a muscle physically -- I think someone has already made this point -- the analogy is still apt. Although intelligence is an inherited trait, it is also malleable. Study after study has shown that an enriched intellectual environment increases IQ. On the other hand, the age-old adage also applies to the brain: use it or lose it.
One of the most famous of these is a Milwaukee study in which a group of poor children were randomly selected for a Head Start intervention program. Not only did the kids attend the enrichment program, but the mothers received job training and were sent to school so as to improve the children’s environment at home. When the children started school, the "experimental group" had an average IQ of 120.7 whereas the control group’s average was 87.2.
The malleability of human intelligence is also suggested by the Flynn effect (from James R. Flynn) -- that IQ scores are rising in various countries by approximately three points per decade. Human evolution can't take place this quickly, so the conclusion is that the increased intelligence is due to environmental factors such as improved education, better nutrition and health.
Of course, this is true of adults as well. Place yourself in an intellectually enriched environment, like a lively Harvey discussion, and you'll find yourself getting smarter. On the other hand, if you spend your time watching reality TV, you risk becoming an idiot.
Ask Dan about the mother who hit a child at his after school program (not her own child mind you) because he had hit her son. He has some pretty unbelievable stories.
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