JERRY:
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It's a very minor limitation on freedom of speech to encourage people not to make racially offensive over-generalisations as fact in public forums such as newspapers. I don't have a problem with it.
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Well I suppose we will have to agree to disagree. I believe that no man should ever have to face a quasi-judicial tribunal and/or a court of law because of their ideological or political views especially ones made in good faith. Now, Fraser may have placed his foot in his mouth but I genuinely believe that he believed what he wrote…
The fact that those views may be incorrect or exaggerated along with possibly being offensive does not in my Americanised view change my position on the matter.
Such views should be combated in the public arena with debate and/or in academic circles. I would rather all people have their say whether they are Stalinists or Neo-Nazi’s while allowing society to judge their message.
That is my take on this and it will likely not change in the near future.
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I agree genetics are not completely irrelevent, although I don't see them as relevent as you. Consider that African American's, despite supposedly having less than 25% European genetics, are already averaging 15more IQ points than Europeans did 100 years ago, I think that shows environment is by far the dominant factor.
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I do seem to have some backing from a study published in Royal Economic Society's Economic Journal. Again I am not claiming that this is etched in stone...
LONDON: Nature, not nurture, is the main determinant of how well children perform at school and university, according to a study to be published this week.
The researchers came to their conclusion by comparing how well adopted children did at school when they were brought up alongside parents' biological children. The relative effects of genes and the home environment were then separated out. Previous studies have suggested that the home environment, and in particular the level of family income, is the most important determinant of educational attainment.
But the new study, to be published in the Royal Economic Society's Economic Journal, will argue that while income and home environment account for about 25 per cent of educational attainment, inherited intelligence is responsible for the rest.
SOURCE: ‘Good genes beat good homes as guide to pupils’ school success – Times Online UK – November 6, 2005.
Second the increase of intelligence quotient scores over decades or years is referred to as the Flynn Effect if I am not mistaken?
The big problem with this theory is it is not a constant. According to a recent 2005 study by Owens and Teesdale 500,000 Danes illustrated that the decade by decade increase of Intelligence Quotient scores beginning in the 1950’s has not only peaked but reverted back to pre-1991 levels. A similar study by Professor Philip Adey and Professor Michael Shayer showed a similar regression in IQ scores in the United Kingdom in a study of IQ tests over a three year period and compared to results from the mid-1990's and 1976.
Now I fully support Owens research! He is right! I believe that the IQ’s of Danes and Brits have stopped going up! Why? The Danes were dumb enough not to realise the Mohammed Cartoon fiasco would have pissed off the Muslim world as it did and the Brits keep electing Tony Blair and New Labour into power. If this is not evidence of a decrease in IQ I do not know what is!
All kidding aside though one cannot assume that population groups across the board will continue to increase in IQ based on the theoretical Flynn Effect. We cannot assume that in 50 years time that Sudanese who have an average IQ of 72 according to Prof. Richard Lynn will have IQ’s in the high 80’s or 90’s based on a theory that lacks consistency.
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Originally Posted by Jerry
See where I'm going? Every couple of generations, a sparrows fart in evolutionary terms, they bridge the gap. The lag is mostly because of historical differences in environmental factors.
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The gap stopped bridging in the 1980's. The Flynn Effect if an accurate may have peaked for the African Americans at that point. Professor Richard Lynn estimated the peak was in 1989 if I am not mistaken...
CHICAGO—The achievement gap between African-Americans and whites, which narrowed for much of the 20th century, has stalled and is likely to persist for generations unless something is done to improve the learning experiences of African-American children, contends new research at the University of Chicago. Derek Neal, Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, is the author of an upcoming chapter, “Why Has Black-White Skill Convergence Stopped?” to be published later this year in the Handbook of Economics of Education.
In the chapter, Neal traces the educational progress of African Americans during the 20th century. He argues that the experience of the past 15 years is an ominous departure from the pattern of sustained progress observed throughout most of the 20th century.
The 1940 Census is the first source of national data on educational attainment, and Neal points out that the black-white education gap among young adults fell steadily from 1940 to 1990. In 1990, however, black-white convergence in educational attainment stopped. “Among men and women ages 26 to 30 in 2000, the black-white educational attainment gap is slightly larger than the corresponding gap in 1990,” he said.
Scores on standardized tests follow a similar pattern. “From the late 1970s through the late 1980s, black children made striking gains in achievement while scores for white children remained relatively flat,” Neal said, but test score gaps among 9- and 13-year-olds stopped closing in the late 1980s.
SOURCE: 'Black-White Achievement Gap Has Stopped Narrowing' - AScribe Newswire - Apr. 28, 2005.