The IQ data may actually be correct...

[Gravitycollapse]

Which doesn't make it any more relevant and it no further confirms the beliefs of racist Harvard students.

IQ tests are historically useless in determining the intelligence of anyone who is not a white, upwardly mobile "westerner."

[Warpy]

1. Pretty much.

I always thought they indicated one's ability in taking the tests, nothing more. And I do quite well on them.

Conversely, my best friend in junior high had been labeled retarded because she had been completely unable to learn to read. This was a very long time ago, and considering the hell we raised and all we got into together, I have to think she was dyslexic, not learning impaired. She did poorly on the tests simply because she couldn't read them.

The researcher in question probably got a mixture of dyslexia of various types, the language barrier, and cultural bias inherent in many tests and concluded that his study group was low IQ because of it.

I just know that every single group that has come to this country in large number has faced the same "they're just not smart" prejudice, only to leave the WASPs in the dust after they'd been here a generation or two.

You have to be very, very careful about this stuff and I sincerely doubt Richwine was careful, at all.

[Live and Learn]

2. +1 nt

[handmade34]

3. k&r theories of intelligence

simple IQ tests and results are so mid 20th Century

http://otec.uoregon.edu/intelligence.htm

"The study and measurement of intelligence has been an important research topic for nearly 100 years IQ is a complex concept, and researchers in this field argue with each other about the various theories that have been developed. There is no clear agreement as to what constitutes IQ or how to measure it..."

[Mopar151]

4. There's more than one kind of IQ/intelligence in the world

Spike Jones and Mozart, Hank Sr & Hendrix

[byeya]

5. Several have said the same thing as the originator of the thread and have been scolded

by several who believe IQ measures something real, important and immutable.
I agree with the original post but would be willing to change presented with evidence.

[Junkdrawer]

6. I HATE IQ tests - and they changed my life for the better BIG TIME....

I was a C - D student in elementary school. I was treated by most of my teachers as an idiot.

Clocked REAL high on an IQ test and was sent to the "advanced" classes in Jr high where I led the pack by a large margin.

That said, I see the evil they do and despise them.

BTW: the Cs - Ds in elementary school? Child abuse.

[byeya]

10. Child abuse is right. I am old enough to remember our classes being divided into sections

depending which were the "smart" kids and which were the "laggards"

[oldhippie]

7. Is it really even possible to measure intelligence?

I mean, really? How could any group or individual devise criteria that was not biased to their own upbringing and environment? Why even try?

[byeya]

9. Measure? Is it possible to agree on a definition of intelligence?

[cali]

8. baloney.

first of all, IQ tests are skewed. Secondly, there are different types of intelligence. Thirdly, Hispanic folks come from wide ranging racial and ethnic backgrounds.

[uponit7771]

11. I think that's what the poster meant, the data is only accurate for upper middle class white people