Someone on Boundless made a comment about how there's this theory that the population is getting less intelligent because the more intelligent women are having less children.
Hmmmm...
I'm not the most intelligent woman in the world, but with straight A's in Math and Computer Science, as well as being well read in classical literature, a background in latin, philosophy, and history, I'd say I can compete for intelligence...
So if I want 5-10 kids, where does that place me in the theory mentioned above?
Its interesting, but in all reality, who are the ones educating most children? The most intelligent mothers are self-educating their families, and for the most part that's a minority. It would seem that the more intelligent women that are working and having less children have kids being raised in the public school system...
Which, apparently, can't teach math...
1 comment:
I have followed the debate on the reducing of intelligence, since I was officer of our local Mensa group 1978-1983.
I disagree with that theory. Using myself only as an example, not a statistical proof. My great-grandfather was an Irish immigrant who worked as a quarry man until he was killed by a falling rock, when he was around 64 years old. He had a large family.
His son, my grandfather, had a large family and worked as a quarry steam operator, then a dirt farmer. He had a large family.
My father worked as a dirt farmer, and then as a manual laborer in a warehouse. He had a large family.
These three generations would have been listed as low intelligence, and part of the mess of people who were dragging down our society. If eugenics were implemented, I would not exist.
I was the first in direct lineage to get a college diploma, though I did not change careers.
My eldest son is a math research professor. My other son is just starting his fourth year of med school.
My eldest daughter has a bachelor's degree and is teaching school. My youngest daughter, a dyslexic, has a Master's Degree and is working on the second one.
There is a lot of social class snobbery involved in the belief that the poor, unsuccessful people are necessarily low in intelligence. And, that their large number of offspring necessarily worsen the gene pool.
Anonymous age 66
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