Get Smart
Richard E. Nisbett, a prominent cognitive psychologist who teaches at the University of Michigan, has written a new book refuting the claim the genetic power over intelligence.
His study compares the intelligences of identical twins, fraternal twins, and non-twin siblings who have been separated and raised in different adoptive homes.
Among several other things, he concludes that elements inside the homes of adopted children yield higher levels of intelligence in these children than they would have exhibited with their own parents.
Why should educators care?
“The challenge is to find educational programs that are as effective as adoption in raising I.Q. So far, Nisbett observes, almost all school-age interventions have yielded disappointing results. But some intensive early-childhood interventions have produced enduring I.Q. gains, at a cost of around $15,000 per child per year. Yet, by the author’s reckoning, it would cost less than $100 billion a year to extend such programs to the neediest third of America’s preschoolers. The gain to society would be incalculable.”
