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(Wall Street Journal)   Half of all children are below average intelligence. Obvious tag outsmarts Scary tag; Stupid tag held back a year   (opinionjournal.com) divider line
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    More: Obvious  
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15826 clicks; posted to Main » on 16 Jan 2007 at 11:56 AM (16 years ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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strangeguitar
2007-01-16 10:28:34 AM  
"Stupid babies need the MOST love!"
 
Lew Stool
2007-01-16 10:32:20 AM  
In other news, three out of four people make up 75% of the population.
 
z_gringo
2007-01-16 10:33:51 AM  
That was the lamest article ever.
 
tchamber
2007-01-16 10:36:14 AM  
Well, statistically, Average is usually pretty close to Median. So, yes, it makes perfect sense that half would be below the average.

Submitter has taken a throwaway line in the article and is trying to spin it into an alarmist headline. I know which half submitter comes from.
 
darkyn
2007-01-16 10:36:31 AM  
That is the dumbest statement I have ever read dealing with statistics. Do they just not know what the word "average" means?
 
tarrant84
2007-01-16 10:39:18 AM  
[image from myconfinedspace.com too old to be available]
 
Will N. Dowd
2007-01-16 10:47:01 AM  
TFA: How about raising intelligence? It would be nice if we knew how, but we do not.

Um, how about making sure every kid is read to, a lot, from infancy on? You can't do well in school if you don't have an extensive vocabulary before you get to kindergarten. The first four years or so are when your brain develops intelligence; after that it's all about accumulating knowledge and making connections between things you know.

PLEASE READ TO YOUR KIDS. You can start when they're just a few months old. If you don't have kids, volunteer at the library to read to someone else's.

It's also a good idea to SIGN to your infant, starting at about 5 to 8 months old. Sign language helps infants develop communication and vocabulary skills that they can use BEFORE their vocal chords are mature enough to produce speech. Speech is a very complex function, and language can be learned many months before speech is possible.

I wish we could put a 50% tax on TVs, videos, and video games, and use the revenue to subsidize children's books. That would do more for our educational system than doubling our school funding.
 
error 303
2007-01-16 10:47:32 AM  
I tried reading that article but it's too early in the morning to put my thinking liver to work. I'll try again after lunch.
 
Sensei Can You See [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 10:50:36 AM  
tchamber: Submitter has taken a throwaway line in the article and is trying to spin it into an alarmist headline.

Submitter here. I think you're missing the humor in both my headline and TFA.

Of COURSE half of all kids are below average intelligence. Even if the average IQ was 210, half of all kids would be below it.

The fact is that some kids are smarter than other kids, and honest grading will reflect that. The author is pointing out that education reformers seem to assume every kid can get straight As if the teachers try hard enough, but unless the school lowers its standards to avoid hurting anyone's feelings, it ain't gonna happen.
 
Jaboobinator
2007-01-16 10:55:28 AM  
Half the people are below average! OH NOES!!!!
 
RodneyToady [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 10:56:00 AM  
Well, actually, it depends on what qualification you are using to define "average." If you consider "average" to include the middle two standard deviations, and you assume a normal curve, then only 34% of children would be below "average."
 
CougarJeff
2007-01-16 10:59:07 AM  
tchamber: Submitter has taken a throwaway line in the article and is trying to spin it into an alarmist headline.

New here?
 
winterlongone
2007-01-16 11:02:41 AM  
oh PLEASE. stats can say anything you want.

yeah, some people are born brighter than others. what you want to care about is educating your child to his or her best potential. HELLO?????
 
RodneyToady [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:04:19 AM  
I should have said "normal distribution" and not "normal curve."

Oh, and beyond that, I have very little faith in IQ tests. First, they aim to measure innate "intelligence," generally via use of subtests. If you have an idea of what areas will be covered, and what methods they use to evaluate those areas, you can teach to the test. Most will have a vocabulary component. Most will have a math component. Many will have a "duplicate this patten" test, and a test involving symbols representing letters or numbers, and you have to match as many as you can of a page of symbols to the letters/numbers they represent. You can teach to all of these to inflate IQ scores.

Beyond that, since people go in with different levels of preparation to these subtests, it entirely confounds any measure of "innate" intelligence.

/MA, Experimental Psych
 
HaywoodJablonski [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2007-01-16 11:05:53 AM  
MyNameIsNotMervGriffin: Of COURSE half of all kids are below average intelligence. Even if the average IQ was 210, half of all kids would be below it.

I disagree with your logic. This assumes an even disitribution of IQ points above and below the mean. Let's say there are 10 people in the world:

5 have an IQ of 150.
4 have an IQ of 50.
1 has an IQ of 120.

That gives you an average IQ of 107, 4 of which are above and 6 of which are below. This whole argument always rubs me the wrong way.

/As you were
 
Sensei Can You See [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:13:05 AM  
HaywoodJablonski: Let's say there are 10 people in the world

Let's pretend there are nearly a hundred million kids in school in the US. Let's further pretend this means both the average and median are far less likely to be as bizarrely skewed as in your example.
 
Sensei Can You See [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:15:09 AM  
RodneyToady: Oh, and beyond that, I have very little faith in IQ tests.

Amen. I hate the way we use them to brand people and map out their lives for them. I pulled my son out of school and home-schooled him for several years because he was clearly very bright, but was having problems adjusting to a traditional classroom, and they wanted to IQ test him.

No way.
 
RodneyToady [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:16:15 AM  
Haywood Jablonski

This assumes an even disitribution of IQ points above and below the mean. Let's say there are 10 people in the world:

5 have an IQ of 150.
4 have an IQ of 50.
1 has an IQ of 120.


If there are only 10 people in the world, and you have all ten scores, you're looking at the population, not a sample. You can't assume a normal distribution because the data itself shows what amounts to a bimodal distribution. Neither a mean nor a median would be useful in this case.
 
totalsecurity
2007-01-16 11:19:36 AM  
We'll be needing a crop of halfwits to do the jobs illegal immigrants won't do.
 
Sensei Can You See [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:24:33 AM  
totalsecurity: We'll be needing a crop of halfwits to do the jobs illegal immigrants won't do.

I've half a mind to take offense at that.

Oh, wait...
 
ChiliBoots
2007-01-16 11:34:15 AM  
Of COURSE half of all kids are below average intelligence. Even if the average median IQ was 210, half of all kids would be below it.
 
I_C_Weener [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 11:35:49 AM  
[image from myfolsom.com too old to be available]

"Well, the world needs ditch diggers too."
 
timmy_the_tooth
2007-01-16 11:52:24 AM  
Will N. Dowd: I wish we could put a 50% tax on TVs, videos, and video games, and use the revenue to subsidize children's books.

you probably want to teach my kids sex education too, you farking hippie.

/dumb people make better citizens, because they don't question authority
 
Control_this
2007-01-16 11:56:42 AM  
Your mom says I do good on tests.
 
TemporarySanity
2007-01-16 11:59:18 AM  
Median! Mean! Mode! these threads are usually about as fun as the irony ones.
 
Scooby's'pawn
2007-01-16 12:01:10 PM  
And historically, 40% of all sick days take place on a Friday or a Monday.

No child left behind means that the top 5% are going as slow as the bottom 5%. No wonder our kids are so bored that they get into trouble.
 
I_C_Weener [TotalFark]
2007-01-16 12:01:18 PM  
Control_this: Your mom says I do good on tests testes.

Fixed that for you. And he's no mom.
 
Adman12
2007-01-16 12:01:50 PM  
That reminds me of a line I just read in a Richard Dawkins book, where he laughs about politicians getting up in arms because they just learned that half of the population has an IQ below 100.
 
Ward's_Back
2007-01-16 12:02:07 PM  
While we're at it...

Nearly 3/4 of working Americans make less than the average wage!
 
rodeofrog
2007-01-16 12:02:39 PM  
I love this thread.
 
GlitchCog
2007-01-16 12:03:13 PM  
Except in Lake Wobegon.
 
Mob Barley
2007-01-16 12:03:14 PM  
I_C_Weener: "Well, the world needs ditch diggers too."


Thanks for making my day already. That was awesome. lol
 
Mirrorz
2007-01-16 12:03:26 PM  
I always get a postive score on my AIDS tests!!!
 
Omnivorous [BareFark]
2007-01-16 12:03:58 PM  
Smitty obviously doesn't live in Lake Wobegon.
 
pvd021
2007-01-16 12:04:25 PM  
The other have of us should feel good about this news. Hell I'm smarter and better than HALF of you out there. I'm intellectually superior and will most likely make more have better sex and live longer.

//Check the research. If you can read that is.
 
Farkeologist
2007-01-16 12:04:39 PM  
"Imagine how stupid the average person is, and then realize that HALF of them are supider than THAT!"

/Carlin
 
GT_Frog
2007-01-16 12:04:44 PM  
"I hear this excuse all the time and I dismiss it!"
 
Adman12
2007-01-16 12:04:45 PM  
Will N. Dowd: I wish we could put a 50% tax on TVs, videos, and video games, and use the revenue to subsidize children's books. That would do more for our educational system than doubling our school funding.


There are already plenty of books available to kids in first world countries. That doesn't mean their parents are going to read to them, or that they're going to be interested in reading. Apples and trees, you know.
 
SacManGel
2007-01-16 12:05:08 PM  
Stupid people are good for comic relief! DeeDeeDee.
 
Farkeologist
2007-01-16 12:05:15 PM  
*stupider

//dammit
 
vodka
2007-01-16 12:05:29 PM  
Cooper speaks good.
 
char_boy
2007-01-16 12:06:06 PM  
Man, that doesn't say much for the other 66%.
 
samhllsfrakt
2007-01-16 12:06:40 PM  
FYI, the average IQ will always be 100, by definition.
Originally, it's a number that describes the child's mantal age divided by its chronological age, multiplied by 100.
 
junktoart
2007-01-16 12:07:19 PM  
Dudes.. no mater how smart you make our kids, half will always be below average intelligence. that's what AVERAGE means. What you have to do is a statistical comparison over time. are we getting less intelligent than our parents? more?
 
quattelly
2007-01-16 12:07:24 PM  
Them article seem to say peoples only lerns as much as the IQ is letting them.

Dumb people can lerning to read and a smart one might not cant read.
 
Molavian
2007-01-16 12:07:52 PM  
Will N. Dowd: Um, how about making sure every kid is read to, a lot, from infancy on? You can't do well in school if you don't have an extensive vocabulary before you get to kindergarten. The first four years or so are when your brain develops intelligence; after that it's all about accumulating knowledge and making connections between things you know.

PLEASE READ TO YOUR KIDS. You can start when they're just a few months old. If you don't have kids, volunteer at the library to read to someone else's.

It's also a good idea to SIGN to your infant, starting at about 5 to 8 months old. Sign language helps infants develop communication and vocabulary skills that they can use BEFORE their vocal chords are mature enough to produce speech. Speech is a very complex function, and language can be learned many months before speech is possible.

I wish we could put a 50% tax on TVs, videos, and video games, and use the revenue to subsidize children's books. That would do more for our educational system than doubling our school funding.

I bet you don't immunize your children, do you?
 
PYROY
2007-01-16 12:08:09 PM  
According to the tickle IQ test, I'm a frickin genius. I also get 700 emails a day telling me about all of the great deals on all products ever made.
 
Mirrorz
2007-01-16 12:08:11 PM  
SacManGel, Stupid people are good for comic relief! DeeDeeDee.

I agree. I worked with a lady that looked like a silverback gorilla and was slightly smarter than a bag of potatoes... man was she hilarious! She shiat herself laughing so hard one day and it was the funniest thing I ever saw.
 
Adman12
2007-01-16 12:08:32 PM  
samhllsfrakt: it's a number that describes the child's mantal age divided by its chronological age,

heh heh heh...
 
barry dingle
2007-01-16 12:08:47 PM  
you lost me at "half"
 
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