About the Bible, my youngest daughter has her degree in English, now when she was about two, I started teaching her from work books, surprisingly, she new all the answers .

She had knowledge beyond her years and read fifth grade level in kindergarten,

The Bible, a friend told me to read to her, then have her read to me from the Bible, no Dick and Jane,

it's proportional.

first you have to determine what intelligence is. iq tests and sat exams are not enough.

second, you have to determine if the tests are not prejudice in some way, regarding what is or is not intelligent and how to gauge it based on test results.

thirdly, you have to take into consideration various societal factors, such as the widespread dissemenation of information via the school system, the media, society at large, and the library system.

fourthly, after determining the answers to the third question, you have to determine how many people were tested before the creation of public schools, tests and forced education.

then you can factor in things like diet, environment and so on.

it wasn't all that long ago in the scope of human history, that no one had to go to school, only if their parents insisted and only if the schooling was available. this created a huge disparity in the world of employment, between those who had book knowledge and those who didn't. it also didn't take into account, those who were self taught and those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, who were automatically considered smart because mom and dad or great grandpa, was a whiz at making money.

there's too much speculative data involved without the answers to the questions raised by the past, and its effect on "intelligence."


[edit on 12-10-2008 by undo]

Originally posted by Stormdancer777
About the Bible, my youngest daughter has her degree in English, now when she was about two, I started teaching her from work books, surprisingly, she new all the answers .

She had knowledge beyond her years and read fifth grade level in kindergarten,

The Bible, a friend told me to read to her, then have her read to me from the Bible, no Dick and Jane,

Agreed, I was reading the bible a lot in fourth and fifth grade, mostly poetry and non fiction through high school.

My girlfriend grew up on the bible and Tolkien. She's read LOTR every year since 5th grade, yikes.
She knew a lot of anglo saxon and elvish a couple years ago, before she really got into college and lost all her time to study neat things like that...She really is a smart bird.

(addendum to my above post: i don't believe video games dumb people down. i think they are just a new social environment in which to challenge your skills and hone your hand-eye coordination. i play alot of video games but i'm always looking for the symbols embedded in the imagery, the underlying message the game is trying to instill or reveals about its creators, the current state of social order or the hoped for state of the future.)

[edit on 12-10-2008 by undo]

Originally posted by undo
(addendum to my above post: i don't believe video games dumb people down. i think they are just a new social environment in which to challenge your skills and hone your hand-eye coordination. i play alot of video games but i'm always looking for the symbols embedded in the imagery, the underlying message the game is trying to instill or reveals about its creators, the current state of social order or the hoped for state of the future.)

[edit on 12-10-2008 by undo]

Of course you are correct that is where balance comes into play.

It's funny how in an age of connection we really have isolated ourselves from eachother.

Also, anything done with your hands which requires concentration is great; be it mechanics, tailors, musicians, crafting, anything which involves concentration is amazing when it comes to brain power. By concentration I mean REAL concentration, I can't describe it but if you've ever done it you know what I mean.

Originally posted by Mr Headshot
It's funny how in an age of connection we really have isolated ourselves from eachother.

Also, anything done with your hands which requires concentration is great; be it mechanics, tailors, musicians, crafting, anything which involves concentration is amazing when it comes to brain power. By concentration I mean REAL concentration, I can't describe it but if you've ever done it you know what I mean.

I know exactly what you mean, the same concentration one enters into when they play music, it is almost like a meditative state.

Unstructured play is another overlooked aspect of developing intelligence. In today's busy world many people feel pressured to be always "doing" or producing something instead of just "being".

All intelligent people have a need to play (at something). I'm not talking about mindless diversions but a creative outlet in which nothing but the users enjoyment is required.

An outlet in which there are no levels or points to obtain, no satisfactory conclusions to a story being told that did not come from your own imagination, no prizes to be won, no bragging rights, nothing but time for ones self.

MopusVindictus, I have a question (2 actually) for you. 1) Do you believe the dumbing down of the masses to be intentional or an accidental result of negligent planning? 2) If the former, what could possibly be the benefit (long term) of deliberately fouling the genetic diversity required to sustain any futuristic utopia one would assume "they" are planning by such a move?

It has been my unfortunate experience my entire life to be ridiculed and aggressively scolded for trying to better myself. Examples include such statements as, "You ask too many questions" (spoken by a teacher); "You think you're better than everyone else using all those fancy words" (spoken by an English teacher); "Why don't you just shut up and do what you're told!" (spoken by a teacher giving us instructions on taking our IQ tests when I had pointed out that the written instructions had 3 words spelled incorrectly).

Being labelled as "odd" is another painful reminder of a public education system that has forgotten that all innovators have been considered "odd".
When I was 4 we had a 500-piece puzzle in our house which I found and put together. I loved that puzzle. I put it together so many times that year that I got a little bored with it and turned all the pieces over and put it together without benefit of a picture-just the cardboard shapes. Apparently, that was "odd". The puzzle was taken away.

By not conforming to the social norm, one becomes a social outcast. It becomes imperative for survival to feign stupidity. After years of pretending to be stupid, one becomes a little stupid. In nursing school we were told to avoid using the big medical words to explain a patients' condition to their loved ones and, instead, to talk to them at about a 6th grade level. After years of speaking to people at about a 6th grade level, I'm finding it difficult to converse at a college level outside of work.

Multitasking is another IQ buster and also relates to the original thought that one needs time to do "nothing required". As a single mother and a nurse, I often spend the entire week just hurrying to get things done. Work is a very busy place with barely enough time in a 12 hour day to empty my bladder. I am a multitasker extraordinaire. When I come home, I am again assailed with too many things to do. All this doing leaves little time for just thinking, observing, considering, philosophizing, contemplating, meditating, being.

Only drones continually do without stopping to think that there might be something more to life.