You can read the context of the quote via the link above. It's not the part about Senator Biden, nor the part about the Democrat candidates not trusting the American people which bothers me. The part of that quote which I find bothersome is ... "studies have shown that a near-majority of Americans have below-average intelligence". Really?? Oh My!! This must be because of Public Education!! Something must be done! After all ... don't we all live in Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon where ... "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."?
I firmly believe that most Americans feel this way. And there will be a number of people who won't read beyond the 2nd paragraph above before they'll go on a rant about how awful public education is and how we must fight this "below-average IQ epidemic!" In fact, a number of you who are now reading these words are probably shocked by the the FACT that a near-majority of Americans have a Below-Average IQ.
I capitalized FACT because it is a fact .... and will always be a fact ... no matter what party sits in the White House ... No matter what public education does ... No matter what mandates come down from congress .... No matter what anyone says or does, there will always be a near-majority of below-average intelligence people in America. Of course, there will also be a near-majority of above-average intelligence people in America, too.
After all .... just what makes something "average"? Think about that.
Ever since my husband came home with that quote, I have been tossing it at friends and family and acquaintances to check their reactions. All of them have been shocked. It seems that we truly do expect most Americans to be smarter than average. We can't imagine that fully 1/2 of our great country has a below-average IQ. But it is true.
I have also noticed that I have started paying attention to my interactions with people and mentally placing these people on the IQ Bell Curve in my mind. The results have been a bit depressing. Of course, myself, and my husband, and most of our friends are on the right side of the Bell Curve ... but during the Christmas shopping season, I encountered a large number of people whom I felt would test in on the left-hand side of the curve. I also encounter these people on the roads around Dallas-Ft.Worth, and often in the Editorial sections of the Dallas Morning News ... (but only if their opinions are different from mine.)
Where do YOU fit on the curve? Do you have any idea? There are a number of IQ tests available online, some serious, some just for fun. Since you are probably reading this BLOG online, go ahead and run a search for IQ Tests and take one yourself. Make sure you have lots of time as a good IQ Test might take an hour or more to do.
Instead of writing a big long article about IQ and its implications in our lives, I am going to write a series of shorter BLOGS with my thoughts and some research into IQ and Education policies, IQ and Racism, IQ and its competitor, EQ ... and anything else I come up with.
If you have any thoughts, please feel free to comment!
Lucinda Mackinnon is a retired Math teacher and current Owner and Chief Tutor of Math-Matters.
