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It seems like you know a whole lot about this. I once heard a Math professor say that children were able to use more methods for doing basic arithmetic when the

It seems like you know a whole lot about this. I once heard a Math professor say that children were able to use more methods for doing basic arithmetic when they first started school than when they'd gone to school for a year, or something of that nature. I've also been through public school, and I know that the way they teach stuff is not modern in any way. It is almost the same school system that Prussia had, that later was adopted by countires like the USA. A school of compulsion, instituted to teach students the "virtue of obedience" and to make them parts of a bigger machine (like the war machine). So the teaching method of choice naturally became to have the students do simple tasks obediently at their desks. This can be seen in modern American classrooms aswell (yes, I went to one for a year). Think back to American History, what did you do really? Did you copy down, word for word what the teacher said? Was those chores teaching you anything on how to think when it comes to reviewing history? No, it couldn't have, you were just fed words that you didn't even have time to analyze. How could that have taught you anything? I think the same goes for Math. In Sweden you didn't learn the principles of Math in the first ten years (this is important, since Montessori Schools (atleast those who are run by sane people) are able to teach kids the actual concepts behind Math at a very young age). You had 100 similar problems to solve, and you had the solution on a paper, you just had to do that a 100 times or more and remember long enough to pass the upcoming test, then you could forget about it. This is BAD for problem solving, and I can only thank programming for not stripping of the pleasures of REAL problem solving. So naturally, when a child goes to do an IQ test, which is basically a test in problem solving, he/she wouldn't know how to do it, because he/she would have been used to not having to solve problems. I think this would explain a lot, I think that IQ can be used to explain a lot of things if the world actually prepared you for them. Am I wrong or do I have a point? Anyway, that's my theory.

nitrogen 17y ago
I once heard a Math professor say that children were able to use more methods for doing basic arithmetic when they first started school than when they'd gone to school for a year, or something of that nature. My anecdotal experience correlates with this. First grade, with its required use of "bubble math," was very detrimental to my arithmetic abilities I'd acquired at home and during Montessori-style preschool. So naturally, when a child goes to do an IQ test, which is basically a test in problem solving, he/she wouldn't know how to do it, because he/she would have been used to not having to solve problems. Some IQ tests seem to test certain kinds of problem solving, like identifying patterns in a grid. Some few individuals may be able to identify the patterns without any prior experience, but I suspect most who answer such questions correctly do so from knowledge of a general class of problems, not intuition.
yters 17y ago
Purely subjectively, I feel the busy work in school made me stupider, whereas once I've been out and learning on my own, my mind feels better and sharper, and I'm more interested in learning. My opinion is that two really big factors are desire and free will. People need desire in order to really excel, and they need to think for themselves to quickly see good solutions. Both of those are hard to capture on an iq test.

nitrogen 17y ago

I once heard a Math professor say that children were able to use more methods for doing basic arithmetic when they first started school than when they'd gone to school for a year, or something of that nature. My anecdotal experience correlates with this. First grade, with its required use of "bubble math," was very detrimental to my arithmetic abilities I'd acquired at home and during Montessori-style preschool. So naturally, when a child goes to do an IQ test, which is basically a test in problem solving, he/she wouldn't know how to do it, because he/she would have been used to not having to solve problems. Some IQ tests seem to test certain kinds of problem solving, like identifying patterns in a grid. Some few individuals may be able to identify the patterns without any prior experience, but I suspect most who answer such questions correctly do so from knowledge of a general class of problems, not intuition.

yters 17y ago

Purely subjectively, I feel the busy work in school made me stupider, whereas once I've been out and learning on my own, my mind feels better and sharper, and I'm more interested in learning. My opinion is that two really big factors are desire and free will. People need desire in order to really excel, and they need to think for themselves to quickly see good solutions. Both of those are hard to capture on an iq test.