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David Penner
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3 comments:
A couple days ago I read this report with great pleasure because I'm the oldest in the family. But then it dawned on me: I'm actually a bit of a moron. So this REALLY sucks for my younger brother.
Hmmmmm. I see the point of this study, but I would be interested in what socioeconomic groups were actually tested. Three points is three points, but three points on a test that priveleges people from certain education systems.
It would be interesting and relevant to know if there is a difference in eldest scores in different socioeconomic backgrounds. I can imagine that these statistics may indeed have more to do with expectations that are class-based, rather than birth order based. Perhaps. I would speculate in a mining-type community where the emphasis was not on academics, this statistic wouldn't hold.
This, of course, spoken like a true little sister, who would rather be good at human relations than academics. Also, this may have more to do with work-ethic than raw intelligence (whatever that is).
A quote from the article:
"Three points on an I.Q. test may not sound like much. But experts say it can be a tipping point for some people — the difference between a high B average and a low A, for instance. That, in turn, can have a cumulative effect that could mean the difference between admission to an elite private liberal-arts college and a less exclusive public one."
I see: a flawed system (socio-biology) examined with a flawed system (IQ) used to justify a flawed system (letter grade based academic evaluation). ugh. Not to mention the use of gladwell's most obnoxious addition to the jargon of psuedo-intellectual pop sociology.
The article should have stopped after the first sentence quoted above.
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