Why is the IQ in the U.S. getting lower?

[NYcarbineer]

The continual refusal of a certain portion of our population to use critical thinking skills. That a majority of Americans believe that creationism and ID belong in a science classroom clearly defines the problem.

Well, all things being equal it would certainly be easier to score high on a test about the origins and development of life on earth if all you had to do was memorize part of Genesis.

 

[paperview]

The continual refusal of a certain portion of our population to use critical thinking skills. That a majority of Americans believe that creationism and ID belong in a science classroom clearly defines the problem.

Well, all things being equal it would certainly be easier to score high on a test about the origins and development of life on earth if all you had to do was memorize part of Genesis.

I'm not so sure. All that rampant begatting really messes up some people.

 

[Ravi]

Let's go even farther...if you remove each 'race' but one, our IQ scores shoot up into the Stratosphere. (Hint: that remaining race is NOT the Caucasian one)

It seems that it is a myth that Asians have higher IQs than whites.

Data showing that the Japanese had higher I.Q.s than people of European descent, for example, prompted the British psychometrician and eugenicist Richard Lynn to concoct an elaborate evolutionary explanation involving the Himalayas, really cold weather, premodern hunting practices, brain size, and specialized vowel sounds. The fact that the I.Q.s of Chinese-Americans also seemed to be elevated has led I.Q. fundamentalists to posit the existence of an international I.Q. pyramid, with Asians at the top, European whites next, and Hispanics and blacks at the bottom.
Here was a question tailor-made for James Flynn's accounting skills. He looked first at Lynn's data, and realized that the comparison was skewed. Lynn was comparing American I.Q. estimates based on a representative sample of schoolchildren with Japanese estimates based on an upper-income, heavily urban sample. Recalculated, the Japanese average came in not at 106.6 but at 99.2. Then Flynn turned his attention to the Chinese-American estimates. They turned out to be based on a 1975 study in San Francisco's Chinatown using something called the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test. But the Lorge-Thorndike test was normed in the nineteen-fifties. For children in the nineteen-seventies, it would have been a piece of cake. When the Chinese-American scores were reassessed using up-to-date intelligence metrics, Flynn found, they came in at 97 verbal and 100 nonverbal. Chinese-Americans had slightly lower I.Q.s than white Americans. (Gladwell 2007)


IQ and race - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com

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[xsited1]

you can try to blame a lot of our nations problems on immigration but this isnt one of them, if it wasnt for all the Asian families immigrating here and having their children excel in our schools our childrens accumulative iq would be even lower.
the low iq lies at the feet of the parents plain and simple, if you let your kid spend hours watching tv and playing video games instead of sitting with them and helping them learn then the kids are going to be dumb.

Shall I state the obvious? Look at IQ levels and standardized test scores based on race. Remove one race (I'll let you guess which one) and America becomes the smartest nation on the planet. The question is how do we bring this particular race up to the level of the others? Currently, our educational system is bringing the other races down.

Let's go even farther...if you remove each 'race' but one, our IQ scores shoot up into the Stratosphere. (Hint: that remaining race is NOT the Caucasian one)

Of course. Everyone knows the caucasian race is not the 'smartest' race in the US. But for the most part, I like it here in America. I would prefer we find a way to bring everyone up rather than down.

 

[xotoxi]

"Why is the IQ in the U.S. getting lower?"

Because the IQ test keeps getting harder.

 

[Luissa]

I can tell you four reasons why I lost IQ points, shrooms, acid, coke, and alcohol.

 

[chanel]

Drugs?

 

[Ravi]

Shall I state the obvious? Look at IQ levels and standardized test scores based on race. Remove one race (I'll let you guess which one) and America becomes the smartest nation on the planet. The question is how do we bring this particular race up to the level of the others? Currently, our educational system is bringing the other races down.

Let's go even farther...if you remove each 'race' but one, our IQ scores shoot up into the Stratosphere. (Hint: that remaining race is NOT the Caucasian one)

Of course. Everyone knows the caucasian race is not the 'smartest' race in the US. But for the most part, I like it here in America. I would prefer we find a way to bring everyone up rather than down.

Everyone knows that do they?

 

[Luissa]

yep! I am not as smart as I once was. I am also not saying it is the main cause for lower IQ's in this country but we have a lot more children born these days who have been exposed to drugs while in the womb. We have children while having to go to school have to take care of themselves and their siblings because mommy is cracked out. And quite a bit of the time these children are not recieving the proper nutrition which helps brain developement.

 

[mskafka]

The US already has a lower average IQ and is getting lower. Why?


Hong Kong 107 Korea, South 106Japan 105 Taiwan 104 Singapore 104 Austria 102Germany 102Italy 102 Netherlands 102 Sweden 101 Switzerland 101 Belgium 100 China 100 New Zealand 100 U. Kingdom 100 Hungary 99 Poland 99 Australia 98 Denmark 98 France 98 Norway 98 United States 98 Canada 97 Czech Republic 97 Finland 97 Spain 97 Argentina 96 Russia 96 Slovakia 96 Uruguay 96 Portugal 95 Slovenia 95 Israel 94 Romania 94 Bulgaria 93 Ireland 93 Greece 92 Malaysia 92 Thailand 91 Croatia 90 Peru 90Turkey 90 Colombia 89 Indonesia 89 Suriname 89 Brazil 87 Iraq 87Mexico 87 Samoa (Western) 87 Tonga 87 Lebanon 86 Philippines 86 Cuba 85 Morocco 85 Fiji 84 Iran 84 Marshall Islands 84 Puerto Rico 84Egypt 83India 81 Ecuador 80 Guatemala 79 Barbados 78 Nepal 78 Qatar 78 Zambia 77 Congo (Brazz) 73 Uganda 73 Jamaica 72 Kenya 72 South Africa 72 Sudan 72 Tanzania 72 Ghana 71 Nigeria 67 Guinea 66 Zimbabwe 66 Congo (Zaire) 65 Sierra Leone 64 Ethiopia 63 Equatorial Guinea 59

There are many reasons but one big reason is immigration. The U.S. takes in more immigrants than the rest of the world combined and MILLIONS of UNSKILLED and UNEDUCATED illegal immigrants have been sneaking into the U.S. for DECADES. It's starting to show now.

But today’s Democrats, bent on consolidating the Hispanic vote, aren’t likely to seek a lower immigration rate, or a better-educated pool of immigrants. The kind of “comprehensive” immigration reform that liberals support would probably increase low-skilled migration to the United States.

you can try to blame a lot of our nations problems on immigration but this isnt one of them, if it wasnt for all the Asian families immigrating here and having their children excel in our schools our childrens accumulative iq would be even lower.
the low iq lies at the feet of the parents plain and simple, if you let your kid spend hours watching tv and playing video games instead of sitting with them and helping them learn then the kids are going to be dumb.

Shall I state the obvious? Look at IQ levels and standardized test scores based on race. Remove one race (I'll let you guess which one) and America becomes the smartest nation on the planet. The question is how do we bring this particular race up to the level of the others? Currently, our educational system is bringing the other races down.

OMG! If this is the case, then how come I am white and there are members of ALL other races who are much more educated than I will ever be? Are there statistics that prove this, or is it just a personal observation?

My dentist is black. My internal medicine physician is Asian. And both are VERY competent. I've been treated (effectively) by hispanic physicians, in the past. Are you speaking of the race in question....as the majority of the race?

I've met MANY ignorant whites in my lifetime. I'm not hating on my race, but ignorance plagues every race.

 

[mskafka]

yep! I am not as smart as I once was. I am also not saying it is the main cause for lower IQ's in this country but we have a lot more children born these days who have been exposed to drugs while in the womb. We have children while having to go to school have to take care of themselves and their siblings because mommy is cracked out. And quite a bit of the time these children are not recieving the proper nutrition which helps brain developement.

Yes, I agree with some of this. The "latchkey kid" theory. The nutrition? Definitely. It's expensive to feed a family with healthy food. If you aren't in a position where you can grow your own crops. Nutrition and parental presence are vitally important to a child's development.

 

[KittenKoder]

OP: Education does not influence IQ, IQ influences education. However, when knowledge and information is handed to you the brain does not "flex" enough and eventually stops thinking, becoming nothing but a memory bank. So the IQ scores would lower if a person is simply handed information to recite over and over again instead of made to do their own research, study, and learning.

Simplification: Schooling can be detrimental.

 

[Bfgrn]

Why is the IQ in the U.S. getting lower?

Kids' Lower IQ Scores Linked to Prenatal Pollution
July 20, 2009

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO—Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That's a big enough difference that it could affect children's performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study's lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

 

[mskafka]

OP: Education does not influence IQ, IQ influences education. However, when knowledge and information is handed to you the brain does not "flex" enough and eventually stops thinking, becoming nothing but a memory bank. So the IQ scores would lower if a person is simply handed information to recite over and over again instead of made to do their own research, study, and learning.

Simplification: Schooling can be detrimental.

Yes, this is true. One has to be shown that learning opportunities are available, but learning by rote IMHO isn't the best method.

 

[mskafka]

Why is the IQ in the U.S. getting lower?

Kids' Lower IQ Scores Linked to Prenatal Pollution
July 20, 2009

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO—Researchers for the first time have linked air pollution exposure before birth with lower IQ scores in childhood, bolstering evidence that smog may harm the developing brain.

The results are in a study of 249 children of New York City women who wore backpack air monitors for 48 hours during the last few months of pregnancy. They lived in mostly low-income neighborhoods in northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. They had varying levels of exposure to typical kinds of urban air pollution, mostly from car, bus and truck exhaust.

At age 5, before starting school, the children were given IQ tests. Those exposed to the most pollution before birth scored on average four to five points lower than children with less exposure.

That's a big enough difference that it could affect children's performance in school, said Frederica Perera, the study's lead author and director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health.

Interesting article, which I agree has some merit.

 

[xsited1]

you can try to blame a lot of our nations problems on immigration but this isnt one of them, if it wasnt for all the Asian families immigrating here and having their children excel in our schools our childrens accumulative iq would be even lower.
the low iq lies at the feet of the parents plain and simple, if you let your kid spend hours watching tv and playing video games instead of sitting with them and helping them learn then the kids are going to be dumb.

Shall I state the obvious? Look at IQ levels and standardized test scores based on race. Remove one race (I'll let you guess which one) and America becomes the smartest nation on the planet. The question is how do we bring this particular race up to the level of the others? Currently, our educational system is bringing the other races down.

OMG! If this is the case, then how come I am white and there are members of ALL other races who are much more educated than I will ever be? Are there statistics that prove this, or is it just a personal observation?

My dentist is black. My internal medicine physician is Asian. And both are VERY competent. I've been treated (effectively) by hispanic physicians, in the past. Are you speaking of the race in question....as the majority of the race?

I've met MANY ignorant whites in my lifetime. I'm not hating on my race, but ignorance plagues every race.

In general...

Look at standardized test scores based on race for an overall view. My race (or at least half of my race) comes in first, but that doesn't mean everyone is smart. And education doesn't necessarily mean one is smart.

 

[Soggy in NOLA]

I'm sure it is directly correlated to the implementation of America's Nationalsozialismus.

Zeig heil!!!

 

[KittenKoder]

OP: Education does not influence IQ, IQ influences education. However, when knowledge and information is handed to you the brain does not "flex" enough and eventually stops thinking, becoming nothing but a memory bank. So the IQ scores would lower if a person is simply handed information to recite over and over again instead of made to do their own research, study, and learning.

Simplification: Schooling can be detrimental.

Yes, this is true. One has to be shown that learning opportunities are available, but learning by rote IMHO isn't the best method.

When I was in school they were working on a teaching system that actually made you do your own work, it was doing well actually though far from being implemented at the time. They had a "make your own curriculum" class that I was part of which produced desirable results, what happened to that? Now when kids are talking about school they brag about cheating more than learning something new. I hear professionals using worse language than anyone in my school had, and technology is going nowhere but to the toy store. Now they have classes where they get good grades for "Twittering" in class, many are even allowed to use Google during tests ... this isn't learning, school is a joke now.

 

[pal_of_poor]

Largely, it has to do with the reigns of our country being turned over to conservatives, republicans, and DINOs for nearly 30 years now. They do not value public education, have set about to de-fund it as much as possible.

We also spend more on attacking unrelated countries on the other side of the world, than we do on public eduction.

Parents, and people in general seem to think education is not important, which is wrong.

Television itself, has been dumbed down so badly some of the programs make me want to puke. I mean seriously, people watch other people degrade themselves, eat bugs, pigs intestines, old celebrities fight in boxing rings, even American Idolatry is suspect.

Republicans don't want a smart population, and they set about to keep them dumb. When folks are educated, they see through the republicans' bullshit, and they can't allow that, since republicans depend on deceiving, or manipulation through hatreds and prejudices, to get elected. A party that really only serves roughly ten percent of our countries people economically, can not survive with a smart population, in which they can't deceive 40 percent or so of them, into voting against themselves economically, because they hate black people, or they think the government's going to take their shotguns, or they hate homosexuals more than they want to make a living, or they don't want people to have the freedom to choose to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

They promote this lie that education is "liberal" and in a sense it is. When people get smart, they begin to understand they don't stand alone, and that we are all in this together. But it isn't that the teachers are specifically hired for this reason, but that most people when educated, just come to that conclusion after getting some education.

 

[KittenKoder]

Largely, it has to do with the reigns of our country being turned over to conservatives, republicans, and DINOs for nearly 30 years now. They do not value public education, have set about to de-fund it as much as possible.

We also spend more on attacking unrelated countries on the other side of the world, than we do on public eduction.

Parents, and people in general seem to think education is not important, which is wrong.

Television itself, has been dumbed down so badly some of the programs make me want to puke. I mean seriously, people watch other people degrade themselves, eat bugs, pigs intestines, old celebrities fight in boxing rings, even American Idolatry is suspect.

Republicans don't want a smart population, and they set about to keep them dumb. When folks are educated, they see through the republicans' bullshit, and they can't allow that, since republicans depend on deceiving, or manipulation through hatreds and prejudices, to get elected. A party that really only serves roughly ten percent of our countries people economically, can not survive with a smart population, in which they can't deceive 40 percent or so of them, into voting against themselves economically, because they hate black people, or they think the government's going to take their shotguns, or they hate homosexuals more than they want to make a living, or they don't want people to have the freedom to choose to have an abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy.

They promote this lie that education is "liberal" and in a sense it is. When people get smart, they begin to understand they don't stand alone, and that we are all in this together. But it isn't that the teachers are specifically hired for this reason, but that most people when educated, just come to that conclusion after getting some education.

That's just stupid. Seriously. None of that has to do with IQ at all.