the bell curve

From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Wed Dec 09 1998 - 21:13:17 MST


> > > > Michael Lorrey wrote: ...that year my state had the highest average SAT scores
> > > in the nation (while having one of the highest levels of participation as well).
> > > GET THIS: That same year our state ranked at the bottom of all states in per
> > > capita spending on education.

spike wrote: are you familiar with herrnstein and murray?

> I'm from New Hampshire. Not familiar with their work. Do you have any links to
> anything on the web?

mike, herrnstein and murray produced a very inflammatory book 1994 called
"the bell curve" about intelligence and class structure. i am not endorsing the
book, but i did find some remarkable conjectures therein, making it worth
my time to read. havent checked the web.

they site your apparent inverse relationship between spending per student
and sat scores, but explain it differently. their notion is that

1. people segregate themselves by iq, and that
2. iq can be inherited.

immediately one can see why the book is potentially dynamite. herrnstein and
murray became famous in the 70s by predicting a school's sat scores
based on a formula that accounted only for that school's racial mix,
ignoring altogether parameters such as spending per student, availability of
tutoring etc. the sat is a very thinly disguised iq test. wouldnt you agree?

with the existence of this thread, it was only a matter of time before some
yahoo mentioned the bell curve... spike



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