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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (292654)	2/15/2009 10:42:49 PM
From: Alan Smithee	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793984

Murray discusses this problem and the solution that America came up with in his book, "The Bell Curve." SAT tests solved it. Once general IQ testing came in, smart people in rural areas were spotted and given College Scholarships. Murray didn't like the fact that this tends to stratify society by IQ. Gladwell talks about "practical" intelligence, as opposed to straight brainpower. Practical intelligence is the ability to flex to different social situations and make one's way in the world. His example of Langan is interesting. Langan grew up in a broken home. He was, however, fabulously intelligent. He got a scholarship to Reed College. After his mother failed to fill out certain financial forms he lost the scholarship after just one semester. He was unable to convince the administrators to make an exception for his situation. He then went to Montana State. He lived 20 miles out of town and his car broke down. he arranged for a ride into town each day but was unable to make it before his first class. He went to the administration but again was unable to plead his case. Gladwell's point is that Langan was fabulously intelligent, but had never lived in a social setting where he was taught how to interact effectively with others and to advocate for himself. As a result, he never got a college education and was unable to make full use of his intelligence. Contrast that with Robert Oppenheimer. He was raised in a professional family and was given many opportunities growing up to interact with all manner of people. He learned to flex to others as a way of convincing them and getting what he wanted. The best example of this is that in graduate school in the UK, he actually tried to poison his tutor. He made it past the incident, basically by talking his way out of it, and you know the rest of the story.