WHY
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 1951.
WHAT you are
WILL YOUR CHILD
BE CLEVER?
UPPOSE you have before you two orphaned infants. They look the same and are "guaranteed" to bo equally sound and fit.
You are eager to adopt one, and as there is apparently no choice, you are about to toss a coin to decide.
Then the matron tells you that Baby "A" is- the offspring of a charwoman and an illiterate day labourer.
Baby "B" is the offspring of a young woman writer and a young physician.
Would you still feel there was no choice? Or would you pick Baby "13" on the chance that it had inherited a higher degree of in- telligence?
Artund this question, er sthers closely related centres, a great controversy.
Do people of different
"classes" differ in
degrees of intelligence?
AS MEASURED by Intelligence tests, "Yes,"
Extensive studies reveal that the higher up the social and economie scale one goes, thre higher
the averbie 1.Q. (Intelligence quotient).
That is to say, unskilled labourers and farmhands as a group have lower I.Q.s than skilled Inbourers and farmers; above these rank skilled factory workers, white-collar workers. and small-business mem: above these, Lemi-, professional people, bigger-business men, and managers;
ers; and at the top of the 1.Q. structure are the professional
al men.
Obviously, however, there is much over- lapping amonit the groups, some unskilled workers
having higher 19s than workers in levels above, and some professional men having lower 1.Qs than persons in "lower" occupations.
Bearing in mind that
ws are speaking always in general terms and allowing for in- dividual exception, it would seem that lower intelligence goes with so-called lower'work.
★Are the intelligence Jevels of children related to
those of their parents?
YES. Children of a group of parents of high Intelligence--on the average-have
a greater mental capacity then children of parents of low Intelligence.
Rarely, where both parents ore of inferior mentality, does a superior child result.
Conversely, parents of superior mentality seldom have a child of very low intelligence. and, if they do, it is usually because of some special defec:-Idiocy or Eome organic condition or pre- natal accident.
Are girls more intelligent
FROFESSIONAL,
than boys?
d they "intelligence", quorient"
study
thdir. fothors ccupations
SEMI-PROFESSIONAL
AND MANAGERIAL
FATHERS' OCCUPATIONS
CLERICAL,
SKILLED TRADES, RETAIL BUSINESS
SEMI-SKILLED MINOR CLERICAL, MINOR BUSINESS
Average 1. Q.
118
112
-107.5
105
98
96
SLIGHTLY
SKILLED
DAY LABOURERS,
URBAN AND
RURAL FARMERS
by educators principally for the strikingly scale the heights and in classroOMI.
casily 10
fluenced by the fact that one was a girl, the other a boy? other words:-
Which sex is
more intelligent?
outdistance great
But academic intelligence and numbers of competing adults as the practical intelligence are no muse."
necessarily the same.
was to be heard, spontaneously on to ring little vongs of his cwn making express what he wanted or to designate various members of the family.
Eugene Ormandy at the same
bite of one and a half knew all the. records of his father's hurdy gurdy.
Torcha Seldel, at three, would have, tantrums when his uncle. u not-lon-talented Bddler. bit a Masur" note.
instru-
Among the virtund mintulis k the majority had talented parents-one" or both.
The surface evidence might scem convincing: the Italians wil their unusually large number DL Creat composers, singers and musicians, and the cormous
interest pop people, with .the epera, thel** remarkably high ro pittentatlon among planists and Vielinists....the Negroes, with their pirusi and "blues sic, their Jazz virtuosity and. their "rhythm"..
in con- trast, the fallure of some peoples, such
the Chinese and Japanese, to produce any dis- music or musicians. nguished
Det
by our standards.
nl this need
prove in- no.hing with respect to heilance, tor, as most musico- -woukt point out, various environmental factors could ac- esunt for marked differences awang groups of humans in musical expression.
Ye quite a numbje, reported 10 talent in either patent, The Italians, with their en- anong here being Toscanini. Schnabel, and Smeleri,
thusiasni for opera, would be uspected to produce opera com-
Some of the greatest virtuosi, porers and singers prolifically, came from the humblest and as Americans produce jazz;
m.sicians. Jeans musical home where either parent had falent; some of the lesser ones came from highly
musical backgrounds. with both parents professional
Jasielans.
Corresponding situations were found in our vocalist and studen:
Loups. Such
a lack of
consistent
Among Jews,
angued.
Influences musical
It is Various cultural inspire an urge toward
pression, and a drive toward achievement, much greater than
true for other peoples, Yet genelle factors might also have to be considered, Theoreti willy. ir
Renes for superior correlation between achievement cal apude and talent are
prevalent in and background would suggest families, it would be entirely strongly that musten) talent dong persible, en u broader scale, for
arise from any untisu!
these genes to be more heavily home environment of itself.
in etmecntrated
.Some canic stocks than others.
And what of the
childron of
tulented porents?
THE answer is that about one- fourth of the children were radly reported by their fathers as being "without talent," and most showed no unusual talent.
For
of Arturo example, Toscanine's three children, only, phe, Winda (wife of Vlatlınır reported as Hierowitz), was having talent, but only in critical
was ability, it the child of this daughter alone, Sony, then about four years old, who cu of three Tascanini grandchildren at the infe, W33 reported showing talent,
and HERE let me present findings involving three groups
Often the problems of every. Is this training day life demand. mental al-
standard in- or hereditary GIRLS are consistently better ributes that the in those
telligence tests do not reveal- phases of the tesis personality, character, will endowment? involving' use of language, rote
pawer, courage. enterprise. memory, nesthetic responses "drive." curiosity.
intuition. (such as matching colours and
and social
pelse, and, above all, the ability shapes)
questions to understand people and to get (such as guessing ages or noting along with them. details regarding people).
Thus, two persons with the Boys us 11 group are con- game intelligence may differ rustently superior in tests in widely In their capacky. for volving abstract reasoning, achievement and success in life. mathematies, mechanical ably
What, then, is one to decide or structural skills.
regarding a cholec on the basis of intelligence, between Baby "A" and Baby "B"?
But no intelligence test exists which can accurately unacure The Royal Commission on the relative mental capacities of Population reported in 1947-that-ihe two-sexer.
"children from the poorest social classes have an 'intelligence' two
years below that of.children
from better sacial classes."
★ Deas a poor body produce
□ poor mind?
OR, conversely, days a healthy body make a good mind?
There is le proof on this point
Estudies Many
have shown that, in broad averages, children with high intelligence quotient tend to be healthier, and bigger for their age, than children with low IQs.
But analysing further, children who are in beter physical shape generally come from homos which offer them not merely healthier living condition, but also more educational and cultural advantages,
What we must answer 15 whether the better physical environment of itself produces higher intelligence. ar whether the better cultural environmen: that goes with it might not also In part be the result of higher intelligence of the parents which could transmit to 'their
they children?
The henlih and bodily development of children today is by all counts far superior what it was in previous genera- tions. i
19
Has there been any overall in- crease
in Intelligence? Fow educators would say yes.
Studies in Germany after World War I showed that even been
where children had Ierally starved for two or three years, their basic intelligence rarely appeared to have been allcoted,
Does size of hood
influenco intelligonco?
NOT that we can discover,
We can also refute the old that because wonten usually, have smaller heads than men, thoy must also have "maller minus.
Which brings us to this, IT, rovering to our Inilini problem of choosing between two bablas, ¿your decision stad, bolely on
which would be the more fas' telligent, Bwould you be in-
Why do we know
so little about
inherited brains?
CHIEFLY, because we haven'. quite determined what intelli- gence is, and haven't as yet any accurate means of measuring . Intelligence tests were devised
throwing, infe
WRENCH
the wor
OF
1. THIRTY - SEVEN THE OUTSTANDING PIANISTS, VIOLINISTS AND CONDUCTORS
THE OF WORLD.
#3
But if environment is not the diotermining factor in musical talent ርፍጃኒ We show that
THIRTY-SIX OF THE Heredity is?
OUTSTANDING SINGERS,
To do this, we must first offer
3. FIFTY STUDENTS ap evidence that talent "runs", in some unustad way in the tomlites
relatives.
A SCHOOL OF MUSIC.
itself
Talent or niusicality in some at an degree was reported. by the
virtuosi Instrumentalists,
In
The majority of qualified ex- perts would unequivocally-In-attest-every-euse-musicnt advise you to choose Baby "B," talent expressed child of the Bulbores and this extremely curly age. physician.
Among the instrumentalists almost half the mothers, three- Chopin, Mozart, Men- it uppeared at an average age fourths of the fathers, and half delssohn. Lisz!, Schumann, of 44 years for the virtuosi, the brothers and sisters; by the Cesar Franck, and of con- and in the student group at opera singers, in two-thirds of temporary musicians, Heifetz. about 5.
the parents and in about 40 per- Hofmann, Kreisler, and Menuhin This expression of talent cent of the brothers and sisters; rovented their onlus to the was often in unusual ways. nnd in the student group, in 74 world as children.
Artur Rubinstein, bör into a percent of the mothers, 58 per- very poor. home in Warsaw, cent of the fathers, and 70 per- where
no musical
instrument cont of the brothers and sisters.
In no other. Пeld of human achievement. do the young so
UNEXPECTED MESSENGER OF PEACE
unusually
some
nationalities
World Copyright)
NEXT WEEK
Gentus-and, madness; How we inherit creative talents.
London Express Service
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