Making kids smarter

If you see a child’s report card with mostly As, how do you react?

Most Americans respond, “That kid is smart.” But most Asians say, “That kid works hard.”

East Asian countries are turning out record numbers of engineers and scientists because they believe that academic achievement is rooted in hard work, not native intelligence. Americans believe that IQ is determined through our genes, but Richard Nisbett says in his new book, Intelligence and How to Get It, that environment plays a bigger role. In fact, we can make people smarter; we can improve IQ.

Nisbett is not some feel-good author who will be making rounds of the TV talk shows. He is one of this nation’s premier cognitive psychologists at the University of Michigan.

Nisbett says that the greatest stumbling blocks to improved intelligence are poverty, poor schools, and a lack of belief that students can do better.

Poor prenatal care, nutrition, and environmental factors such as lead poisoning all hurt poor children. “There is every reason to believe that IQ and achievement gaps in the U.S. would be reduced if people of lower SEC [socioeconomic status] had higher incomes,” argues Nisbett.

We place poor children in schools with the largest class sizes, teachers with the fewest years of experience, and fewer support services. Frankly we really don’t believe they can learn.

Nor do these students believe in themselves. They lack hope. Just having teachers tell children that they can get smarter can have big impacts on achievement and IQ; they will work longer and harder, says Nisbett.

The average IQ of Americans is much higher than that of our ancestors, and that increase cannot be explained through evolutionary development. Only improvements in the environment and education make any sense. And the gap between whites and blacks is shrinking in this country-in fact, the IQ gaps among all ethnic groups are shrinking. On IQ tests, the greatest gains for blacks began in the 1950s, corresponding with the civil rights movement.

So children born in poverty are not doomed, says Nisbett. We can make them better educated; we can make them smarter.

Terry Falk is the Milwaukee Public Schools Director for the Eighth District, which includes Bay View. To contact him, call (414) 510-9173 or email falktf@milwaukee.k12.wi.us.