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Sliding Educational Performance not Unique to the US

By Tom Hanson | Related entries in News

In yet another indictment of today’s youngsters, a recent study in the United Kingdom has revealed today’s brightest do not match the intellect of the top students in the 1970’s. In simplest terms, researchers from King’s College London have reported that the intellectual level of the brightest 14-year-olds today mirrors the cognitive abilities of the best 12-year-olds in 1976.

Today’s Brightest No Match for Those of the Prior Generation.


This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Sliding Educational Performance not Unique to the US”

  1. leapsecond Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

    Compelling article. Thanks for the link, Tom.

  2. bubbles Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

    Maybe this is because the United States and the UK share the same exact commercialized culture.

  3. L Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 8:09 pm

    An interesting corollary to this article is this bit of research summarized by the NYT here…

    http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/27/business/media/27brain.html?ex=1298696400&en=50082f4a95a3d1b2&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

    And the full research article here…

    http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/matthew.gentzkow/research/TV_QJE_2008.pdf

    If you buy the argument that TV isn’t the culprit, what is? I could believe that the educational standards argument from the article leads teachers to inform a bare-minimum to everyone instead of tailoring some time to teach more apt students more difficult concepts.

  4. ExiledIndependent Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

    At least in America, public schools teach to the middle. That results in a huge amount of resources being applied to those beneath the middle to bring them up to the center of the curve. Students already at the center or above are basically neglected, resulting in what you see here. Our education system is currently not designed nor intended for each student to reach their maximum potential. Parents must supplement the education for middle and above-middle performers if they hope to get an optimal result for their child.

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