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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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I think boys who are slow early on in school are destined to be that way throughout life and and end up in the lower rungs of society. Relative positions do not change, and giving slow boys a boost early on is not going to change this once the effect wears off, like with with universal pre-k in which any early gains were quickly erased. Boys who grow up to be engineers, STEM jobs, etc. probably don't have this problem as much as boys who grow up to work in service sector. Even in elementary school you can identify who has potential compared to who doesn't. Boys may underperform relative to girls but struggling on the classroom to some extent suggests an IQ problem, not a sex differences problem. Hoping that intervention will remedy innate differences reminds me of people hoping that their crypto portfolios will recover. let's assume there is a 2 year difference in brain maturity between boys vs. girls..this would suggest that slow boys can make up the difference after their brains mature and perform better at school, but how often does this happen?

Boys may underperform relative to girls but struggling on the classroom to some extent suggests an IQ problem, not a sex differences problem

Or there's a bias in grading...:

Teachers are more lenient in their marking of girls' schoolwork, according to an international study.

An OECD report on gender in education, across more than 60 countries, found that girls receive higher marks compared with boys of the same ability.

...

When it comes to teachers' marking, the study says there is a consistent pattern of girls' work being "marked up".

It suggests that "teachers hold stereotypical ideas about boys' and girls' academic strengths and weaknesses".

Teachers are said to reward "organisational skills, good behaviour and compliance" rather than objectively marking pupils' work.

Is classwork actually primarily measuring IQ?

My memories are that schoolwork primarily measured ‘making academics a priority’ and ‘willingness to comply with arbitrary instructions’, with actual learning a rather distant third. As any parent of small children will tell you, girls want to please their authority figures and are generally more compliant, so it doesn’t surprise me that girls do better in school than boys.

Add in that schoolteachers are pretty female and thus presumably better at working with girls, and you have multiple explanations for why girls get better grades that aren’t IQ.

Is classwork actually primarily measuring IQ?

I think there is some correlation . Meaning that kids who struggle probably are on net not that smart , but some smart kids may get low grades if they are bored with the work. I don't think this sub is representative of the average kid who dislikes school and then does really well later in life.

Here we see a strongly positive correlation between IQ and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement that holds on all IQ ranges though:

https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-42eebfbeebd2b3735b54421ff2225f9c-lq

Is classwork actually primarily measuring IQ?

Given that IQ is chiefly a measure of academic potential I'd say probably yes. Where things get sketchy is in trying to map IQ to things like reasoning ability, social awareness, memory, erudition, etc...

Hoping that intervention will remedy innate differences reminds me of people hoping that their crypto portfolios will recover.

What, in the sense that it's happened several times before (across the market and with individual portfolios)? That this reality can be easily shown by a 20 second google search?

Why not just use a simple and accurate metaphor like pigs flying?

Furthermore, it's not established that women have higher IQ than men, some evidence seems to suggest that men have a higher average, though higher male variance would complicate this somewhat.

nature.com/articles/nature04966

Furthermore, it's not established that women have higher IQ than men,

I never said they did

What, in the sense that it's happened several times before (across the market and with individual portfolios)? That this reality can be easily shown by a 20 second google search?

I chose this one because it involves hope. no one hopes pigs fly, but many parents hope their slow kids excel at life later

When I have kids I would strongly consider holding any boys back so they are old for their class year. The impact of school mostly seems to be social conditioning and maturity helps. There are already a number of studies showing kids young for their grade are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD. The only down side is the lost opportunity cost of having them start their careers a year later.

I personally was behind in school until 3rd grade when I suddenly started reading a number of grade levels higher. I would have expected effects to by reduced to zero by then but I also scored much higher on the GRE that I took for PhD applications (170/170 Math, 169/170 verbal) than I did on the SAT. Sample size of 1, but if I have kids they will be similar to me due to genetics, so thats all I need for my own choices.

I personally was behind in school until 3rd grade when I suddenly started reading a number of grade levels higher.

you are probably a major outlier though, like most people on this sub. How many slow boys in elementary school later ace standardized tests. very few unless their IQs test high. It comes down to IQ in the end. ADHD + low /average IQ will not make a superstar later in life, just a hyperactive adult