Re: Racial Differences in Intelligence

From: P.Comm (tjsrno_at_spampost.com)
Date: 01/26/05 

Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 02:39:51 GMT

"Wolf Kirchmeir" <wwolfkir@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:BQsJd.476$mA5.192812@news20.bellglobal.com...
> P.Comm wrote:
> [...]
>> ?? Test = exam! They meant the same thing here.
>
> Test: instrument for finding out some narrowly defined fact about the
> student (eg, did (s)he read the story assigned for homework?

As I said, that was as-given, the students DID know the material, either
from reading it aloud taking turns in the class, or having it read to them.
Only very short stories were even expected to read at home. I'm talking
about children - in grammar school! Maybe you don't realize how MUCH
homework we had back then. From second grade (7 year old kids) onward, you
needed a briefcase to carry the books home every school day. Reading a
story takes TIME - time that kids just didn ot have back then.

Can (s)he
> do 3 digit multiplications w/o pencil and paper?

??? Like 246 X 381? You gotta be kidding! No pencil and paper? I can't
even do that and I aced math/arithmetic/geometry.

What facts about
> history of the town does (s) he know?) Usually used to determine baseline
> data so that lesson plans etc could be adapted to student.

Ah, well the tests were standardized - kids got the same tests that kids got
the next year in the same grade.
>
> Exam: demonstration of complex skills ("problem solving") by student.
>
> Mind you, many "exams" were merely long tests, covering the material in
> the course.

Well, to me, exam and test were the same thing. You sit there and answer
questions on paper. NONE of it was multiple choice.
>
>>>I would test a student's ability to comprehend a story by providing a
>>>story to be read for the test/exam, perhaps ahead of time, perhaps not
>>>(in
>>>which latter case, the exam timing has to allow for reading the story.)

Back then? No way. Kids had to do CHORES, like help build a screen porch,
mow the lawn (big lawns) and such. Kids were not babied as they have been
for so long here. Not back then. Kids also had to go out and get play in
(and there was no law demanding parental supervision back then). All in
all, we did good - the country was tops in math, science, and etc. Now?
Heh. MEHHHH ptewey. I run into college kids that ASKED ME to write their
freaking essays for them (and get paid for it). One of the books I did read
was by two of those guys listed from Rutgers University - on the subject of
IQ and race. I read the book in a few hours, practically scanned it and
then wrote up what the brunt of the whole book was about. Yeah, I know -
it's not ethical to do that - but money talks when you need it. I did at
least ask the guy to READ what I wrote before he handed it in. Considering
I spent hardly any time doing it, he got a B on it. I run into college
educated people that "get lost" reading my published novel when in my time,
anyone in 7th or 8th grade would have been able to read MOST of it - the
rest they could look up in a dictionary. Pathetic. I had to write "essays"
that long when I was in the 2nd grade in grammar school. I swear, you could
probably, I could probably, ace thru a social science course without
studying a single text book. It's THAT EASY. That's not what I call an
education. It's Forrest Gump dumbed down garbage. This convo already
happened on this newsgroup ages ago.

>>>Those kinds of questions would be asked about a story that had _not_ been
>>>read in class, IOW. Or, you ask questions that didn't come up in the
>>>class
>>>work.

Well, I just told you what we did back then in schools.

>>>
>>>NB that recall is not correlated with ability to analyse a story,
>>>especially when under stress (as in an exam.) I always detested those
>>>instructors who refused to give even a hint of clue as to what facts of
>>>the story they had in mind when the framed their discussion questions.
>>>(Even you can't remember certain details about To Build A Fire. Neither
>>>can I, for that matter, and I dealt with it at for at least a dozen
>>>years.)
>>
>>
>> Well, I read the story when I was 9 years old. I'm 54 now. :) I
>> remember the brunt of it, the hellish everpresent SNOW, the white hell of
>> it, the utter helplesslessness of the man, his last hope, that match.
>
> Like I said, the guy had no imagination. Imagine building a fire under a
> snow-laden branch! Didn't he look around first???.

LOL.
>
>> We never had multiple choice questions. But we also never had such
>> questions (as what kind of house did 3rd pig build), multiple choice or
>> not,
>> in any reading exam. For math tests (or arithmetic) there was no
>> multiple
>> choice at all. You had to come up with the answer. I guess you'd call
>> what
>> we had when it came to reading anything that's a story, or history, as
>> "exams." Tests - exams, were the same to us.
>
> Yeah, I gatherd that.

The whole reaction to the dumbed down education has come up with the issue
over vouchers and home-education. Parents took a peak at textbooks from the
50s era and well, freaked out that kids that young were learning that stuff.
Compared to what their kids are learning now? There is a lot of outrage
over it.
>
>> Here is one: a cubed plus b cubed equals c squared. What are a, b, and
>> c. NO multiple choice.
>
> 1, 2, 3: 1 + 8 = 9. Or 2, 2, 4: 8 + 8 = 16. Etc. An infinite set of
> solutions. Is 1, 2, 3 the only triplet where a, b, c are different? Dunno.

Sure, I said you could do it in your head, fast :) But can most 8 or 9 year
old kids do it in their heads today?
>
>> That's a very easy one! You can probably do it off the top of your
>> head. The one Terry Trotter (math professor that puts "strange things
>> about numbers" on websites)sent me to try my hand at (I wanted to KILL
>> that man) - was NOT easy since I do not have a calculator capable of
>> handling such huge numbers. I mean, his problem didn't involve numbers
>> you can just do in your head right off. No freaking way. But I got the
>> answer. That was this:
>>
>> a fourth power plus b forth power equals c fourth power plus d fourth
>> power. What are a, b, c and d. How do you write that in computer talk?
>> a^4+b^4 = c^4+d^4 ?? I'm not sure how to write it in computer talk and
>> I can't read it easily, and I can't make small superscript numbers on
>> usenet - so I wrote it all out for you.
>
> A^4 + B^4 = C^4 + D^4
>
> BTW, the version that appears in the reader shows superscripts - this
> version (in the text editor whicxh is part of the news-reader - shows it
> with the caret. Wierd.

?? I don't see any superscripts ever showing up on newsgroups.
>
>> I know by intuition right up that a and b have to be numbers probably
>> right
>> next to each other and that c and d have to be further apart, one lower
>> than a or b and the other higher than a or b.
>
> I agree.
>
> Did you try restating it as a quadratic, and solving for the square roots?
> I suspect that would be faster.

What do you mean? Like A^4+B^2+n1 = n2? Explain. Uh, no, not faster. I'd
have to get to the 4th powers AND add them up. It's not LIKE a^2+b^2 =
c^2+d^2. Hmm.. no no, nix that - that would only give you a clue (If I
typed it out) but you'd have to already have gotten the answer to give the
clue :) It still requires TONS of paper and a lot of hands-on arithmetic
and care not to screw up - like ADD 3 plus 3 and get 9 (cause you multiplied
by mistake).

> But this question doesn't bug me.

OK, but would you take it on without a calculator able to handle BIG BIG
numbers? Terry had quite a few "strange things" about numbers too, but I
can't find the original emails (probably in my old computer). He has
websites too - but I can't seem to find the one with the cute strange
numbers on it :)

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