Anyone who has worked with special needs children will tell you that they are generally much brighter than they appear. Also if you have worked with gifted children you will often find they are brats. I have worked with both.
Also, many 'gifted' people do not show their talent until later in life whereas many gifted children are has-beens quite young.
Gifted children will always find something to do "Genius will out" as the saying goes, whereas 'ungifted' children will often lose out -not because they are ungifted- but because they develope low esteem due to lack of social adeptness.
The problem with the education system is that it puts an emphasis on subjects that can be quantified. You can easily assess a good mathematician, but how do you assess a person who makes others feel happy, comfortable, cared for, relaxed, and in general is the sort of person we like to be in the company of.
Having worked with autistic children teaching them animation, I found that they are often able to speak to cameras whereas they may not speak to humans. I described this to several educational psychiatrists over the years, but with no response from them (perhaps they were autistic).
On the other hand, it is common knowledge that programmers, and geeks generally are unsociable creatures, and they respond to machines very well. It may be that curing autism might be the end of (western)society as we know it.
Whether that is good or bad will depend upon if you are a person, a geek, or a robot.
If you want to know the answer have a look at my website www.parentalalienation.co.uk the chances of getting divorced are now well over 50%. The chances of having children without getting married are over 50%. The chances of seeing your children grow up once you are separated are less than 50%
It has nothing whatsoever to do with your job.
Learning to cheat is an inherent part of survival. A study on how honest people were (in the western world) indicated that we normally distrusted others, and justifiably so. Also that our society would not work if people were honest. Take a look at how many jobs are based on checking honesty, or creating systems that are cheat proof.
Although the polygraph is often quoted for lie detecting, there are body language tests (shown last week on the BBC), computer tests that check both written and spoken statements, and rely on differences in the patterns of speech. It has also been shown that people who are questioned by a machine will answer more truthfully than if questioned by a person. There of course drugs and torture get results in some cases.
The quest for a reliable lie detector has been sought since King Soloman suggested cutting babies in half was a good method (and it was).
A quick, reliable lie tester would IMO change the world more than any other single invention. Almost certainly get rid of religion, all civil courts, most politicians, a large slice of journalism, great chunks of advertising, and much of what presents itself as 'civilisation'. Of course it would also take the fun out of dating.
A BBC programme on Honesty indicated that civilisation would virtually collapse if people were honest. The fMRI test may not be accurate, but it is probably accurate enough to convince many that honesty is the best policy.
The problem with IQ tests is that they do not apply to anything practical. The people I know who can do them easily are highly organised, mentally alert, emotionally dysfunctional, and socially handicapped.
I am 75, failed at school, was sacked from more jobs than I can remember, never had a single qualification,and ran a successful company for years.
One thing wrong with todays schools though is that they don't teach how to hold a pencil, so kids can't write legibly, and do word processing with two fingers.
I would rather be a kid today than in the 1930's where you sat at a desk and learnt your times tables in silence, and got one session of football a week.
I use computers for music, drawing, writing, editing, and playing games. I had never seen a computer before I was 40. Thank God (read Google, Microsoft, etc) for giving me the means to do a thousand things at once and not have to remember much how to do it.
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Anyone who has worked with special needs children will tell you that they are generally much brighter than they appear. Also if you have worked with gifted children you will often find they are brats. I have worked with both. Also, many 'gifted' people do not show their talent until later in life whereas many gifted children are has-beens quite young. Gifted children will always find something to do "Genius will out" as the saying goes, whereas 'ungifted' children will often lose out -not because they are ungifted- but because they develope low esteem due to lack of social adeptness. The problem with the education system is that it puts an emphasis on subjects that can be quantified. You can easily assess a good mathematician, but how do you assess a person who makes others feel happy, comfortable, cared for, relaxed, and in general is the sort of person we like to be in the company of.
Having worked with autistic children teaching them animation, I found that they are often able to speak to cameras whereas they may not speak to humans. I described this to several educational psychiatrists over the years, but with no response from them (perhaps they were autistic). On the other hand, it is common knowledge that programmers, and geeks generally are unsociable creatures, and they respond to machines very well. It may be that curing autism might be the end of (western)society as we know it. Whether that is good or bad will depend upon if you are a person, a geek, or a robot.
If you want to know the answer have a look at my website www.parentalalienation.co.uk the chances of getting divorced are now well over 50%. The chances of having children without getting married are over 50%. The chances of seeing your children grow up once you are separated are less than 50% It has nothing whatsoever to do with your job.
Learning to cheat is an inherent part of survival. A study on how honest people were (in the western world) indicated that we normally distrusted others, and justifiably so. Also that our society would not work if people were honest. Take a look at how many jobs are based on checking honesty, or creating systems that are cheat proof.
Although the polygraph is often quoted for lie detecting, there are body language tests (shown last week on the BBC), computer tests that check both written and spoken statements, and rely on differences in the patterns of speech. It has also been shown that people who are questioned by a machine will answer more truthfully than if questioned by a person. There of course drugs and torture get results in some cases. The quest for a reliable lie detector has been sought since King Soloman suggested cutting babies in half was a good method (and it was). A quick, reliable lie tester would IMO change the world more than any other single invention. Almost certainly get rid of religion, all civil courts, most politicians, a large slice of journalism, great chunks of advertising, and much of what presents itself as 'civilisation'. Of course it would also take the fun out of dating. A BBC programme on Honesty indicated that civilisation would virtually collapse if people were honest. The fMRI test may not be accurate, but it is probably accurate enough to convince many that honesty is the best policy.
The problem with IQ tests is that they do not apply to anything practical. The people I know who can do them easily are highly organised, mentally alert, emotionally dysfunctional, and socially handicapped. I am 75, failed at school, was sacked from more jobs than I can remember, never had a single qualification,and ran a successful company for years. One thing wrong with todays schools though is that they don't teach how to hold a pencil, so kids can't write legibly, and do word processing with two fingers. I would rather be a kid today than in the 1930's where you sat at a desk and learnt your times tables in silence, and got one session of football a week. I use computers for music, drawing, writing, editing, and playing games. I had never seen a computer before I was 40. Thank God (read Google, Microsoft, etc) for giving me the means to do a thousand things at once and not have to remember much how to do it.