Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.

Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count. Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.Richard E. Nisbett (W.W. Norton). There is no end to the debate over intelligence: how to define andmeasure it, how much of it is hereditary versus environmentallydetermined, and the extent to which it can be altered via purposefulinterventions. The latest book-length entry into this debate isUniversity of Michigan psychology professor Richard Nisbett'srebuttal of Charles Murray, Richard Herrnstein, Arthur Jensen, and other"hereditarians." The volume also serves as a partial, ifunintended, rebuttal of today's "broader, bolder" crowdand their assertion that schools cannot boost the life prospects of poorchildren. With Howard Gardner and others, Nisbett contends thatintelligence takes multiple forms; that traditional IQ (and achievement)tests fail to capture this rich variety; that environment and educationplay larger roles than genetics; and that a handful of purposefulschoolcentric interventions (e.g., KIPP, Reading Recovery, PerryPreschool) have shown promise in boosting the intelligence of poor andminority youngsters. He acknowledges, though, that home, family, andculture matter enormously, and that a major source of today's gapsis the extraordinarily discrepant experiences that children have outsideof school. This leads to advice for parents "to increase theintelligence of your child and yourself," though Nisbett focuses onsuch "21st-century" skills as "problem-solving"rather than reading books, acquiring knowledge, and gainingunderstanding. Of course, the parents most apt to follow hisrecommendations already have kids on the upside of the learning gap. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]