Re: Rich, Poor...Gould

[George Sheridan <gsheridan@BOMUSD.EDCOE.K12.CA.US>]

At 04:57 PM 11/14/1999 -0500, George K. Cunningham wrote:
>Judi and Evans--
>
>This is supposed to be a forum for ideas.  Not a place for name calling.  If
>you disagree with Jensen or Murray.  Let's hear the reasons.  Calling people
>racists is not an argument it is an indication of the absence of ideas.

COMMENT: Is calling people Marxists an argument? In The Mismeasure of Man,
Stephen Jay Gould criticized intelligence testing and the theory of "g." In
response to positive comments on the ARN list about Gould and his book,
George K. Cunningham called Gould a Marxist and asserted without evidence
that he is not much respected by evolutionary biologists.

George K. Cunningham also wrote:
>In 1969, Jensen published an article in the Harvard Education Review in
>which he expressed skepticism about the goals of Headstart, which at that
>time was to increase the intelligence of students.  He has been vindicated
>and that is no longer a goal of those programs.  Jensen is not a racist, as
>anybody who has actually read his vast publications would know.  He is
>arguably the worlds leading expert on intelligence though.

COMMENT: Would Jensen (or George K. Cunningham) argue that intelligence
cannot be increased? If it is a fixed quantity, at what age is it fixed?

George K. Cunningham also wrote:
>Anybody who has read the Bell Curve would know it is not about race
>differences.  It is about the authors belief in the pervasive importance of
>intelligence in our society.  I am sure that there are members of this list
>that can formulate sound reasons to disagree with Hernstein and Murray
>without stopping the discussion by calling them racists.

COMMENT: on 10/27/1999 -0400, George K. Cunningham wrote:

>The gaps between rich and poor are the result of gaps in academic aptitude...

This is an argument which is certainly useful to racists and to the rich
generally.
George K. Cunningham has also written:
>> > The implication of this theory is that humans can be ordered along a
>> > continuum according to mental ability.  This theory is a refutation of
>> > Howard Gardner's silly ideas about multiple intelligences.  There are
>> > physiological differences in the brains of humans that lead to their
>> > ordering according to the amount of mental ability.  Heredity plays a
>> large
>> > role in determining the amount of mental ability an individual
>possesses.
George K. Cunningham has not responded to my previous request to identify
those physiological differences that correlate with "g." In a recent post
he quoted Arthur Jensen to the effect that "At the level of causality, g is
perhaps best regarded as a source of variance in performance associated
with individual differences in the speed or efficiency of the neural
processes that affect the kinds of behavior
called mental abilties." This sounds like speculation about a possible
physiological mechanism, rather than a report of expereimental findings.

George K. Cunningham also wrote:
>I am now ready to move on from this topic.  I am far more interested right
>now in the pernicious impact of standards-based educational reform on
>learning disabled students.  In particular, in the way states provide
>accommodations for such students.  I think that would be a much more
>productive discussion.

COMMENT: This strand has produced references to several books, interesting
perspectives on Arthur Jensen and The Bell Curve, and some clarification of
the underpinnings of intelligence testing--not totally unproductive, I
would say.




>>Dear George (is it Cunningham or Sheridan?),
>>        Isn't Arthur Jensen the racist who said that spending money on Head
>>Start was a waste because blacks had limited intelligence? For a  good book
>>which refutes Jensen you vould read Feuerstein's "Dynamic Assessment of
>>Retarded Performers:  The Learning Potential Assessment Device" (publ
>around
>>1980), especially his first chapter.
>> Judi
>
>> Judi:
>>
>> Yes, you are exactly right -- this is that Jensen, a compatriot of
>Hernstein
>> and Murray and their racist "Bell Curve"  argument.   I find it horribly
>> depressing that someone like Cunningham is still wedded to such an
>argument,
>> no matter how dressed up in scholarly, psudo-scientific clothing.
>>
>> Evans Clinchy



George Sheridan

Northside School
Black Oak Mine Unified School District
P.O. Box 217
Cool, California 95633

Hope is...not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the
conviction that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

Vaclav Havel

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