Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Basketball Frenzy

In today's class, we discussed the influences of IQ and how IQ develops based on the environment of the child. In this, there were some things that I found particularly interesting. I believe that it takes way more than good genetics to be an Intelligent person. There are truly gifted people who have even the capacity to calculate any type of equation in their mind in a matter of seconds. Before we can call the people with these gifts intelligent, we must define intelligence. I would define it as learning and applying that to real life. By this definition, these people have the potential to be intelligent would be considered intelligent. I say potential because they have the brains now what matters is what type of things they do with it and where they are raised. I have a friend back in California. I can say that this guy is my best friend and is incredibly smart. I wouldn't be able to, as harsh as it sounds, call him  intelligent because he's not applying what he knows all the time. I say this because he hardly tries in school and gets terrible grades when he has such potential to succeed. In the lesson, we discussed how the environment shapes IQ and intelligence. In my friend's case, I could infer he lacks motivation because of the area where he and I grew up.

The second part was on the Development of reading. The thing that I found surprising was that according to Jeanne Chall, a psychologist from Harvard University, created a general trend named the Stages of Reading in 1979. when we are learning new things in this course. I see many generalizations and norms. I find them hard to believe because of how different people actually are. I would like to see how the studies from that time would change in society today.

I went to the gym after class with a friend I made yesterday. His name is Colin and he comes from San Fransisco. It's cool seeing people from California because it reminds you of the old saying; "it's a small world." We played basketball to our heart's content and I left to rest my body form the intense games and finished my homework. 

1 comment:

  1. I’m not sure I agree with your assessment of a person’s IQ and intelligence.

    I’m not, of course, in your class so this is merely the perspective of a layman.

    I believe that a person’s IQ and intelligence is something that they’re born with and not something that’s developed.

    What they do with that intelligence is a different matter. A person can be very intelligent but if they’re not exposed where they can learn things, what good does that do them? We see this in our own community where smart kids are placed in underperforming schools and live in households where they don’t have the support from their family to excel. Sometimes it’s because there aren’t many family members available to help and sometimes because the family members were never educated themselves.

    There have been numerous studies over the decades about what has the greatest impact on a person’s future: genetics or environment. The studies go back and forth and I don’t believe that anything definitive has been posited.

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