Well, I am riffing on the post about IQ and achievement. I received an article from the student who prompted that post. The article conflated achievement and IQ, a common problem. That is a reflection of trouble in our society understanding the differences in opportunity and achievement.
Our Constitution guarantees equality of opportunity. It means every person in the US has an opportunity for success, for education, for wealth, for pursuit of happiness. This idea has been worked out in court in some detail. Equal opportunity extends across gender, racial, sexual preference and physical disability lines. No person can be denied an opportunity to go to school, try out for the swim team, audition for an orchestra, etc, etc, based on any of the prior factors. You get a chance like anyone else.
Membership in the swim team, admission to school, playing in the orchestra: that is based on ability. The OPPORTUNITY to audition, to apply, to try, is guaranteed. The ability to achieve is not guaranteed.
Somehow this is perfectly obvious in musical and athletic activities. Everyone understands immediately that not everyone will be on the football team, or fast enough to run track, or play an instrument well enough to be a soloist. We all understand intuitively that great big people are more likely to be football players, that great big tall people are more likely to be basketball players, and that really loud, big voices are more likely to be singers.
Why don't we understand that about education, effort and jobs and income?
As I noted in the prior post, intellect is distributed like any other physical trait. And, just like height or size, being smart does not guarantee going to school. Just as a big, tall, strong person must make an effort in the gym, must learn play books and skills, so the intelligent person must study, make an effort, learn facts and skills. Just as we have tall people who don't play basketball and loud people who can't sing, we have smart people who do not achieve.
And the converse is also true. We have short, slow, uncoordinated people who will never be on the basketball team. Of COURSE they will won't. They can become stronger, faster or better coordinated within the confines of their abilities. But they will never be on the basketball team. And we have people who are not very smart, don't have mathematical or verbal ability. They can learn, they can separate themselves from ignorance. But they will never be intellectual all-stars, never be engineers, pharmacists, etc.
That is perfectly obvious. While physical and intellectual gifts do not guarantee achievement, the lack of such gifts strongly predicts lack of achievement.
Except that, somewhere along the line, our society accepted that athletic and musical ability and achievement went hand-in-hand, but rejected that intellectual ability and achievement went together.
And so we have the distortion that equal opportunity MUST mean equal achievement. We measure equality of opportunity by equality of achievement. And thus there must be unequal opportunity if there are not equal numbers of male and female physicists, black, white and oriental merit finalists. there must be unequal opportunity if there is any disparity of racial, sexual, religious or gender preference outcomes.
That is insane. giving everyone the same chance is completely different than expecting everyone to have the same outcome. Quick- how many straight male interior decorators have you known? Why, the decorating industry is prejudiced against straight men! We have to do MORE to see to it that straight men go into home décor. Quick- how many female plumbers do you know? Why, the plumbing schools are prejudiced against women! We need MORE female plumbers! We need MORE male daycare workers! ALL of this is a sign of rampant gender, sex role stereotyping and bias!
No, it's not.
Exactly how many straight men line up to be daycare workers, and how many women are chomping at the bit to be plumbers? Without becoming too awfully technical, suffice to say that there are gender differences in smell, sight and strength that make it quite reasonable that men would not be good decorators and women would not be good plumbers. And it is not necessarily racial, sexual or other stereotyping or bias that there are racial, sexual and other divides in careers and outcomes.
Equality of opportunity is most definitely NOT defined by equality of outcome. And I hope our society will eventually stop trying to make everyone fit one mold as a way of defining equality. Equality of opportunity means I can choose any mold I want like anyone else.
And I realize all of this is incredibly NOT PC. And I just don't care. Reality is not PC.
Ted
Our Constitution guarantees equality of opportunity. It means every person in the US has an opportunity for success, for education, for wealth, for pursuit of happiness. This idea has been worked out in court in some detail. Equal opportunity extends across gender, racial, sexual preference and physical disability lines. No person can be denied an opportunity to go to school, try out for the swim team, audition for an orchestra, etc, etc, based on any of the prior factors. You get a chance like anyone else.
Membership in the swim team, admission to school, playing in the orchestra: that is based on ability. The OPPORTUNITY to audition, to apply, to try, is guaranteed. The ability to achieve is not guaranteed.
Somehow this is perfectly obvious in musical and athletic activities. Everyone understands immediately that not everyone will be on the football team, or fast enough to run track, or play an instrument well enough to be a soloist. We all understand intuitively that great big people are more likely to be football players, that great big tall people are more likely to be basketball players, and that really loud, big voices are more likely to be singers.
Why don't we understand that about education, effort and jobs and income?
As I noted in the prior post, intellect is distributed like any other physical trait. And, just like height or size, being smart does not guarantee going to school. Just as a big, tall, strong person must make an effort in the gym, must learn play books and skills, so the intelligent person must study, make an effort, learn facts and skills. Just as we have tall people who don't play basketball and loud people who can't sing, we have smart people who do not achieve.
And the converse is also true. We have short, slow, uncoordinated people who will never be on the basketball team. Of COURSE they will won't. They can become stronger, faster or better coordinated within the confines of their abilities. But they will never be on the basketball team. And we have people who are not very smart, don't have mathematical or verbal ability. They can learn, they can separate themselves from ignorance. But they will never be intellectual all-stars, never be engineers, pharmacists, etc.
That is perfectly obvious. While physical and intellectual gifts do not guarantee achievement, the lack of such gifts strongly predicts lack of achievement.
Except that, somewhere along the line, our society accepted that athletic and musical ability and achievement went hand-in-hand, but rejected that intellectual ability and achievement went together.
And so we have the distortion that equal opportunity MUST mean equal achievement. We measure equality of opportunity by equality of achievement. And thus there must be unequal opportunity if there are not equal numbers of male and female physicists, black, white and oriental merit finalists. there must be unequal opportunity if there is any disparity of racial, sexual, religious or gender preference outcomes.
That is insane. giving everyone the same chance is completely different than expecting everyone to have the same outcome. Quick- how many straight male interior decorators have you known? Why, the decorating industry is prejudiced against straight men! We have to do MORE to see to it that straight men go into home décor. Quick- how many female plumbers do you know? Why, the plumbing schools are prejudiced against women! We need MORE female plumbers! We need MORE male daycare workers! ALL of this is a sign of rampant gender, sex role stereotyping and bias!
No, it's not.
Exactly how many straight men line up to be daycare workers, and how many women are chomping at the bit to be plumbers? Without becoming too awfully technical, suffice to say that there are gender differences in smell, sight and strength that make it quite reasonable that men would not be good decorators and women would not be good plumbers. And it is not necessarily racial, sexual or other stereotyping or bias that there are racial, sexual and other divides in careers and outcomes.
Equality of opportunity is most definitely NOT defined by equality of outcome. And I hope our society will eventually stop trying to make everyone fit one mold as a way of defining equality. Equality of opportunity means I can choose any mold I want like anyone else.
And I realize all of this is incredibly NOT PC. And I just don't care. Reality is not PC.
Ted
I completely agree. Well put.
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