Culture& Intelligence Reflection

  I believe that culure can play a large part in determining intelligence; but it doesn't have to. After reading the You Can't High Jump If the Bar Is Set Low article, I believe that by allowing kids to settle into racial stereotypes, you are an aid to their failure or lack of success. By stating what people think they know about other people's scores i.e. a man's score on a math test, a woman might not have as much drive to do better, thinking that she won't match up to a male taking the same test. The same situation can be applied to various racial groups as discussed in the article. A Study was conducted to see if sterotypes actually do play an important role in the success of students on various tests and the results concluded that by not stating stereotypic results before taking the test, racial minorities and females scored better than their counterparts who heard the stereotypes not in their favor. Steele, the psychologist who conducted the study set up a program at the University of Michigan gathered a random sampling of well-off and economically challeged students and held them to a high acedemic standard. These students did exceptionally well. The top two-thirds of the black students were as successful as their white peers. Compared to a control group of black students who took the "typical" path in college and accepted the stereotypes were not successful.  Steele's brother Shelby contradicted him and claimed that black students who do not do well suffer from "internalized" inferiority. He claims that students who face stereotypes should work harder and not cling to their status as a victim.

I think that exposure to different experiences and life situations (culture) plays an important role on the type of intelligence people have. I know that if I was told a boy would typically score better on a test, I would try really hard to score the same, if not better than the boy; yet I wouldn't hold myself accountable for a lower score, blaming my intelligence on my gender---which is a flaw in my thought process. I think that if teachers and professors hold everyone accountable to reach their fullest potential and knowledge regardless of statistics and stereotypes, there would be more success and less failure.