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Old November 10th 07, 11:08 PM posted to misc.kids
Donna Metler
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Posts: 309
Default IQ and what it means in adulthood


"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..

Does anyone know of any good articles/studies on how well IQ scores in
childhood correlate with success in adulthood, given all the inherent
inaccuracies of the tests? I realise this is a pretty broad topic, but I
know there are some well-informed people here, and the subject has come
up for discussion on someone's blog so I'm interested in finding out
more.


I'd understood that the correlation was no where near what might be hoped
for, though of course there is the argument that had the high IQ score
been recognised and the child been nurtured correctly then this wouldn't
occur. I'm not sure how well the eleven plus was thought to correlate with
IQ, but it looks like failing that wasn't a barrier to success for
numerous people.

I was recognised as having a high IQ, I was given all the opportunitites,
but officially I'm a failure, I'm a statistic no one wants to have - but,
I chose this outcome, I decided I'd rather be a mother than fight my way
in academia and my husband supported me in that. I AM A SUCCESS, just not
statistically - not all gifted and talented people want all these things
that are defined as success - and people give us a hard time for it, if
you go to an ivy league school, the message you are given is it's a waste
for you to become a teacher and motherhood his something you consider
after you've established your career. Success is acheiving what you want
to acheive.

Sarah - I think you'd struggle to find data that gave a strong
correlation, I suspect there is a weak one, similar to what you get for
number of years education completed against income, but I do question
whether any of the measurements of success have any real value.

I agree 100%-I'm another high IQ person who would be considered a failure.
Throughout life, I loved young children, loved spending time with them, and
heard "You're too smart to teach". I finally, in grad school, burned out on
my field, and got my teaching license-and loved teaching.

Then,I had a baby, and have focused most of my life on teaching one
child-mine, although I do keep my adjunct status at the university by
teaching some demonstration classes (which also fulfills my "kid fix"
needs).

My totally uninformed guess is that you'll probably find more "successes" in
the second band of IQ-the high achievers for whom things were easy in
school, but who weren't "out there" to the point of being misfits. Most of
the people I know who were the super high IQ kids who never quite fit in at
school intellectually learned how to find their own way and provide their
own intellectual stimulation and education early on, and in adulthood tend
to have followed a road to what they love and enjoy, not what is most
publically or financially viable. I know a lot of high IQ former "nerds" who
excelled in college and grad school who are now SAHMs, playgroup leaders, La
Leche leaders, and teachers. On the male side, a lot of them seem to have
drifted into positions where they can do what they want, but which may or
may not ever be noticed. They don't want to be the CTO of a company-they
want to be the researcher who tries out new products or troubleshoots the
hard problems, then drifts back into obscurity. And in general, these people
are happier than those who have made more of a success as the world sees it.


Anne