Generalizing About the Ease of Miseducation

Many blank slate ideas from our thought leaders arise from small sample fallacies: "I took chemistry in high school. It was fun and easy." Or among science teachers: 200 or 300 level "astronomy, modern physics, and quantitative analysis were a breeze." Mr. X can "teach calculus to a spoon," the problem must be merely bad teaching by other teachers or other environmental factors. Ergo, they believe those classes should be not too difficult for most students not in special ed; more low IQ peoples of color should be scientists, engineers, and programmers. I've read and heard hundreds of similar comments extolling the massive power of teaching skill over IQ deficits, even from a psychologist married to a physicist!

Worse, our rulers have no awareness that some math and science classes are many times more difficult than the classes mentioned above.

Despite their ethical failings, our rulers generally have above the mean IQs. They are smart enough to manipulate, but not wise enough to face facts.

My theory differs: If you are smart enough to master many difficult 300 and 400 level classes despite terrible teaching, that's when you are cut out for STEM fields. Bad teaching in difficult classes is a great test of IQ, resourcefulness, and conscientiousness. (Note this is not an endorsement of bad teaching.) The student who can figure out differential equations simply by reading textbooks is more cut out to be a scientist or engineer than the student who passes because of great teaching.

Nearly as important: for most individuals, especially those struggling with subjects, those fields are no damn fun. What was fun for Richard Feynman would be a nightmare for most individuals on this planet. And even more important: lower IQ individuals will contribute little or nothing to scientific advances and some will be a burden on employers fearing affirmative action holy war from lawyers.

Many opinion makers come from fields where few differences in difficulty among 200 level and 400 level classes exist, not to mention graduate coursework, so they generalize from their own experiences.

One study focuses on reducing anxiety about difficult classes. But students sometimes have good reasons for being anxious. Anxiety is a warning that we are engaged in or about to engage in the wrong activities or that we are putting in the wrong effort or that something is wrong with our beliefs. Another study focuses on overcoming perceptions of difficulty. This study is better: It advises students to focus on their "strengths, enjoyments, and needs," though it should do more to emphasize ethics.

If you are reading this article, you are probably aware Bad Students, Not Bad Schools by Robert Weissberg is a classic in demolishing overemphasis on environments.

It is better for students to find out early that they are not cut out for certain fields than to suffer large financial and opportunity costs, then run into intellectual walls. Most teenagers should never see the insides of physics, calculus, and chemistry classes.