At 3:51 PM -0500 3/12/04, Allen Esterson wrote:
Paul Brandon wrote:
> I'd question whether the difference in capability is necessarily _innate_.
> To respond to one personal anecdote with another:
> I'm an engineering dropout. I've passed the required math courses
> but never been more than (barely) competent.
> My sons, on the other hand, had excellent math instruction from an
> early age (I was competent enough to oversee their preschool and
> elementary instruction). My elder son is now a professional
> mathematician and _can_ understand Andy Wiles. The environmental
> difference seems obvious enough to account for the
> difference in performance.
Paul, are you *really* suggesting that we can generalise from this to say
that ìenvironmental differenceî accounts for difference of performance in
maths.
No.
I'm questioning whether the type of data that we have can be the
basis for making a judgement of innate difference.
Incidentally, my personal anecdote was not meant to take the place of
general arguments, only as a counter to Herbís (apparent) suggestion that
it is only lack of opportunity that prevents young people from excelling
in any discipline.
We're in agreement here.
This countering the counter is starting to sound like a game of
checkers ;-).
When we're talking about human behavior, the best answer to the
question "is the cause A or B?"
is usually "Yes."
--
* PAUL K.
BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
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