More unsolicited compliments about the smart baby
April 17th, 2007
Some of the teachers at the new daycare (more on that in another post) are now telling us how smart G seems. Whew! I couldn’t stand a stupid baby. Eventually she will stop being cute and I will have to deal with this human for the next 50 years, its a good thing she is not a moron. that would make for unpleasant Thanksgiving dinners, not to mention no support in my old age from her salary at Jack-In-The-Box.
We heard this before from the old daycare, but thought maybe since it was in a less-affluent neighborhood that maybe there were some less-gifted kids there, so she just looked good by comparison. The thought that income and intelligence could be correlated and affect the average intelligence of G’s peers at daycare was surprising to Beckie, but seemed common sense to me. All else equal, we always say of a smart person things like “they are gifted”, “they will do well”, “they have potential” etc. etc. So why is it not fair to assume that there may be an equal correlation between lower-incomes and lack of intelligence, which gets passed on genetically and culturally just like we assume smarter parents will have smarter kids? Its a little harsh, and hard to look at other babies and think they lack some potential due to their genes: “sorry little boy, you are doomed to be slack-jawed your whole life.” It made me a little sad, but mostly just happy G has a brain.
?
It’s the old “Nature vs. Nurture.” There may be something to people passing on genes of their intelligence level to their children. But a lot still has to do with the stimulation that children receive from their parents, care-givers, etc. Intelligent people seem to know that it’s a good idea to talk and read to their children and expose them to many experiences. It is also possible that more intelligent people have the resources to give them the necessary experiences and that this leads to improved development. Your observation about the differences in stimulation between the two day-cares is a case in point. This is why we keep saying just talk and read to her and expose her to as much as you can. You are doing a good job.
M-M & P-P
[...] about Alana than we did about Genevieve. In 2007, we had lots of posts about whether or not G was smart, the minutia of her diet, what she was saying, etc., etc., etc. Now? nuthin. Just a bunch of [...]