People are getting stupider?

holdingontometeeth Now you've made me wet myself!!!

Seriously - bum implants? Do they?

Sometimes it's mind boggling. Shortly before I retired, I worked with a young lady of about 18. One lunchtime our manager went out to get herself a sandwich from the local sandwich shop. On her return this 18 year old said 'I've just been in there for a sandwich. What did you have?' The manager said 'I had the Manager's Special'. The 18 year old replied 'I would have liked that, but I'm not a manager'.

After "Some questions about the natural world" is a typo- sorry! it says to difficult (meaningless) should read not difficult.
Many apologies, I am so bad at making typos on GN!

Marieeliz Sorry to have to report, but research into memory found that Cab drivers and Waiters had best memories and that Doctors were nearly bottom. I can't find the time to cite the research but it might come out if you google it. They went on to do a general knowledge tests in western Europe and USA which, as far as I remember, covered things like geographical locations, flags, recognising famous paintings, which animal is biggest out of two examples, is a litre more or less than a pint, is a kilometre bigger than a metre, some common word spellings, some questions about the natural world (to difficult, I remember something about does a deciduous tree stay green in the Winter? and things like that), some basic maths knowledge, like which is larger 5% or . 2? (that was "point"2!), some questions about well-known authors and their books and same with well known composers. Plus some very basic current events questions. I thought the questions would be within the grasp of an 11 year old. The results were the same as the memory test, the Cab drivers did very well, the Medics very badly. I think the research was done at the end of the 1980s. I’ll try and find it.
I have to say in response to the point about the National Curriculum Tests, I do agree, the schools do tend to drill the children and "teach to the test" rather than give a good broad education and encourage children to explore and find the acquisition of knowledge exciting.
BTW mabon1 I usually find that people who know their IQ are intellectual snobs! Also the Stanford-Binet type of
testing is just one way of testing.
I think Mensa give their members lots of tests, like they do on the Competition to find the cleverest child on TV. What do GNs make of that competition? I find I am drawn to it then watch it behind a cushion, feeling kind of sick a lot of the time and happy some of the time..
Kitty74 O how sad! I'm reading this in reverse. Have yet to find the "breeding" and "class" references. My dad aways said that the word "breeding" applies to pigs. "Class" in my humble opinion, is a word ppl use when they are ignorant and snobbish. It did get used a long time ago in some sociology studies I believe. I’m not sure most people here are talking about it. Please don’t leave because GN does have such good discussions on other topics which draw out such good and kind people. Ignore this one, it clearly isn’t for you. I’m not that sure it’s for me either tbh!

Grandma70s
When you said “A levels are not what they were, M0nica” I entirely agree! I taught at University. The students coming in had less info on which to build than in previous years except for some science subjects such as Chemistry.

After reading all the publicity I had to have a look at Love Island, with the preconceived idea that it would be, like other reality programmes, full of empty heads.
I was not disappointed.
Breast implants, bum implants, botox, lip fillers, veneers, hair tints, eyebrow tattoos, false nails etc.
And that's just the male contestants.

Talking of stupid and stupider, did anyone else know that 'stupe' (noun, stupid person) is actually a word?
Dd has used it for years, as in, 'I'm such a stupe,' or (notably to her Dh after he pulled up her tomato plants thinking they were weeds) 'You unbelievable stupe!'

We thought it certainly ought to be a word, and when we looked it up - admittedly in my very big fat Oxford dictionary - lo, there it was.
We'd had no idea. Never heard it except from dd.

When I did geography at school (in England) in the 1950s, it covered both human and physical geography. It included climate, although, obviously not, climate change, geology, oceanography, map reading and map projections as well as the study of countries, industries etc.

It must be because they enjoy it I suppose - I just thought it was aimed at younger people but is it all age programme? That’s why I asked - the age thing. Although I do love Hey Duggee and In the Night Garden

Why do people on GN watch Love Island.

Because they want to? Because it's there choice? Because they enjoy it? Because it's a free country--last time I checked--? Personally, I detest all ball games (tennis, football, cricket etc), but I have no problem with those that enjoy them watching them. Each to their own. (smile)

Why do people on GN watch Love Island?

One of them is a doctor in A&E, one I think is a solicitor and the newest arrival is an adviser to ministers! Frightening, think I'd better give it a viewing just to see what we are up against.

Donald Trump actually has a reasonable IQ, MawBroon, but I suspect he speaks just as highly of you!

Geography is taught nowadays, at least here in Denmark, as a subject that deals with climate change and weather and with natural phenomena such as earthquakes, fault lines etc. rather than being about countries and their cities, produce or industries. This means children are woefully ignorant of the things we knew when we were at school, but when I was 11 I could not have told you where the St Andreas fault line is, or what it is! Most schoolchildren know all about it today.

More stupid versus stupider: really belongs in Pendant's corner, but both are grammatically correct. The rule is that adjectives containing two or more syllables are compared using more and most: more intelligent , most intelligent, but that commonly used words of two syllables, which you must admit, stupid is, can be compared using either form.

MAWBROON

What's your IQ?

There's a lot of snobbery on here today, and when people start talking about 'breeding' and 'class' a lot of unpleasant theories that I thought were dead and buried spring to mind. It's been nice, but I don't think Gransnet is for me. Good luck to all and goodbye.

mic on google I could find people who believe the earth is flat - I was talking about a specific link- maybe the ONS which supported your contention?

Someone I know vaguely was going on holiday to a very well known Greek island. Having said the name, she asked Dh whether it was in the Canaries!!
She is a JP!!

I have a bit of a thing about maps and satnavs. . I'm sure reliance on satnavs and consequential inability of so many to read a map is contributing to general dimness. Dh loves our satnav but I always take the A to Z in case, and work out the route in advance - needed fairly often when the satnav has proved less than perfect.
I recently worked out a far better route than our previous one for our twice-yearly drive from Calais to near Dijon - worked out entirely from the map. (Of course Dh now thinks it was down to him...)

Dh used to have a fantastic sense of direction. (Unlike me, none at all, which is probably why I like maps!) He could literally visit a city for just a few hours, go back 10 years later and find his way.

Since having satnav on his smartphone for some years he relies on that when walking around a city, and his sense of direction is far from what it was. I swear that reliance on that gadget has caused his sense of direction to atrophy from lack of use.

Sorry, oops not "Phobias" , the one about buying assignments.

The juxtaposition of this thread with the one immediately following ( until it gets deleted) says it all!

Maryeliza 54.. Google "Reverse Darwinism". Lots of stuff out there.

IQ scores are taken across a range of abilities and averaged. Just because you do exceptionally well on one test does not mean that that is your overall level of ability.

The story about Feynman proves nothing.

DS and a friend had educational assessments done and one child had a lower score than the other because he was dyslexic. On the individual tests they did equally well, except for the one that tested reading and spelling skills. Then one child got a lower score and a lower average. It is how averages work

A different subject

I bought my son a computer when he was 8 years old - back in the early 80s. He played games for hours - in fact I've never seen him do anything else on one. I do not believe in banning play of any type as long as it's not physically harmful. Play is the gateway to learning and all bar a very few children have very inquisitive minds and will follow a learning path of their own given guidance but not instruction!.

He has had many computers since then - most he now builds himself. After doing a Computer Science degree he now has a very well paid job in the industry.

I will quote from another blog called Quroa

"Richard Feynman was universally regarded as one of the fastest thinking and most creative theorists in his generation. Yet it has been reported - including by Feynman himself - that he only obtained a score of 125 on a school IQ test. I suspect that this test emphasized verbal, as opposed to mathematical, ability.

Feynman received the highest score in the country by a large margin on the notoriously difficult Putnam mathematics competition exam, although he joined the MIT team on short notice and did not prepare for the test.

He also reportedly had the highest scores on record on the math/physics graduate admission exams at Princeton. It seems quite possible to me that Feynman's cognitive abilities might have been a bit lopsided - his vocabulary and verbal ability were well above average, but perhaps not as great as his mathematical abilities.

I recall looking at excerpts from a notebook Feynman kept while an undergraduate. While the notes covered very advanced topics for an undergraduate - including general relativity and the Dirac equation - it also contained a number of misspellings and grammatical errors. I doubt Feynman cared very much about such things."
Posted by Jethro Cao

OFSTED take note!!

Loved the Love Island comments! ? I don’t feel too bad voting Leave considering we older ones were first told that the young ones were against it in large numbers. The majority of that age group didn’t even bother to go out and vote & with discussions like those above that I’m rather glad they didn't get involved!

Try not to worry about your 9 year old grandson Grandma....my 11 year old grandson has been an avid reader since the age of 4, as was his mum , my daughter. He has become the first 5 million reader ever in his school ... that means he's read 5 million words....and has been tested on the books he's read with a 30 question paper afterwards! He got his first phone at Xmas and was overjoyed with it, he does play games but only allowed 1 house per day by his parents....and as long as he is allowed time to 'save' what he's playing...is very happy to put the phone down again. It is never allowed to go into his bedroom with him and goes on charge downstairs overnight. He takes it to school as emergency only! The school confiscates all phones into the office and they are given back at 3.30. They can't even get thier hands on them at lunchtime. If they need to make a phone call to parents or guardians the call has to be made in the office and the phone headed back to staff! They seem o have the situ well under control as do his parents at home. Parents giving clear guidelines is the order of the day, and rules adhered to. My daughter is very strict about phones AND tv watching. 1 programme a day before bed and that's it! The upside is two very contented ...well read kids with a great curiosity about the world. Another thing is....there is NO computer anywhere in house. All online stuff can be done from mobiles these days.