Wasted Genius: How IQ & SAT Tests Are Hurting Our Kids & Crippling America

Finally, the nature-nurture debate has been reduced to a simple but comprehensive explanation. Based in part on the latest discoveries of how our brains work, this provocative synthesis broadens our understanding of what we mean by "intelligence" and relegates the role of human nature, personality, and genetic determinism to the back burner. Discover why all people of all races are truly equal, possess comparable capabilities, and should be accorded equal opportunity, equal nurturing, and equal respect. "A refreshing new look at our children’s needs that points to a new understanding of how children develop, spells out how schools and parents can cultivate the full potential of our children, makes many established educational policies obsolete—and bares the grim future in store for us, and America, if we fail to act quickly" The author makes the case for a fuller awareness of what constitutes human capability, the source of genius, the essential role of pragmatic thinking, and the limitations of abstract thought. * Discover why IQ and SAT tests fail to measure a child’s real potential. * Learn the weaknesses of those assumed to be “the best and brightest.” * Read about all the other competencies that are more important than mere memorization and arithmetic skills. * Find out how the abstract thinking of our elites in Washington, academia, and Wall Street are crippling America’s future. FROM THE INTRODUCTION: "Wasted Genius is one of the first serious attempts to define all the various capabilities that define a mature adult. It establishes that characteristics such as persistence, imagination, and emotional restraint are no less important than IQ (and probably more important). Placing IQ and EQ alongside the other equally important personal characteristics that make an adult successful, contented, and complete, Bill Greene has come up with a much more meaningful scale for intelligence, which he calls Total Competency Quotient (TCQ). Kathleen J. Wikstrom, President Center for Libertarian Thought, Inc. From the Author: The scholars that idolize Darwin's theories are motivated primarily by a love affair with their own God-given brains. They perpetuate the mistaken notion that a high IQ marks them as superior beings, and that the rest of mankind are barely above brute animal species, constantly directed by base animal instincts, and in need of regulation by their superiors. However IQ is merely inherited, like wealth and aristocratic titles, and should never be a basis for conceit. Recent science shows that IQ is not even all that significant in successful decison-making, and may rank behind other aptitudes including self-restraint, emotional balance, initiative, and self-reliance. What's more, such qualities originate and are controlled by the brain just as much as the memorization and mathematical quickness associated with good school grades. Such personal strengths as Patience and Fortitude rank just as high as IQ, and they all can be learned, practiced, and developed. "Free Will" is uniquely human, an almost Divine Endowment that trumps the genetic determinists' position. The proof is constantly on view, much to the intellectual elite's dismay, as "ordinary" people from the bottom keep rising up and out-performing the so-called "best and brightest." We must all join together to encourage more to do the same so their genius will not be wasted.