IQ over education?

This is a nice controversial piece. Bruce Charlton argues that IQ and psychometric tests could be used to a much greater degree in the education system. This would cut out a lot of inefficiencies and shorten the amount of time we spent studying.

He argues that IQ is 80% hereditary, and that personality is 50%. So the basic make up of a person's intellect and inclinations is essentially a given from birth. A lot of what the education system does is determine which students are the most conscientious, and then give them a piece of paper so that employers know who to employ. This could be done much more efficiently by simply measuring IQ and doing psychometric tests in order to work out who would be the best fit for an employer. (Apparently the US Army already does this internally.)

Further, he argues that the way in which we think is essentially hard-wired - if someone isn't good at maths, then in the long-term, they are never going to learn to be much good at it. Much better, he says, to work out what people are good at, and then teach them that sort of stuff. He proposes that everyone learn a basic common curriculum, including literacy and numeracy. When they reach 16, they are sent into the world with their IQ and personality having being measured. These would be used to determine what career they should take. Further education would be completely content-focussed, rather than teaching how to think.

Definitely worth a read! Fat chance of it every happening, though.