Summary of Harriet A. Washington's A Terrible Thing to Waste

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Broward County, Florida, school system began testing all second graders in 2005. As a result, the number of gifted African American children in the district skyrocketed 80 percent, and that of gifted Hispanic children skyrocketed 130 percent.

#2 The widespread belief that IQ limits are innate and permanent affects the lives of people like Edgar, who are often limited by their IQs.

#3 Intelligence is necessary for material and social success, and it is central to our idea of success. However, when asked to define intelligence, scholars struggle to do so. It is an emergent property of mental functioning.

#4 The idea that Africa has the lowest average IQ score is based on a flawed concept of comparative IQ scores. In reality, any comparison of individuals of wildly different backgrounds will result in a flawed measurement of intelligence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822515505

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on Harriet A. Washington's A Terrible Thing to Waste

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Broward County, Florida, school system began testing all second graders in 2005. As a result, the number of gifted African American children in the district skyrocketed 80 percent, and that of gifted Hispanic children skyrocketed 130 percent.

#2

The widespread belief that IQ limits are innate and permanent affects the lives of people like Edgar, who are often limited by their IQs.

#3

Intelligence is necessary for material and social success, and it is central to our idea of success. However, when asked to define intelligence, scholars struggle to do so. It is an emergent property of mental functioning.

#4

The idea that Africa has the lowest average IQ score is based on a flawed concept of comparative IQ scores. In reality, any comparison of individuals of wildly different backgrounds will result in a flawed measurement of intelligence.

#5

The rankings of Lynn and Vanhanen are flawed because the tests used to establish them have so little in common with each other and Western and Asian nations. Even if they are motivated by racial disdain, they do not prove their beliefs wrong.

#6

The hereditarian view is that the intelligence of racial groups such as African Americans and Hispanics is innate, immutable, and impervious to prevention.

#7

IQ is not innate. It is not genetic. It is not impervious to change. It is malleable, and we just need to figure out what causes it to change in order to raise it within marginalized ethnic minority groups.

#8

The belief in the innate, irreversible intellectual inferiority of people of color is a necessary myth for justifying their enslavement.

#9

A pervasive American belief in the intellectual inferiority of people of African descent and formerly colonized peoples has existed since the beginning of tests designed to document