We too often think that one is born differently to another and by this difference inherit genes of different quality. But, if you have read “Intelligence: The Great Lie”, you will know the whole idea of genetic differences creating different abilities is quite false. Once, that is, you exclude children who are born with some deficiency. Children who are born without a deficiency, which is the very, very most of children, do not inherit gene codes having different abilities. As we saw, the belief that they do stems from a political mission in the 19th century, which set in motion a universal attitude towards this understanding. Yet, it is all quite false. The gene codes for certain features that enable us to interact with the environment, are designed by nature to allow the environment to develop the ability of the feature. So, from this point of view, the old cry that we are born different, as related to social achievement, is totally wrong.
We develop to be smarter than others or less so through our long behavioural experiences with others. Bayley proved all infants are totally equal until 14 months of age, and then develop through the guidance of those who raise them and then by how they adjust themselves to their experiences with others and with life.
Thus, it is by the kindness and encouragement we are given to check what we have done and see in it what we missed, by the education of our reason to develop a quality of sensitivity to recognise fine detail, to gain the confidence to test ourselves in the presence of others, to understand exactly what a task requires of us and to contemplate numerous steps to the goal we recognise, to think upon our experiences and to learn to see within them what we could have done better and so be more aware of how we handle future tasks are the factors that make one smarter or less so than another. All of this processing begins often with the mother, but it may be said to end formally with the last teacher we have in school. After this, we go forward in life by the manner in which we question and desire to learn.
Roy Andersen