Were children smarter a century ago?

[cobrat]

<p>

Several people have cited the more advanced educational systems of other countries, yet the U.S. is still the richest (in terms of per capita income) large country in history. (I added the “large” qualifier because it’s not reasonable to compare a country of 300 million people to say Luxembourg). Either</p>

<p>(1) the anecdotes about the educational systems are not representative of their average results
(2) educational achievement is less important than many other factors, such as natural resources and economic freedom, in determining the standard of living

</p>

<p>There’s also 3.), the large amount of immigration from the late 19th century onwards which enriched American society in many ways…including educationally and due to the horrors of wartime Europe/Asia during WWII, many topflight scholars such as Albert Einstein opted to make the US their home to the great benefit of the US. </p>

<p>The influx of these immigrants was such that it factored into why the Ivy League and other private colleges manifested implemented admission quotas against Jews and South/Eastern Europeans in the early part of the 20th century, developed what we now know of as the modern college application/“holistic admissions”, and a key reason why universities like Brandeis were founded.</p>