<p>I wonder if we actually are getting smarter per capita. When you consider that most families (or single women) bearing more than (say…) four children are probably not too high on the IQ spectrum – both worldwide and in America – one is led to question whether we are really getting smarter.</p>
<p>While writing that the thought hit me: what if it has always been this way? Poor people in the past had a lot of kids to help them run the farm. If we equate relatively lower intelligence with poverty, maybe we are roughly as smart as we have always been. </p>
<p>In 1912, we had far fewer ancillary concerns when it came to teaching kids: political correctness largely did not exist. Far fewer excuses for learners not to learn.</p>