[Bookworm Room] The West is losing IQ points. Daniel Hannan points to a disturbing reality in the modern world ‐ we’re getting more stupid. Western IQ scores are dropping (and keep in mind as you read Hannan’s words and mine that IQ tests measure a very specific type of academically-based, analytical intelligence):The fall in IQ scores in the West is perhaps the most under-reported story of our era. For most of the twentieth century, IQ rose by around three points per decade globally, probably because of better nutrition. But that trend has recently gone into reverse in developed countries.
BLUF:
Dumbed-down education. Beginning in the 1960s, the Western education system implemented a vast number of pedagogical changes that downplayed intellectual muscle work such as memorization and side-stepped critical thinking skills.
Some of these changes were in service to the post-WWII idea that "the new is always better than the old." Many, though, were intended to create ideological change in the children and to address perceived social injustices.
The first and worst change, which still floats along the periphery of American education, was to do away with utilizing the marvels of our phonetic alphabet and replacing it with "whole word" language learning. I recognize that phonics is not perfect. We have some words that defy phonics:
Emphasis added