“If the lunch bell doesn’t predict lunch, what good is it?”
The ‘social’ ‘sciences’ are largely cargo cults: They measure phenomena they never bother to understand. Vide: The Marshmallow Test measures the Cautious need of the child’s parents; the children of nerds don’t eat the marshmallow, but they also know the full alphabet and what faked sound every animal makes. If you want your child to do better on his next official Marshmallow Test, practice at self-restraint every day. That’s what the Cautious parents are doing.
Likewise, the I.Q. test may measure differences among equally-prepared students, but what it measures in practice is the relative lack of preparation among test takers. The Flynn Effect essentially marveled at the stable families of the mid-twentieth century. It is losing its cargo-cultish “predictive” value because dad has been kicked to the curb – and hence his children are arriving at the testing center prepared worse not just intellectually but emotionally.
But: Be of good cheer. The Flynn Effect doesn’t predict anything – no more than the lunch bell predicts lunch. But the underlying reality is revealed by it, anyway: When fathers lead their families, everything is better for everyone, enduringly.
In other news:
AP: Minneapolis to spend $6.4M to recruit more police officers.
New York Post: Democrats in rebellion against Cuomo’s nursing-home coverup.
Karol Markowicz: Cuomo Didn’t Protect Seniors From COVID-19. But it Was the Media That Covered it Up.
American Thinker: A citizen’s list of ‘common core’ actions for election integrity.
RedState: In Must-Watch Clip, Trump Attorney “Michael van der Veen, Citizen” Destroys Media.
Roger Kimball: Yes, Acquittal Is Vindication.
Charles Hurt: After Impeachment Farce Ends, Next Comes 14th Amendment.
