One worry I have about Caplan’s data is that it merely shows that within the normal range (99% or whatever) parental/educational choices don’t make a noticeable difference. But EAs aren’t exactly representative, so it could be a mistake to infer from this that your parental choices won’t make a big difference. (In our case, our 5 y/o is being homeschooled by two Princeton philosophy PhDs. How many families relevantly like ours would’ve been included in the studies Caplan cites?)
Conversely, we know from historical examples (e.g. J.S. Mill) that unusual upbringings can have striking results (not that I’d necessarily recommend James Mills’ approach!) As EA matures, I’d really like to see more experimentation in parenting and educational approaches, with an eye to learning more about how best to nurture exceptional talent. (Obviously plenty depends on genetics, but I’d say that’s more of a necessary than a sufficient condition. It beggars belief to suggest that we can’t seriously improve upon typical educational approaches.)
This is a fair point. My older daughter (now 26) was very smart, and easily bored in normal public school. We worked very hard to be able to send her to the best private schools we could find, from age 8 onwards (she ended up at Westminster School in London, then Oxford). She might have also flourished if homeschooled, if we’d had the time to do that.
So, Caplan’s data might not apply so clearly if you and your partner are above about IQ 130 or 140, which means your kids are likely to be close to that (there is regression to the mean, but it’s fairly limited for IQ, which has a heritability in adults of about 70-80%). However, Caplan does address this point in the education book.
I would argue that if you have smart kids, try to find the most selective schools you can that embrace standardized testing and streaming, and that have gifted programs, honors classes, etc. Smart kids love having peers who are smart—and even if it doesn’t make all that much different to their eventual career success, it can be a huge benefit to their day-to-day life quality and sentient experience.
I agree that EAs should support a lot more experimentation in parenting and education, especially in nurturing exceptional talent! I think we are nowhere near optimal in our current educational approaches.
One worry I have about Caplan’s data is that it merely shows that within the normal range (99% or whatever) parental/educational choices don’t make a noticeable difference. But EAs aren’t exactly representative, so it could be a mistake to infer from this that your parental choices won’t make a big difference. (In our case, our 5 y/o is being homeschooled by two Princeton philosophy PhDs. How many families relevantly like ours would’ve been included in the studies Caplan cites?)
Conversely, we know from historical examples (e.g. J.S. Mill) that unusual upbringings can have striking results (not that I’d necessarily recommend James Mills’ approach!) As EA matures, I’d really like to see more experimentation in parenting and educational approaches, with an eye to learning more about how best to nurture exceptional talent. (Obviously plenty depends on genetics, but I’d say that’s more of a necessary than a sufficient condition. It beggars belief to suggest that we can’t seriously improve upon typical educational approaches.)
This is a fair point. My older daughter (now 26) was very smart, and easily bored in normal public school. We worked very hard to be able to send her to the best private schools we could find, from age 8 onwards (she ended up at Westminster School in London, then Oxford). She might have also flourished if homeschooled, if we’d had the time to do that.
So, Caplan’s data might not apply so clearly if you and your partner are above about IQ 130 or 140, which means your kids are likely to be close to that (there is regression to the mean, but it’s fairly limited for IQ, which has a heritability in adults of about 70-80%). However, Caplan does address this point in the education book.
I would argue that if you have smart kids, try to find the most selective schools you can that embrace standardized testing and streaming, and that have gifted programs, honors classes, etc. Smart kids love having peers who are smart—and even if it doesn’t make all that much different to their eventual career success, it can be a huge benefit to their day-to-day life quality and sentient experience.
I agree that EAs should support a lot more experimentation in parenting and education, especially in nurturing exceptional talent! I think we are nowhere near optimal in our current educational approaches.