96 SCIENTIST 



can create the eRvironment for equality, but it is strictly 

 limited in its ability to create equality itself. It can and 

 should, for example, see to it that equal educational oppor- 

 tunities for equally capable boys and girls exist, but it can- 

 not ensure that they take advantage of them. 



Finally we come to the hard fact that individuals who 

 want to improve their positions, who want, in other words, 

 to take advantage of the opportunities that do exist, must 

 want to do so intensely enough to make the hard choices 

 and do the hard work necessary to develop latent abilities. 



How does our system work out in practice in regard to 

 the matters outUned above? Many studies have shown that 

 there is a strong correlation between the socioeconomic 

 status of parents and the amount and quaUty of education 

 received by their children. This fact is often interpreted 

 purely in terms of money. All that is needed, so runs the 

 argument, is to wipe away the financial barriers and every- 

 one will get the same education. This interpretation is so 

 incomplete that it is probably more wrong than right, al- 

 though there is certainly still much truth in it. 



How then are we to explain the very unequal distribution 

 of academic achievement in the different parts of our soci- 

 ety? One of the difiiculties with trying to analyze a problem 

 of this sort is that we know so Uttle about many of the 

 factors involved. It is much easier to measure money than 

 cultural outlook, much easier to analyze laws than to assess 

 the social attitudes of individuals. We are still almost com- 

 pletely in the dark in regard to the importance of heredity 

 as a conditioner of academic achievement. On the one hand, 

 we know that parents with high IQ's tend to have children 

 who stand higher than the average. But the IQ is not solely 

 or perhaps even primarily a measure of inborn abiUty. Many 

 studies have shown that individual IQ's can be markedly 

 improved by exposing a child to an enriched environment. 



