September 12, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 21 African-Americans than the IQ numbers game. The fact that some black people write books and many white people who want to cannot do so indicates that IQ scores must overlap between the races. IQ on an individual, rather than on a racial, basis could be the closet secret behind educational fraudulence. IQ can be stimulated by a number of tangential factors, including good fetal nutrition and exposure to constant parental attention, and even to classical music, in the early years of life. After the first couple of years, IQ is irrevocable and is the single biggest factor in academic success -- unless the kid runs into racist teachers, which has been known to happen, even right here in America. Across wide demographic planes, what probably happens is that those parents who have high IQs and pass them on to their kids seek out schools that offer the best range of advanced academic programs so the kid can function at his or her own best level. These parents, conversely, may not be as interested in sports as those people with lower academic expectations, and they are probably not as keenly interested in having huge mansions that impress the neighbors, and sometimes impress casual motorists so much that they pull in and ask for a menu, having mistaken the house for a restaurant. The core factor is having at least one or two teachers in each department who can teach their own subject at the most advanced level possible for high school students with IQs in the appropriate range for the top universities. Bluntly, a kid with an IQ appropriate to the Ivy League or the top technical schools is a functional academic adult as a high school freshman. Not all high schools are ready for that. My daughter did an informal survey of her dorm buddies at Princeton and found out that the average IQ was about 140. Assuming these students told the truth, that means 0.5 percent of the population would have been on a par with the students at that one dorm that year. One American in 200 has an IQ in that range. According to a recent study, another 2.5 percent of Americans have IQs of 130 and up. This number means they could probably have survived at Princeton if they were able to get in. Because of the emphasis on well-rounded personalities, Princeton may actually have lower IQ requirements than Harvard, Yale, or Columbia, where academics are said to be not the main thing, but the only thing. The rewards are obvious: A young man I know now makes a salary with bonuses roughly equivalent to my own net worth, but the entry requirement is Princeton with honors followed by Stanford Business School. Most people could not cut that. Rather than worrying about school rankings, we should think about the following: Is the school culture insulated against bullying and racism? People who cannot deal with honest men and women of all races on a social basis inconvenience themselves to the point where they flirt with bankruptcy. By the end of the present century every country that is not Third World is going to have an atomic bomb and some kind of delivery system. It is time to “play nice” with everybody. We should also ask if there are there enough teachers in every department to prepare the student for the SATs and for the first year of college. Some schools cannot cut that muster. My math tutors -- both of whom finished high school in Ridgewood, though one started in Russia and one in Japan and Korea -- used to marvel at how deficient the math programs must have been in schools New Jersey Monthly rated as higher than Ridgewood. I once encountered a kid from an English-speaking family who had never been exposed to the words “seldom” or “chart” in his high school reading. The analogy tests have been deleted from the new 2400 SATs, but this was a mistake. The analogy test generally used middle school words to see if the student could understand slightly abstract relationships. It was another form of an IQ test. People who knew all the words, such as lair, fangs, lion, and cobra, but did poorly on the analogy test generally had a problem with the sort of reasoning that is important in professional and upper-academic careers. I am not sure why the analogy section was deleted, but I have a hunch. If you screen out the kids who cannot cut it before they get their hopes up, you must cease to use the college as an antidote for a renewed interest in the skilled trades and a fair minimum wage. I have no problem with the fact that verbal skills are now twice as important as math. I do wish that foreign language skills were taken more seriously, but it will not happen, because that is also an IQ issue. The ability to see analogies between simple English and the Germanic languages or advanced English and the Romance languages makes the learning of these languages less arduous. However, the academic world probably prefers that outsiders concentrate on “schooling” rather than “learning.” Witness how many people with two degrees never crack a serious book and hate Shakespeare and classical music. These graduates are schooled, but can hardly be called educated. Any numbers concerning high schools that leave out the IQ factor are insidious and invidious. Pushing kids beyond their capabilities leads them to heartbreak. The real impact of the “Top 100” rating could fall not on the schools, but on the real estate industry. That, too, could be a problem. School tax money has to come from somewhere, and education in northwest Bergen County is nowhere near bad enough to qualify as a federal disaster area. Is that good or bad? The numbers are all in -- at least most of them. Everyone in northwest Bergen County now knows that Glen Rock was recently listed as fourth in New Jersey Monthly’s survey of the top 100 public high schools and that Ridgewood was listed 28th. The other numbers were: Ramapo, 17; Northern Highlands, 22; Ramsey, 30; Indian Hills, 43; Waldwick, 54; Mahwah, 55; and Midland Park, 68. Based on personal experience with SAT and tutorial students from most of these high schools and the feedback from both of my math tutors, I think Ridgewood, Northern Highlands, and especially Midland Park came in a bit low and Glen Rock a bit high, but the rest of the score card seems to approximate observed reality. One number that was left out of the biennial numbers game was student IQ. No one in formal education wants to acknowledge how important IQ statistics are, but they are far more important in predicting students’ success than anything based on classroom numbers or college admissions scores. A recent article listed the “10 Smartest People in the World Today” based on their IQ scores. The fact that the list included only one woman, only one Asian man, and no one of African heritage meant it was definitely not PC and probably was not accurate. But the people with the high IQs were all successful in disciplines that require high intelligence, so they clearly belong on this list, if not perhaps to the extent that their gender and race seemed to dominate. This all has overtones of the notorious bell curve controversy of the last decade of the 20th century, in which the authors claimed that Asian and Jewish kids consistently tested higher than random whites, and African-American kids consistently tested somewhat lower than random whites and much lower than Asians and Jews. The political and emotional responses generated indignation and embarrassment. The vast majority of people of all races have IQs between 90 and 110, and variants tend to exist in small numbers at both sides of the bell curve. I recently reviewed a couple of excellent books for “Civil War News.” One book is by George Washington Williams, an African-American Civil War veteran who subsequently became an attorney. The other is by Kikada Williams, a contemporary college professor. George Washington Williams was castigated by the modern white academic who wrote the introduction because his book left the impression that every black soldier in the Civil War was either a hero at Battery Wagner or a massacre victim at Fort Pillow. Most black troops in the Civil War served in labor units, but the courage and skill George Washington Williams described took place. His book has the documentation to prove it. In “They Left Great Marks on Me,” Professor Kikada Williams quoted or paraphrased some of the testimony before Congress concerning the lynchings during the Reconstruction era from 1865 to 1877. The testimony is often sickening, but no one can claim it is not factual. After Reconstruction, even the Congressional hearings stopped. There is a lot more behind the academic problems of The missing numbers Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: There are times when we want more than we can afford. Our parents taught us early in life that what we want is not necessarily something we need, and sometimes the answer is “no.” Why that lesson is lost when discussing our current municipal and educational finances is a mystery to me. This is clearly the worst possible time for the board of education to ask the citizens of Midland Park to spend $15,000,000 Objects to spending proposals on a wish list of items or for the fire department to ask for a new truck and enhanced facilities. While I truly admire our school system, and contribute to our fire department’s fundraisers, I will clearly and absolutely vote “no” on both requests. For now, and for the foreseeable future, we will have to make do with appropriately funded repairs only when and if needed. Michael Squeo Midland Park Park Windmill Coffee with the Mayor set Midland Park Mayor Bud O’Hagan will host his monthly “Coffee with the Mayor” session on Saturday, Sept. 15. O’Hagan will welcome the public at 10 a.m. in the second floor conference room at borough hall. Residents are encouraged to stop by and discuss any items of interest in this informal setting. Borough hall is located at 280 Godwin Avenue in Midland Park. Auxiliary plans meeting The Midland Park Auxiliary of the Valley Hospital will meet Sept. 12. The group will gather for coffee at 10 a.m. at the Faith Reformed Church, 95 Prospect Street in Midland Park. The agenda will include plans for 2012-13 and the new Valley Hospital pledge to raise $1.5 million for the expansion of The Valley Hospital Breast Surgery Program at the Luckow Pavilion and to support Valley Home Care’s Butterflies Program, a palliative care and hospice program for children. Members are encouraged to bring a friend. Young athletes wanted The Midland Park Basketball Association is now accepting registrations for the clinic, recreation, travel, and high school boys’ programs. Register at www.midlandparkbasketball.com or e-mail midlandparkbasketball@hotmail. com for more information. The deadline for travel basketball is Sept. 19. Golf Outing to benefit sports programs Legends Steakhouse, located at 118 Godwin Avenue in Midland Park, will host its annual Golf Outing on Monday, Sept. 24 at the Bowling Green Golf Club in Milton. The (continued on next page)