I disagree slightly. There is certainly inborn intelligence, but it's a bit murky regarding how much is inborn, and how much can be trained. At 6 years old on average, you're getting them when their brains' plasticity has already been drastically reduced. Part of that is just that survival no longer requires the same effort exerted in learning, but part is just the sequence of development that the brain goes through. Either way, by the age of 6, the basic framework of the brain is well established. At that point, the amount of intelligence adjustment possible is severely limited. Just three or four years prior, though, the amount and types of mental stimulation might have very different results.
Take, for instance, children neglected to the point they were rendered feral. No doubt, many of these children would've been at least fairly average, had they received the proper amount of mental stimulation. Why wouldn't the opposite be true?
I disagree slightly. There is certainly inborn intelligence, but it's a bit murky regarding how much is inborn, and how much can be trained. At 6 years old on average, you're getting them when their brains' plasticity has already been drastically reduced. Part of that is just that survival no longer requires the same effort exerted in learning, but part is just the sequence of development that the brain goes through. Either way, by the age of 6, the basic framework of the brain is well established. At that point, the amount of intelligence adjustment possible is severely limited. Just three or four years prior, though, the amount and types of mental stimulation might have very different results.
Take, for instance, children neglected to the point they were rendered feral. No doubt, many of these children would've been at least fairly average, had they received the proper amount of mental stimulation. Why wouldn't the opposite be true?