The Aptitude Myth

Cornelius N. Grove

doi:10.5771/9781475804379

Summary

The Aptitude Myth addresses the decline in American children’s mastery of critical school subjects. It contends that a contributing cause for this decline derives from many Americans’ ways of thinking about children’s learning: They believe that school performance is determined very largely by innate aptitude. The Aptitude Myth traces the deep historical origins, the spread and elaboration, and the eventual triumph of the belief in the determining power of mental abilities “given” at birth and therefore fixed. Covered is 600 B.C.E. until 1926 (when the S.A.T. was first administered).

The belief in aptitude, assumed by many Americans to be the modern view of learning ability, is revealed as an archaic way of thinking that originated in the imaginations of our ancient forebears and gradually gained credibility over 2,500 years. In recent times, the belief became elaborated to include the fanciful notion that more-than-modest academic study injures a child’s health. Having inherited this mindset, Americans don’t know how to insure that children gain mastery. A new mindset is needed. The final chapter offers a transformative mindset.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2013
ISBN-Print: 978-1-4758-0436-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-4758-0437-9
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 189
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Foreword No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. 1. Why Do Americans Assume that Aptitude Governs Learning? No access
  2. The “Modern” Mindset That’s Actually a Relic: A Preview No access
  3. Replacing Our Antique Mindset withOne Tailor-Made for Us Today No access
  4. Notes No access
1. When, Why, and How Did Americans'Current Ways of Thinking Originate? No access
2. 1. Family-Centered Subsistence Societies in Prehistoric Times No access
  2. Selecting a Teacher in Prehistoric Times: A Thought Experiment No access
  3. The “Time-Honored Paradigm” forThinking about Teachers No access
  4. The Six Elements of the Time-Honored Paradigm No access
  5. The Rise of the “Western-Contemporary Paradigm”for Thinking about Teachers No access
  6. Musings and Speculations No access
  7. Why Chapter 1 Is Important No access
  8. What to Remember: Bullet-Point Lists ofKey Learnings from Chapters 1–16 No access
  9. Notes No access
3. 1. The Contribution of Pythagoras to theParadigm of Plato’s Times No access
  2. Transmigration of Souls and the DawningBelief in the Power of Intuition No access
  3. Elements of the Greek Paradigm into Which Plato Was Born No access
  4. Plato Posits that the MostValuable Knowledge Is Inside Each Person No access
  5. Aristotle Adjusts Plato’s Concepts andStates How Mental Development Occurs No access
  6. Musings and Speculations No access
  7. Why Chapter 2 Is Important No access
  8. Genealogical Chart: Tracing the Path toa Modern American Paradigm No access
  9. Notes No access
4. 1. Life, Learning, and Logic in 15th and 16th Century Europe No access
  2. New Views Begin to Emerge Late in the 16th Century No access
  3. New Views Encounter ScholarlySkepticism Before Gaining Credibility No access
  4. Europe in the 15th and 18th Centuries:Comparing Old and New Paradigms No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 3 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
5. 1. Humanism and Realism during the Renaissance No access
  2. Comenius, Locke, and the Rise of Sense Realism No access
  3. Philosophic Trends in Europe between the16th and 18th Centuries No access
  4. Musings and Speculations No access
  5. Why Chapter 4 Is Important No access
  6. Notes No access
6. 1. Younger Children Are Better Children No access
  2. The Enduring Impact of Rousseau’s Émile No access
  3. The Emergence of Childhood andTwo Views of How to Regard It No access
  4. Musings and Speculations No access
  5. Why Chapter 5 Is Important No access
  6. Notes No access
7. 1. Thought Leaders Question the Basis of Authority No access
  2. Changes in the Texture of Europeans’ Daily Lives No access
  3. Authority in Classrooms Enters the 18th Century Discussion No access
  4. Musings and Speculations No access
  5. Why Chapter 6 Is Important No access
  6. Notes No access
8. 1. Intellectual Streams Feed a Romantic Flood No access
  2. Literary Romanticism’s Love Affair with Children and Nature No access
  3. Three Literary Romantics in Their Own Words No access
  4. The Assumptions, Beliefs, and Ideals of Literary Romanticism No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 7 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
9. 1. From Obscurity and Bankruptcy to Pan-Western Influence No access
  2. Psychology Enters the Discussion about Children and Teaching No access
  3. Protestant Perspectives—Calvinism and Pietism—Enter the Discussion No access
  4. Musings and Speculations No access
  5. Why Chapter 8 Is Important No access
  6. Notes No access
10. 1. A Man with a Prodigiously Restless Mind No access
  2. Spencer’s View of Evolutionary Development:Homogeneous-to-Heterogeneous No access
  3. Spencer’s “First Principles”: Inborn, Intuited,Scientifically Accurate Truths No access
  4. The Rise and Fall of Herbert Spencer No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 9 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
11. 1. A Ringing Declaration about Children,Learning, Teaching, and Parenting No access
  2. Aristotle, Spencer, and theBiological Model of Human Mental Activity No access
  3. Herbert Spencer’s Prescriptions for theClassroom Teaching of Children No access
  4. Musings and Speculations No access
  5. Why Chapter 10 Is Important No access
  6. Notes No access
1. How Did Americans Apply the European Ways of Thinking, and Why? No access
2. 1. The Culture and Mindset of Colonial and Post-Colonial America No access
  2. Varieties of Protestantism: Calvinism, Pietism, and Quakerism No access
  3. The Values and Patterns of American Parenting Gradually Evolve No access
  4. Assumptions about Children’s MentalFragility Strengthen and Spread No access
  5. Two Assumptions about What Children Are Innately “Given” No access
  6. “Common Schools,” Horace Mann, and thePractical Perspective on Teaching No access
  7. Musings and Speculations No access
  8. Why Chapter 11 Is Important No access
  9. Notes No access
3. 1. Rapid Social Changes Transform theContext and Concerns of Schools No access
  2. A Visit to Public Schools and Classrooms during 1892 No access
  3. Society’s Response to Immigration,Industrialization, and Urbanization No access
  4. A Review of Critical Challenges and Society’s Responses No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 12 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
4. 1. Humans as Reflection of a Spirit World:Four Belief-Based Views of Consciousness No access
  2. Humans as Grounded in Their Biology:An Evidence-Based View of Consciousness No access
  3. Humans as Grounded in Their Society:An Evidence-Based View of Consciousness No access
  4. James Argues that the Learner,Not the Teacher, Is the Critical Success Factor No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 13 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
5. 1. Public Secondary Schools during theLast Decades of the 19th Century No access
  2. Public Secondary Schools during theFirst Decades of the 20th Century No access
  3. The Shift in Educational Authorityaround the Turn of the Century No access
  4. Documenting the Course of Educational Reform:25 Years of NEA Reports No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 14 Is Important No access
  7. Notes No access
6. 1. Child-Centered Education and Its Grandfather Figure,Col. Francis W. Parker No access
  2. The Child Study Movement and Its Champion, Dr. G. Stanley Hall No access
  3. The Message: Passivity in the Face of Assumed Inborn Inequality No access
  4. Other Factors Strengthening the Shifttoward Child-Centered Teaching No access
  5. Musings and Speculations No access
  6. Why Chapter 15 Is Important No access
  7. Postscript: Did John Dewey Join the Shifttoward Child-Centered Teaching? No access
  8. Notes No access
7. 1. European Antecedents: Early Thinking about General Intelligence No access
  2. American Responses: Interest in GeneralIntelligence Takes Root in the United States No access
  3. Intelligence Tests Enter the Mainstream:Sorting Recruits for War Service No access
  4. Intelligence Tests Join the Establishment:Sorting Applicants to Colleges No access
  5. Three Proponents of General Intelligence Recant Their Views No access
  6. Musings and Speculations No access
  7. Why Chapter 16 Is Important No access
  8. Notes No access
1. Can We Transcend Our Inherited Mindset toGive Mastery the Highest Priority? No access
2. 1. Missing from Our Unpacked Beliefs and Values: Mastery and Effort No access
  2. 20th Century Wake-up Calls about Our Neglect of Mastery No access
  3. Our Value Propositions about Mastery and Effort,Unpacked and Elaborated No access
  4. Confronting the Inevitable Outcome ofOur Inherited Beliefs and Values No access
  5. Learning to Think on a Graduated Spectrum No access
  6. Learning to Shift Moderately ButSignificantly toward the Goal of Mastery No access
  7. Notes No access
3. 1. A Paradigm to Solve the Problem That,Here and Now, Is Most Significant for Us No access
  2. 1. Accountability for Learning RestsMore with the Parents than with the Teacher No access
  3. 2. Accountability for Learning RestsMore with the Student than with the Teacher No access
  4. 3. A Child’s Mental Apparatus Is Vigorous,Robust, Resilient, Curious, and Absorbent No access
  5. 4. A Child’s Mental Development InvolvesIntentional Adaptation to Its Environment No access
  6. 5. A Child’s Competence Grows MoreStrongly and Swiftly with Authoritative Guidance No access
  7. 6. Learning Attainment Is Determined FarMore by Perseverance than by “Givens” No access
  8. 7. Increasing Mastery of Skills andKnowledge Depends on Skill- and Knowledge-Focus No access
  9. Postscript: Beyond Thinking With,an Outstanding Resource for Doing No access
  10. Notes No access
Appendix No access Pages 175 - 178
Index No access Pages 179 - 188
About the Author No access Pages 189 - 189