Do Smart Parents Beget Smart Children?

As a teacher you tend to figure out the level of intelligence each one of your new students has within the first few hours that you spend with them in a classroom. That can be an advantage, telling you how much you can expect from them and especially who will probably need more help and explaining than the rest. But it's also a very dangerous thing, because it may lead you to believe that some students will not be able to pass your class or exceed a certain grade at the end of the school year.

And now David Shenk has written a book entitled The Genius In All Of Us, that has recently got me thinking some things over. In a chapter called Intelligence Is a Process, Not a Thing, he argues that we've had the wrong idea of intelligence for way too long. We like to believe that some kids are just smarter than others, because their parents are smart and passed on these smart genes to their children. Not so, says Shenk.

The intelligence of a person is largely dependent on other things than the inherited genes... and it's not static. It changes. It can increase - or decrease, depending on what you do with your brain. If, for example, you take an IQ test today and then take it again ten years from now, chances are, you'll probably have a different score. In essence you could say: intelligence is malleable.

Of course it never hurts to get a head-start, right? So what can a parent actually do to ensure that their child will be one of the smart kids sitting in my class? ;-)  Reading the aforementioned chapter, I was able to identify three things the author talks about that help children (especially young children, we're talking infants and toddlers) develop their intelligence early:

1. Read to your child - it's never too early to take some time to read your child a good-night story before he/she has to go to bed. And if you can stick in another story/book during the day or on weekends - even better!
2. Talk to your child - yeah, I know it sounds a little weird, but apparently this actually has a positive influence. Notice it says "talk", not "yell", "shout", or "scream"... oh, and by the way, the TV talking to your child doesn't count!
3. Encourage your child - when you talk to your child, you should always find opportunities of cheering him/her on. When she does something well, let her know. When he fails at something, encourage him to try again. They will be more likely to succeed because of it.

I'm not a parent yet, so I'm glad I get to learn these kinds of things before it's too late. And I'm glad my parents followed these simple rules when they raised me and my brothers. Because it really does help to get a head-start like that.

Now you might say this all makes sense, but why does it always seem that smart parents pro-create smart children? Couldn't that have at least something to do with the genes? I would say that smart parents are probably just better at reading, talking and encouraging their child than "dumb" parents ;-)
They know what needs to be done in order for their children to have a good chance of being intelligent and successful adults when they grow up. So let's just keep in mind what Shenk writes at the end of his chapter on intelligence:

"We can trick ourselves into thinking that measuring a person's intelligence is like measuring the length of a table. But in truth, it's more like measuring a five-year-old's weight. Whatever measurement you get applies only for today. How will that child measure up tomorrow? In large part, that is up to the child, and to all of us."(p. 43)

And I'm glad he said "all of us" and not just "their parents". Because that means teachers are included. I'm included. And I will try to remember that every single one of my students can make it - even if they didn't get the head-start that we all deserve... because even Dr. Ben Carson was the "dumbest" kid in his class before he started (you guessed it) reading books ;-)