If IQ scores can change over time, why do most peoples IQ scores stay reasonable stable?
What any individual can achieve with the right combination of assets and gumption is entirely different from what most people actually do achieve. Most people settle into a particular academic standing early in life and do not substantially deviate from that standing. That’s the inertia of life and human circumstance; the students performing at the top of the class in 4th grade tend to be the same students performing at the top of the class in 12th grade.[vi] That’s because the factors that enabled them to do well in fourth grade usually stay in place throughout their school lives: same parents, same community, same economic and cultural resources, etc. Being branded with a low IQ at a young age, in other words, is like being born poor. Due to personal circumstances and the mechanisms of society, most people born poor will remain poor throughout their lives. But that sure doesn’t mean anyone is innately poor or destined to be poor; there is always potential for any poor person to becom
