The Guardian view on education: it ’s not all in the genes

Our educational attainment and when we have children is determined a little by chromosomes but much more by social and environmental conditionsHuman intelligence quite obviouslyhas some genetic component. Genes do constrain our fate, as does luck, even if development matters more. The way that our capacities develop is profoundly influenced by the environment and by the social situation in which a child grows up. Genetic influence is not genetic determinism and the interplay between genes and development isenormously complicated. Astudy based on the population of Iceland at first sight makes claims to show thatsome genes for intelligence are being pushed out of the population. On closer inspection it shows just how tangled these questions are. Researchers have identified a large number of gene variants – the evolutionary mutations associated with traits – which, taken together, correlate with educational attainment (with the caveat that some variants might simply improve self-control and foresight). The work shows these same variants are also associated with having fewer children.Since evolution can be defined as a change in how common these variants are found in populations over time, this looks superficially as if we are evolving to be less clever. Nature however is swamped by nurture: environmental pressures are working much more strongly in the other direction. There is in IQ testing a phenomenon calledthe Flynn effect, in which successive generations in every po...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Genetics Biology Science Education Evolution Source Type: news