being clever

A joint study conducted by psychologists and poverty researchers at the University of Madison-Wisconsin and Harvard University has found that: "Poverty is a type of pervasive experience that is likely to influence biobehavioral processes because children developing in such environments often encounter high levels of stress and reduced environmental stimulation." The study explored the association between socioeconomic status and the hippocampus, a brain region involved in learning and memory that is known to be affected by stress. Researchers found that "children from lower income backgrounds had lower hippocampal gray matter density, a measure of volume."

"That poverty poisons the brain around the world should be a strong working hypothesis," says Nortre Dame anthropology professor Daniel Lende, who analyzed the group's study. "That means that increasing human potential means supporting human development and reducing inequality. ... The links between poverty, inequality, stress, and brain development are no longer ideal speculation. This is robust research, even if political powers want to either ignore it or favor strategies aimed at the middle class to get votes and support early schooling as a stop-gap band-aid against the larger reality."

Innate genius is a myth. New scientific findings support the idea that success is the result of disciplined practice, not an irrepressible natural genius, says author David Shenk. The findings support anecdotal evidence easily found about the most obvious of "natural" talents. While Mozart was a precocious composer, his early work demonstrated practically no originality, according to Temple University's Robert Weisberg. Consider Michael Jordan: the youngest of five siblings, he was also the laziest, until he reached a point where he wanted to practice basketball at all hours. It is evidence, says Shenk, that drive is an acquired trait. "Genetic differences do matter," says Shenk, "and we all have different levels of potential; but the vast majority of us don't actually get to know what those limits are. For that, we need great mentoring resources, an eagerness to fail and learn from those failures, and an awful lot of time. Talent is a process, not a thing."