GCSE results are "mainly determined by genes"

So it is official your exam performance is more related to the performance of your  genes than environmental factor such are teaching and culture etc. Intelligence is based on genes rather than how well you have been brought up or cared for. Where is the proof of this? There is none.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/nature-trumps-nurture-in-exam-success-gcse-results-mainly-determined-by-genes-says-landmark-study-of-twins-8998782.html

Why do we have to keep on returning to the gene versus nature argument? It is obvious , that with regard to the human species as a whole, that genes have conferred on us a bigger and more complex brain per kilogramme of body weight than any other mammal. It is obvious that a human being is more intelligent than a dog or chimpanzee.

It is not so obvious when comparing one human with another. Intelligence tests are simply bad science. We have no independent variable to test against as there is no other being which has any form of  related intelligence by which a standard can be set.

IQ tests are conducted by comparing an individual subject against a community which that subject is a already a member of. There is no independent variable, so IQ tests are bogus.

If genes were in control of how well a subject does in a test then please tell me how well a English child would do in the Japanese "O" level equivalent? He would probably fail especially if he could not speak Japanese.

Where are the genes for intelligence and learning and who has identified them? Where are the genes for criminality for that matter? So Mother Nature invented a gene for "O"levels did she?


Whenever I see reports that intelligence and learning or success are based on superior genes I think of political correctness but not of the left wing variety. The elite are superior because God or Nature or both gave them better genes. And, because of this they deserve all the power and money. This is baloney.

Whatever next:: are we going to go back to the failed theories of Eugenics and racial superiority? White men, of course, being chosen to mate with white women provided their Mensa scores are above 140 or whatever.

I would like to see what a set of European academic geniuses would do if they were dumped onto a boat in the middle of the Pacific ocean without a "satnav", a compass, a map, a sextant or a watch or clock. Would they be able to navigate to the nearest island to save themselves like the Polynesian explorers of yesteryear?

The Polynesians did not have a gene for navigation; they learnt how to travel thousands of miles across the oceans, without mechanical aids, from a body of knowledge passed down through the generations. White men could do this too but only if they could learn how.

Let us forget about the better and the good being more intelligent and superior to lesser mortals.

The better and the good invented: Thermonuclear bombs, Eugenics, Nerve gases, Biological warfare, Racism, Slavery, the Holocaust etc. but some of them had the intelligence to regret what they did but most of them didn't. The real great and good had the intelligence and learning not get involved in any of this in the first place.

I wonder if Jesus Christ, Ghandi and Nelson Mandela got "A" passes in their GCSE?