A study conducted in Norway, using administrative register data spanning over four decades, explored the relationship between educational attainment and cognitive ability in men. The results indicated that the association between educational attainment and cognitive ability was weakening in the younger generations of Norwegians. The study was published in Scientific Reports.
Educational attainment refers to the level of formal education a person has completed, such as high school, college, or advanced degrees. It typically has a profound impact on one’s career prospects and socioeconomic status. Cognitive ability, on the other hand, encompasses a range of mental skills and capabilities, including problem-solving, memory, reasoning, and critical thinking. Good cognitive ability is generally considered to be a prerequisite for educational success, but the relationship might not be so straightforward.
In previous centuries, education was often the privilege of individuals from wealthy and powerful families. However, modern societies tend to work hard on making educational opportunities available to everyone. In that way, universal systems of education, those accessible to everyone should be lifting talented youths out of their own origin social class. Educational opportunities would, in this way, depend on individual (cognitive) ability rather than parental wealth and power. As a consequence, the strength of the link between educational attainment and abilities, primarily cognitive abilities would strengthen as education becomes more widely accessible. But is this really the case?
Has a study been done, correlating educational attainment wrt wealth? Is Norway going Shiny, rationing education by ability to pay and influential connections, vs ability? We have heard of people of below average raw talent getting in to US ivy league universities, because daddy went there, and had lots of money and influence.
Bingo your bingo. During my time at Harvard (both my Grannies insisted I forego California surf and go East to meet the wealthy and powerful), I met and became a drinking buddy with quite a few extravagantly dim scions of 3rd generational or greater wealth. I am horrified when I see some of them on BofDs of significant corporations.
I was fortunate that MIT gave me access to classes not available at Harvard (especially a superb seminar on thinking about chaos from POVs of math, philosophy, and engineering), and I must say that the Harvard Math, Physics, and History departments and classes were superb and attended overwhelmingly by nose to grindstone kids like me and a few frightening geniuses, one of whom, a lab mate of mine, was nevertheless privileged and quite rich (he roomed in one of the last of Harvard’s rich kid chambers complete with servant quarters at Adams House, and became an acclaimed Professor of Mathematics in Germany).
I remain good friends with many of my “aristo” friends, almost all of whom were athletes, light weight poets, decent and kind, and are now mostly retired gentle attorneys and businessmen.
I try to be clear in my questions. Really, I do. I asked if Norway was going the same path as Shiny-land with the dumb, but rich and connected, offered opportunities that are out of reach for many of greater merit, who lack the money and connections.
True, and then the other responses aimed at the US. At any rate, the Norwegian system is like other European ones where you have to take the college prep path instead of the vocational one. While not free, there appears to be a fair amount of economic support for students.