The Real Value of Your IQ

In David Shenk's The Genius in All of US he discusses the misunderstandings involving IQ tests.  He discusses how one's IQ results are not set in stone as it may fluctuate on one important factor which is environment. Whether it be home, historical, work, different parenting styles, or school, environment plays a large factor in one's ability to score highly on and IQ test.  Within the environment, a direct correlation was discovered concerning a communities overall isolation.  Communities with a higher degree of cultural isolation tended to score lower on IQ test than communities with a low level of cultural isolation.  A city in Virginia was used as an example where the community was very isolated, illiteracy was high, and access to schools, radios, newspapers, and other ways of distributing news and information were very limited.  At the age of six, children were achieving average scores but as they grew older and lived through isolation their test scores continued to drift further below that of the nation average.  An even stranger phenomenon occurred when it appeared through IQ test scores that the newer generation is getting smarter than the previous and older generations.  The reason for this was that the environment of the previous generation had not required them to perform at the same rate we do in our generation.  According to Shenk, "Children develop only as the environment demands development" and due to our new environment we are unknowingly being pushed to achieve higher scores on our IQ tests.