Q: Why do you get annoyed at efforts to link better I.Q. scores with better child care?
Zigler: This nation has always had this love affair with I.Q. and we don't understand its limitations. And that's why I'm having this fight with the Bush people right now with Head Start. They say it's a social program. They want a literacy program. If you go to school you better have the social skills. You better not grab that other little boy's blocks. You better do what the teacher says. So it's what I call the whole-child approach: A kid's emotions and personality are just as important as I.Q. But there's something about this country that we like numbers that summarize things. All of us know high-I.Q. people with whom we don't want to be in the same room.
So there's much more to life than one's intelligence score. To be a decent human being. To have some character.
This interview can be found at http://progressive.org/node/1546
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