My child’s IQ is bigger than yours Essay

In May 2002 an oblige titled My childs IQ is bigger than yours, written by hum Sarler, was published in the composition The Observer. The expression expresses a harsh critique of the IQ dance stepment in general, especially the problems concerning measuring childrens IQ, and the pertly snobbery behind this tendency. The Observer is a major British newspaper, published on Sundays. As its sister newspaper The Guardian it is known for its left-of-centre political stance. The newspapers readership is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion, which is represented by the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.The article is a reaction to the BBC picture programme called Test the rural area, which appeared on television the night before the article was published. The author of the article, sing Sarlers, opinion on the idea of testing our IQ is unequivocally presented in the subtitle of the article The parents who see their bright offspring as status symbols real ly do need their heads examined. She thinks that it is absolutely wrong to measure scholarship especially childrens intelligence. Because of the articles subjective point of view, it is a feature article. In this article chirrup Sarler shares her opinion on the field of study by exploitation a sarcastic, and slightly sophisticated, language. The purpose is to make the reader laugh and at the same time get disgusted by the kitchen stove she gives of parents being pathetic. Throughout the article Carol Sarler balances between the laughable and the serious aspect of the topic, she addresses in the article.While the title and subtitle of the article is rather humoristic, the articles opening story about a lavishly-pitchedly intelligent young man, who committed suicide, is deeply tragic. In this connexion it is important to note that this article is written in extension of the authors earlier article about this specifically intelligent young man, who committed suicide only cardi nal days after she published her interview with him. Carol Sarler obviously felt sorry for the young man and somewhat guilty about the suicide and and so wishes to make her opinion on IQ-measuring clear. This story makes the reader interested in reading the full article, to find out how an IQ rating scale goat cause so much damage. By using this kind of story, Carol Sarler uses the mode ofpersuasion called pathos, as she appeals to the readers emotions.The article is, as menti angiotensin converting enzymed, a response to the nationally broadcasted BCC programme Test the Nation. Carol Sarler compares the purpose of the national published programme with grotesque experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the effective purpose between the two is not same, she nevertheless compares them, because she basically think it is wrong to measure intelligence in any way. The article shortly implicates one of the specialists involved in Test the Nation, Dr Colin Cooper, in the discussion. Bu t Carol Sarlers sarcastic language tears his defence of the Test the Nation to pieces. At the same occasion she claims that IQ is becoming the new snobbery, a tendency she has lately observed in the United States. She hereby directs the readers worry towards her main focus in the debate about testing intelligence parents testing their childrens intelligence. Her argument is that middle-class parents are encouraged to measure the intelligence of their children because it is becoming a social status symbol similar to a classy zip code.The articles title clearly makes fun of the grammatical case of parents, she describes. The illustration, which is similarly a part of the article, really gives the reader a picture of what Carol Sarler thinks of the parents, who exposes their clever children as if they were something material. Her concern is that this new tendency harms the children, who are tested and labelled abnormally bright at a very young age. The children with high IQs are pr essured with high expectations and pushed into private schools, which according to Carol Sarler is harmful for their social and personal abilities. As backing for her argumentation, Carol Sarler refers to the story about another young boy aged 14 with an incredibly high IQ, who according to her has very little success with his personal relationships because he is, frankly, odd. She ties this story together with the story about the young man, who committed suicide by using the same phrases, and suggesting that he too could end up with a lousy job in a bingo hall.By using these two stories Carol Sarler also uses the mode of persuasion called ethos. She establishes an image of herself as being experienced and reliable by using experiences from her own personal and professional life an author. what is more she implicates historic events and names, such as old experiments and Archimedes, to demonstrate her general knowledge and her knowledge in proportion to the topic. Her language is a lso sophisticated, and the vocabulary is slightly difficult, which also gains ethos as an author, since it makes her appear more intelligent and reliable.This is especially evident in the passage where she comments on the methods used in the BBC television programme Test the Nation The objections were two-fold, the lesser of them being a disbelief that intelligence actually can be measured in spite of the programme makers hefty reference in advance publicity to the scientific validation of their methodology, their claim that the questions were nothing to do with general knowledge was simply untrue. The language in the article contains many British idioms, e.g. premier cheese and wheeled out.The main function of this rhetorical feature is to gain both pathos and ethos as an author, and give this a humoristic malarky by mixing it with typical British sarcastic humour. Carol Sarler uses the humoristic content in the article as a part of her rhetorical appeal. The purpose is to lactat e the reader, make the article more readable, and demean her opponents opinions, as she does when she implicates Dr Colin Cooper in the debate.To sum up Carol Sarler uses a number of rhetorical features in order to support her argumentation, and thereby convince the reader that measuring and testing childrens IQ is not right, and that parents motive for measuring childrens IQ is pathetic and damaging to the childrens personal life and social abilities. In order to do this, Carol Sarlers article is both effective and successful. In spite of this, the readers must be likely to ask the question isnt there anything positive about IQ-measuring? What about children, whose highly intelligent brain is not stimulated in school? Is it wrong to prescribe extra lessons for these children, who are bored in school? It is wrong to use your childs IQ as a social status symbol, but it must be possible to make certain reservations when you raise a child with an exceptional high IQ, without harming th e childs personal life and social abilities.