Has Compensatory Education Failed? Has It Been Attempted?

While Professor Hunt finds much of interest in parts of Jensen's article, he objects strongly to some of its conclusions. Hunt fails to find satisfactory evidence that we may make the assertions about genetic differences determining the intelligence of Negroes and whites which Jensen has offered. He finds Jensen's claims about the high heritability of intelligence unsubstantiated; he finds Jensen's conclusion that observed group mean differences in IQ scores among Negro and white populations are genetically determined to be even less supportable. Hunt offers an alternative hypothesis: given the necessary relationship between the physical structure of the nervous system and the behavior of the system (as in IQ),we must provide rich post-natal experience in order to develop the inherent structures. He offers analogies from animal research which suggest that the physical development of the brain is directly influenced by its information-processing activities—these activities are particularly effective in neo-natal organisms.