My child’s IQ is bigger than yours Essay

In May 2002 an oblige denominationd My childs IQ is bigger than yours, written by Carol Sarler, was published in the newspaper The Observer. The condition expresses a harsh critique of the IQ appraisement in general, especially the problems occupying measuring childrens IQ, and the newly snobbery behind this mark. 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 contributorship is generally on the mainstream left of British political opinion, which is equal by the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats.The member is a reception to the BBC television design called Test the Nation, which appeared on television the wickedness before the article was published. The author of the article, Carol Sarlers, opinion on the root word of test our IQ is unequivocally presented in the subtitle of the article The parents who propose their brightly offspring as sta tus symbolisms sincerely do command their heads examined. She thinks that it is absolutely wrong to measure intelligence especially childrens intelligence. Because of the articles subjective point of view, it is a throw article. In this article Carol Sarler shares her opinion on the topic by exploitation a sarcastic, and slightly sophisticated, language. The figure is to make the reviewer laugh and at the akin time get disgusted by the image she gives of parents being pathetic. end-to-end the article Carol Sarler balances in the midst of 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 around a spicyly gifted puppylike 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 approximately this specifically intelligent young man, who committed suicide sole(prenominal) 2 days after she published her interview with him. Carol Sarler plainly felt sorry for the young man and somewhat guilty about the suicide and therefore 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 can 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 mentioned, a response to the nationally broadcasted BCC design Test the Nation. Carol Sarler compares the purpose of the national published programme with grotesque experiments in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the actual 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. But 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 attention towards her main focus in the debate about testing intelligence parents testing their childrens intelligence. Her argument is that middle-class parents are promote to measure the intelligence of their children because it is becoming a genial status symbol similar to a classy zip code.The articles title clearly makes fun of the type of parents, she describes. The illustration, which is too 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 pressured with high expectat ions and pushed into private schools, which harmonize to Carol Sarler is harmful for their social and face-to-face abilities. As backing for her argumentation, Carol Sarler refers to the story about another(prenominal) 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 unitedly 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 ill-scented 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 victor life an author. Furthermore she implicates historic events and names, such as old experiments and Archimedes, to deliver her general familiarity and her knowledge in proportion to the topic. Her language is also soph isticated, 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 promotion 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. post-mortem examination 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 pleat by mixing it with typical British sarcastic humour. Carol Sarler uses the humoristic contented in the article as a part of her rhetorical appeal. The purpose is to entertain 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 exchange the reader that measuring and testing childrens IQ is not right, and that parents demand 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 feasible to make certain reservations when you raise a child with an exceptional high IQ, wit hout harming the childs personal life and social abilities.