Seymour Itzkoff

Seymour William Itzkoff
Born 1928
Brooklyn, New York
Residence Northampton, Massachusetts
Citizenship American
Fields Educational psychology
Institutions Smith College
Alma mater University of Hartford, Columbia University
Known for The Decline of Intelligence in America

Seymour William Itzkoff (born 1928) is an American professor known for his research into intelligence.[1] He has taught at Smith College since 1965 where he is currently professor emeritus of education and child study.

Life and career

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Itzkoff earned a B.A. degree from the University of Hartford.[2] While at school, he was a cellist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra; he then joined the United States Army, playing in the U.S. Army Orchestra. He later taught elementary school while earning a master's degree in philosophy from Columbia University in 1956. While studying for his doctorate, he taught education at Hunter College, CUNY. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia in 1965, and took a position at Smith College that year. Itzkoff was married while attending Columbia and subsequently had two children.

Itzkoff is a strong advocate of the effects of biological determinism on intelligence.[3] Itzkoff suggests in Why Humans Vary in Intelligence that hereditary factors probably account for 70% to 80% of variability in IQ.[4] He has stated that standardized test ability is difficult to improve, especially verbal ability.[5]

Itzkoff's work on intelligence has been published in Mankind Quarterly, and he has been a Pioneer Fund recipient.[6] The ensuing tension echoed similar problems faced by Pioneer Fund recipient Linda Gottfredson at University of Delaware.[7] One historian wrote, "While the Delaware and Smith cases are unique, they illustrate an inherent tension between freedom in research and other central academic values."[8]

According to science journalist Malcolm Browne, Itzkoff's 1994 book The Decline of Intelligence in America was one of a series of books that year which claimed Americans "probably no longer have the intellectual capital that can profit from the available educational resources."[9] In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence,[10]" an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which declared the consensus of researchers in intelligence and related fields following the publication of the book The Bell Curve.

Itzkoff, who is an advocate of eugenics, wrote the preface to John Glad's 2008 book, Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century, in which he states, "The real history of eugenics, as Dr. Glad points out, is rich in a truly liberal vision for the improvement in the state of all of humankind."[11]

Itzkoff has published works on Jewish identity and Jewish intelligence, as well as books outlining his predictions about 21st-century global crises and his recommended responses. He has also written about music, including a biography of cellist Emanuel Feuermann.

Selected bibliography

References

  1. Lynn, Richard (2001). The science of human diversity: a history of the Pioneer Fund, pages 417-427. University Press of America, 9780761820413
  2. Staff report (September 18, 1948). Music School Awards Five Scholarship. The Hartford Courant
  3. Dembart, Lee (October 13, 1987). Book Review Author Votes for Nature Over Nurture. Los Angeles Times
  4. Seligman, Daniel (October 12, 1987). Some Think Smarter Than Others. Fortune
  5. Calem, Robert E. (April 27, 1995). S.A.T. Software: Does It Work? New York Times
  6. Fischel, Jack (February 10, 1995). Strange 'Bell' fellows. Commonweal
  7. Blits, Jan H. The silenced partner: Linda Gottfredson and the University of Delaware. Academic Questions, Volume 4, Number 3 / September 1991 pp. 41-47.
  8. O'Neil, Robert M. Free Speech in the College Community. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997. pp. 174-75
  9. Browne, Malcolm W. (October 16, 1994). What Is Intelligence, and Who Has It? New York Times
  10. Gottfredson, Linda (December 13, 1994). Mainstream Science on Intelligence. Wall Street Journal, p A18.
  11. From preface to Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century, abridged online version
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