Nanski's mummy - and nurturing story

 Nanski went with the mummy theme. I've always wanted to make a mummy costume. I wonder if my grandkids would be interested in being mummies.

From time to time I mention books I have enjoyed. I recently stumbled across one that I am only recommending to people who have an interest in child development. This is an email I sent to a friend who literally grew up across the street from the orphanage in Davenport - which is one of the things that made me even check it out. If it had been The Orphans of St. Louis, it probably wouldn't have caught my eye.

The Orphans of Davenport

by Marilyn Brookwood

Up until these two people in Davenport made an unanticipated discovery, it was thought that a person was born with an IQ and that it was fixed. Nobody thought that nurturing had any influence whatsoever on intellectual growth.

During the depression, orphanages were over flowing - and a couple people at an orphanage in Davenport had two babies who came from mom's with very low IQs and they figured the babies were doomed -- which meant they would end up in life-long institutions for the lowest functioning adults.

They shipped the two babies off to one of the state institution where they mostly likely were going to spend their lives. The babies were placed in wards of adult women who were functionally - 5 to 10 yrs old. The staff was delighted to have some babies around and supervised their care. The residents were delighted to have little ones to love and were capable of providing the care they needed. The babies thrived. As they grew into toddlers, and the two people who had placed them there did IQ tests - they were amazed to see that the little girls had blossomed and had IQs in the normal range. They were able to place them for adoption. Following up with them, it was documented that they had very normal lives.

The child service workers decided to see if they could replicate the situation - and chose 11 very unfortunate babies and toddlers. They placed them in  institutions with women who could care for them under supervision -- and discovered that - yes -- all but one of them grew intellectually (got to normal range of IQ) just from the care and attention. The younger the kids were at the beginning, the greater the growth.

So they started publishing papers and presenting at conferences -- and the hard core *experts* who were convinced that IQs were fixed - did everything possible to discredit the Iowans and launched smear campaigns. It took 30 years for the pendulum to swing and the Head Start program (from the 60s) was the first program that reflected a turning of  the tide.

Parts of the book are very dry with endless detail about research, statistics, testing, etc. It is thorough with regard to the scientific end of the topic. The parts that tell the story about people who discovered something and persevered to correct scientific *knowledge* is very good. It is also a bit depressing to see how difficult it is to open up the closed minds - but gratifying to know that there are people who will fight the good fight.

If this topic is of interest - here is a review of the book that is much better than mine:

https://www.harvard.com/book/the_orphans_of_davenport/