Two interesting New York Times columns

Columnist Bob Herbert wrote recently that with "so much attention focused on the banking system and arguments over bailouts, the plight of America’s children in this severe economic downturn is getting short shrift."

Dr. Irwin Redlener, president of the Children’s Health Fund in New York, told Herbert that we're seeing the emergence of a "recession generation" -- kids whose families had a reasonable chance at a comfortable living two years but who must now live with the effects of unemployment or underemployment.

Then there's Nicholas D. Kristof's piece on the connection between economic status and I.Q. While poor people have I.Q.’s significantly lower than those of rich people, he says, it's becoming apparent that the conventional wisdom on the reason for it -- genetics -- is wrong. He quotes Richard Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, as summing up the new research this way:

"Bad environments suppress children’s I.Q.’s."

Nisbett is the author of a new book, "Intelligence and How to Get It," which not only takes on the genetics argument but also offers advice for addressing poverty and inequality in America.

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