[37] "In so far as
the differences in achievement found amongst a group of men are due to
the differences in the quantity and quality of training which they had
had in the function in question, the provision of equal amounts of the
same sort of training for all individuals in the group should act to
reduce the differences." "If the addition of equal amounts of practice
does not reduce the differences found amongst men, those differences can
not well be explained to any large extent by supposing them to have been
due to corresponding differences in amount of previous practice. If,
that is, inequalities in achievement are not reduced by equalizing
practice, they can not well have been caused by inequalities in previous
practice. If differences in opportunity cause the differences men
display, making opportunity more nearly equal for all, by adding equal
amounts to it in each case should make the differences less.
"The facts found are rather startling. Equalizing practice seems to
increase differences. The superior man seems to have got his present
superiority by his own nature rather than by superior advantages of the
past, since, during a period of equal advantage for all, he increases
his lead." This point has been tested by such simple devices as mental
multiplication, addition, marking A's on a printed sheet of capitals and
the like; all the contestants made some gain in efficiency, but those
who were superior at the start were proportionately farther ahead than
ever at the end.
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