ABSTRACT
The circumstances that affect a child’s experiences in the course of growing up are believed to play an important role in affecting intelligence and the motivation for achievement and competence. This notion has been used in formulating solutions to the crisis of the cities created by the heavy migration of the poor from the South. Although one cannot with certainty rule out the possibility of racial differences in potential for competence, the whole issue is of very little import so long as the great majority of black, Puerto Rican and Indian children grow up in poverty with extremely limited opportunities to acquire the language and number abilities and the motivation that underlie full participation in the society. The factors controlling the development of competence in early childhood are no longer purely an academic topic. The intellectual capacity that underlies competence in substantial part is not fixed.
