User talk:Atrahasis

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[edit] Welcome!

Hi Atrahasis, and a warm welcome to Wikipedia! I hope you have enjoyed editing as much as I did so far and decide to stay. Unfamiliar with the features and workings of Wikipedia? Don't fret! Be Bold! Here's some good links for your reference and that'll get you started in no time!

Editing tutorial, learn to have fun with Wikipedia. Picture tutorial, instructions on uploading images. How to write a great article, to make it an featured article status. Manual of Style, how articles should be written.

Most Wikipedians would prefer to just work on articles of their own interest. But if you have some free time to spare, here are some open tasks that you may want to help out :

RC Patrol - Keeping a lookout for vandalism. Cleanup - Help make unreadable articles readable. Requests - Wanted on WP, but hasn't been created. Merge - Combining duplicate articles into one. Wikiprojects - So many to join, so many to choose from...Take your pick!

Oh yes, don't forget to sign when you write on talk pages, simply type four tildes, like this: ~~~~. This will automatically add your name and the time after your comments. And finally, if you have any questions or doubts, don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Once again, welcome! =)

- Mailer Diablo 20:42, 25 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Race, intelligence and educational reform

Hello, I am an educational reformer who has chosen anonymity for the purposes of on-line collaboration at Wikipedia. Not so much for my own sake, but for that of colleagues who might be embarassed or even lose funding or employment.

Do you know anything about the Pygmalion effect or Hawthorne effect in regards to early childhood or elementary education? I've read isolated reports of significant IQ gains correlated with the attitude or expectation of the tester or teacher.

Arthur Jensen himself - considered the arch-racist by some advocates - reports IQ score gains of 8 or 9 points simply by playing kindly with the children to set them at ease and there was that study nearly 4 decades ago (only one study?!) that told teachers a randomly selected group was brighter; and then the kids showed astonishing increases in academic achievement.

Can you help me dig up research results which have a bearing on this?

[edit] Atra's reply

Hello, glad to meet a fellow educator!

The Pygmalion effect to me is basically the positive effect you get on any child when he has a great teacher who isn't mean and who cares that the children really learn to distinguish and sort out the confusing bits...to do that the teacher has to give them attention.

Consider the nature of attention, or even love...it is basically human mental energy that is transferred to another person to shape or mold the recipient's mental and spiritual reservoir. Giving lots of it makes this reservoir larger and shapes it. If it is not fed, it remains small and may even dry up. Energy transfer is a basic feature of the physical world and human society, and I have no doubt that it plays out in shaping IQ's as well. In fact, any and everything that you can possibly think of can probably be boiled down to some kind of energy transfer if you dissect it minutely enough.

You can research the effects of classical music on growing agricultural products, or the effects of talking to plants. I believe such things are relevant to human growth as well. --Atrahasis 15:50, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot to sign my comment above. I call myself Elabro 16:13, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Secrecy

You said on a talk page:

But the "veil of secrecy" of things Asian will often confuse people into thinking something is OR or "new knowledge", because it may really bother them that they just can't get an English source or even a written source for X item. If Wikipedia continues to introduce Asia-centric articles as Asia becomes more prominient in world affairs, we'll see more and more instances of Wikipedia in some cases being the first or among the primary sources for a given item, because the veil is being lifted here even where English sources may not readily exist...but we shouldn't let that bother us. --Atrahasis 11:22, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Could you expand? I'm very curious. What is doing the veiling? What is being veiled? Could I please have:

1. some hand waving generalities so I have a clue to what you are talking about and what you are NOT talking about (social privacy, military security, asian v. western insecurity, etc.)
2. a few pointed examples I can pin down for examination via Googling

Thanks, WAS 4.250 13:40, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Image:Wik aurora1.jpg listed for deletion

• Also:
• Image:Wik aurora2.jpg
• Image:Wik bon1.jpg
• Image:Wik bon2.jpg
• Image:Wik dy5001.jpg
• Image:Wik dy5002.jpg
• Image:Wik huron1.jpg
• Image:Wik huron2.jpg
• Image:Wik surak1.jpg

The reason for this nomination is that these images are currently orphaned and, with a copyright notice, are at present of limited encyclopedic value. BigDT 05:17, 24 July 2006 (UTC)