Why is it that one high school student aces her SAT verbal section while another barely finishes the exam, scoring near the bottom of the heap?
Some would say that the teenager with the high score probably benefited from an advantageous environment, parents who could afford books and who read to her as a young child, instilling a lifelong passion for all things literary. The low-scoring adolescent may not have enjoyed those same advantages and may have experienced stress due to poverty. Those who subscribe to this theory–many of whom lean left–might go so far as to say that gaps like this one are why we need more policies like universal preschool and a stronger safety net for children.
Others, meanwhile, would say that regardless of those environmental differences, the test-score gap between the two students was probably already baked into their genes. The top scorer just had natural talents from birth, and while it may not be…
