Wealth more heritable than genes

The Guardian's Polly Toynbee criticises claims by Dominic Cummings, special advisor to the Education Secretary Michael Gove, that genetics plays a crucial role in a child's educational attainment.

'Like Cummings', she writes, 'I am not qualified to interpret genetic research', so she asked Professor Steve Jones of University College London instead:

'Cummings, using the work of the behavioural geneticist Robert Plomin, badly misinterprets it, says Jones, and "fundamentally misunderstands" how biology works. That 70% is, crucially, "a statement about populations, not individuals. It certainly does not mean that seven-tenths of every child's talents reside in the double helix." Teachers become more, not less, important, Jones says, when examining the close interaction of environment and genes. Even in the simple matter of height, environment plays its part: with no DNA change, his native Welsh population has grown two inches and increased its IQ since the 1950s. Moving to affluence increases a working class child's IQ by 15 points.'