Editing James Flynn (academic) (section)

== Early life and education ==

James Robert Flynn was born in an Irish-American community in Washington, D.C., on April 28, 1934. His parents were Irish-Americans from Missouri. His father, Joseph, left formal schooling at age 12 to work in a factory and later became a "hard-drinking"<ref name="UO">{{Cite news|title=Vale Professor Jim Flynn|date=2020-12-18|url=https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago760050.html|access-date=2021-09-21|work=Otago Bulletin Board|publisher=[[University of Otago]]|language=en-nz|archive-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921195758/https://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago760050.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gibb">{{Cite news|last=Gibb|first=John|date=2021-01-11|title='Legendary teacher, giant amongst scholars'|url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/%E2%80%98legendary-teacher-giant-amongst-scholars%E2%80%99|access-date=2021-09-21|work=[[Otago Daily Times]]|language=en}}</ref> journalist and editor. Flynn described his father as a "keen reader" who took pride in completing the ''New York Times'' crossword puzzle in pen rather than pencil. Flynn's father read classical works to him at a young age, and Flynn said he was "surrounded by good literature" as a child.<ref name="Skeptic">{{Cite magazine|last=Traynor|first=Lee|date=2014-01-01|title=The future of intelligence: an interview with James R. Flynn|url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=10639330&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA362606314&sid=googleScholar&linkaccess=abs|magazine=[[Skeptic (U.S. magazine)|Skeptic]]|language=English|volume=19|issue=1|pages=36–46}}</ref> Flynn became an avid reader as well; later in life, he wrote a book about world literature, and in a 2010 commencement address, he encouraged graduates to learn by reading "works of great literature".{{r|Gibb}} His mother, Mae, was an office worker and homemaker who trained as a teacher.{{r|Skeptic}}<ref name="NYT">{{Citation| last = Risen | first = Clay | title = James R. Flynn, Who Found We Are Getting Smarter, Dies at 86| pages =| newspaper = The New York Times. | date = 25 January 2021| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/25/science/james-r-flynn-dead.html }}</ref> He had a brother, Joseph, who became a non-isothermal kinetics chemist.{{r|Gibb}}

Raised Roman Catholic, Flynn was a choir boy at Washington, D.C.'s [[Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle (Washington, D.C.)|Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle]] and attended the Catholic private schools St. Paul's Primary School and St. John's Academy. Flynn renounced his Catholic religion at age 12 after winning a full set of ''[[World Book Encyclopedia]]'' in a city-wide competition and reading about scientific explanations for the creation of the universe that contradicted his [[creationist]] education. He credited his rejection of Catholicism and his parents' racial views for forming his secular, socialist views on racial and social equality.{{r|Skeptic|NYT}} Flynn described himself as an "atheist, a scientific realist, a social democrat".{{r|Gibb}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2012/interview-james-flynn/|title=Interview: James Flynn - The Listener|last=Noted|website=Noted|access-date=21 January 2019|archive-date=21 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190121232519/https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2012/interview-james-flynn/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Flynn was a lifelong competitive runner who ran for his high school and college and earned six US running medals over the course of his life.{{r|Gibb|NYT}}<ref name="Stuff">{{cite web|last1=Mckenzie-Mclean |first1=Jo |last2=Edwards |first2=Jonny |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/123686012/worldrenowned-otago-professor-and-giant-amongst-scholars-jim-flynn-dies |title= World-renowned Otago professor and giant amongst scholars Jim Flynn dies |work=[[Stuff (website)|Stuff]] |publisher= Fairfax |date=13 December 2020 |access-date= 13 December 2020}}</ref>

In the 1950s, Flynn earned a scholarship to the [[University of Chicago]], where he originally intended to study pure mathematics or theoretical physics "because they seemed to pose the most difficult problems to solve",{{r|UO}} but ended up studying moral and political philosophy, a field with more practical applications.{{r|Skeptic}}
An "ardent [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]]"{{r|Wilby}} and "man of [[Left-wing politics|the left]]"<ref name="Critic">{{Cite magazine|last=du Quenoy|first=Paul|author-link=Paul du Quenoy|date=2021-02-15|title=Remembering James R. Flynn: scholar and free speech advocate|url=https://thecritic.co.uk/remembering-james-r-flynn-scholar-and-free-speech-advocate/|access-date=2021-09-21|magazine=[[The Critic (modern magazine)|The Critic]]|language=en-GB|archive-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921033448/https://thecritic.co.uk/remembering-james-r-flynn-scholar-and-free-speech-advocate/|url-status=live}}</ref> throughout his life, Flynn joined the [[Socialist Party of America]] in college and, after graduating, became a [[Civil rights movement|civil rights activist]].{{r|NYT}}
While working on his doctorate in politics and moral philosophy, he was political action co-chairman for the university branch of the [[NAACP]], where he worked on its social housing initiatives.{{r|UO}}<ref name="SA">{{Cite journal|last=Holloway|first=Marguerite|date=Jan 1999|title=Flynn's Effect|url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flynns-effect|journal=[[Scientific American]]|volume=280|issue=1|pages=37–38|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0199-37|bibcode=1999SciAm.280a..37H|issn=0036-8733|archive-date=3 March 2021|access-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303121457/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flynns-effect/|url-status=live}}</ref>
His doctorate dissertation was titled, "Ethics and the Modern Social Scientist."{{r|Gibb}}

He met his wife, an attorney whose family was active in the [[Communist Party USA]],{{r|SA}} at a [[Glen Echo Park, Maryland#Segregation and integration at the amusement park|protest against segregation at Glen Echo Park in Maryland]].
He was 26 years old at the time, and she was 17. His wife said that Flynn "ticked the entire list of qualities I wanted in a husband and which I had written down in my diary at the age of 15": he was tall, smart, funny, held left-wing political views, could stand up to her mother, and had a job with a pension. She proposed to him three times: he declined the first two times due to her young age before accepting the third proposal.{{r|Gibb}}
They named their eldest son, [[Oxford University]] maths professor [[Victor Flynn]], after socialist [[Eugene Victor Debs]].<ref name="Wilby">{{Cite news|date=2016-09-27|last=Wilby|first=Peter|author-link=Peter Wilby|title=Beyond the Flynn effect: new myths about race, family and IQ?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/sep/27/james-flynn-race-iq-myths-does-your-family-make-you-smarter|access-date=2021-09-21|work=[[The Guardian]]|language=en}}</ref>
The couple also had a daughter, who became a clinical psychologist.{{r|UO|NYT}}