Myths around spatial talent travel faster than papers. Each item pairs a folklore line with a tighter claim.
Worldwide notes name real systems — 영재교육, 예고, 部活, CTY, AIS, Iten — as places and policies, not racial essences.
Myths
- Spatial skill is just “being good at IKEA” — It is a measured family of operations Rotation, folding, navigation.
- Boys have it, girls do not — Means can differ; overlap is huge; training moves scores No destinies.
- If school never tested it, it is rare — It is under-identified Wai et al.’s point.
- It cannot be trained — Intervention studies say otherwise Uttal-era reviews.
- A high rotation score makes an architect — Studios add users, structure, politics See design-talent.
- Peoples have spatial essences — Refused Same editorial line as the rest of this atlas.
Worldwide
- United States — PMA to SMPY spatial — The psychometric home, still missing from many schools.
- Italy — Perspective and craft cities — A historical spatial curriculum in stone.
- Japan — Architecture offices and 空間 play — SANAA plus a toy and craft culture that trains looking.
- China — Wang Shu and construction-site craft — A contemporary argument about how spatial talent should meet tradition.
- Scandinavia — Orienteering in schools — Navigation as ordinary PE — spatial as a civic skill.
- Netherlands — Escher plus water-engineering culture — Graphic and civic space in a flat country that must design water.
Spatial talent: drop the folklore that ranks groups. Keep the systems that can be named and improved.