Intelligence debate

The intelligence debate has been around for a long time and does not seem to be going away any time soon although it seems to come and go as a 'hot' issue.  As I see it, there are basically two camps in the intelligence issue: you are born with an innate amount of intelligence or your environment affects your intelligence.  Many refer to this simply as nature versus nurture.  A book called "The Bell Curve" by Herrnstein and Murray is probably the most controversial book written on the subject.  Although it was written in 1994, it still is the cause of many hot debates on the topic because it questions how much the problems in modern society could be explained by intelligence.  The word intelligence itself is a difficult word to define because it evokes so many connotations for people.  Is it something that is mathematically measurable?  Scientists and researchers have been debating this for years and hence the controversy.  I read an article called "Intelligence:  Heredity-Environment Debate Resolved?" (http://www.unisci.com/stories/20021/0117021.htm).  These authors suggest that intelligence is created when connections in the brain are changed in response to environmental cues.  They also say that these connections must be made in childhood because the capacity to respond to the environment stops at maturity.  They reason that this is why young children are able to learn multiple languages whereas adults have a more difficult time learning a new language.  

I think that people are born with an innate intelligence that can be fostered to become greater with one's environment.  Once again, though, the out of school factors must come into play.  If a child does not acquire enough language in the the first few years of life, it is a fact that the child will have a difficult time in school.  This would coincide with the belief that these neurons in the brain did not make the connections during this critical learning time and therefore would definitely affect one's intelligence.  Herrnstein and Murray suggest though that a person is born with a certain amount of intelligence and nothing can change that.  They believe that heredity play a major role in intelligence has little or nothing to do with the environment.   I have to disagree with that.  Although I agree that heredity must play some part in one's intelligence, environment must play a part too.