feeling sad

[lupinesque]

Shaun (welcome!) wrote:

> I work with profoundly gifted kids - kids for whom IQ tests, etc, 
are very important 
> for them to gain access to appropriate education. Gould's "The 
Mismeasure of Man" 
> published just over 20 years ago has caused massive harm to these 
kids needs and 
> their chances of getting the education they need and they deserve. 
Gould couldn't 
> be blamed for this if the work was credible - but it's one of the 
most biased pieces of 
> literature I've ever encountered.
> 
> It's a work of political theory - not really the scientific work 
that Gould claimed it 
> was.
> 
> He certainly raised some good and valid points - he showed how 
testing could be, 
> and has been, used to discriminate unjustly. The trouble is, he 
threw the baby out 
> with the bathwater.

I have only read excerpts from The Mismeasure of Man, but I never knew 
it got used this way.  Why on earth would people take the problems of 
intelligence testing as a reason to deny special needs?  It sounds as 
if they are misusing his work for their own ends.

It is supremely ironic, because one of SJG's sons is both profoundly 
mentally challenged and intelligent--IIRC, he is autistic and a 
mathematical savant.

I think IQ is B.S. (I didn't need to read Mismeasure of Man to reach 
that conclusion--all I needed to do was read the tests; they are 
patently not testing inherent ability, but knowledge and experience), 
but I would have shriveled up and died if I hadn't had access to 
talented-and-gifted education, as it was called in my school system.  
I don't think IQ testing was needed in order to identify the fact that 
I would have been desperately bored without this kind of education; in 
fact, I don't believe I was given any intelligence tests except as a 
very young child.  We got placed in "enrichment" classes based on 
standardized achievement tests (also B.S., but different), class 
performance/the recommendation of our teachers, and other simple 
observable facts.  The fact that tests are flawed, misused, and abused 
doesn't mean that everyone has the same educational needs.  It's scary 
to think that your students could lose out because tests are shown to 
be flawed.

Amy