Intelligence, Destiny, and Education

The nature of intelligence and how it can be measured has occupied psychologists, educationalists, biologists and philosophers for hundreds of years. However, there has been little investigation into the rise of the traditional dominant educational ideology that intelligence and IQ have innate limits and are unchanging and unchangeable. This book traces the roots of this mind set back to early puritan communities on both sides of the Atlantic, drawing parallels between puritan dogma and the development of the traditional curricula and selection processes that are still firmly embedded in school practice today.

Drawing on the work of Galton, Pearson, Burt, Goddard, Terman and others in his search for the truth about intelligence testing, John White looks at the personal histories and socialised religious backgrounds of these key psychologists and casts an entirely new light on schooling in Britain and the USA in modern times. This work also shows how we can transcend this heritage and base our educational system on values and practices more in tune with the twenty-first century.

Intelligence - what it is and how it can be measured - is something that has exercised psychologists, educationalists, biologists and philosophers for hundreds of years. For many philosophers of education, justification of the most dominant theory - that intelligence has innately determined upper limits - appears inadequate.
In Intelligence, Destiny and Education, John White passes the baton from philosophy to history as he traces some of the social and historical influences on modern ideas about human capabilities. He focuses on the influence that he believes puritan ideas and assumptions have had on the psychological conceptions of intelligence as innate. Drawing on the work of Galton, Pearson, Burt, Goddard, Terman, and others, in his search for the truth about intelligence testing, he looks at the personal histories and social religious assumptions and backgrounds of these key psychologists.
John White's concern is that in these test-orientated times a system of intelligence testing based on the eugenicists' theory of intelligence could lead to an educational caste system in which the task of education gives way to the doctrine of predestination. This fascinating book will appeal to all those involved in education.

John White is Emeritus Professor of the Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.