Maggie's Farm

There is no doubt that some people are very smart, some are pretty stupid and most fall somewhere inbetween. I don't think anyone would argue that this difference and the degree of difference is measurable. The problem comes in trying to decide what to measure. The IQ test as it is applied to most people measures what you should have learned given what you should have been taught or exposed to. Therefore it is assumed at certain grade levels you may have taken algebra and read the classics and if in fact you have taken and absorbed these courses of study then you will do well on the IQ test. If on the other hand you haven't taken these courses or if you did take them and chose not to study you will not do as well on the IQ test. Therefore you may have very different IQ scores for two or more individuals with identical intelligence. So what the IQ test measures is not intelligence but something else. You could have a very precocious child with two college professors as parents who spend their time teaching their child. The result would be a very high IQ score and indeed probably a very smart child. We have all seen this, it's impressive, kind of like a magic trick that suprises you. But is it "intelligence"? Did the child go on to discover a cure for cancer or prove string theory? Most of the time not only do these wonder kids not excel and change the world but they generally turn out to have unhappy lives and are often dysfuntional. I'm not saying IQ tests are "wrong" or of no value. Probably for the majority of people they fairly accurately measure intelligence. But there are very real problems with the test and very likely the test fails those who are on the lower end of the bell curve.