Educational science, mental testing, and the ideology of intelligence

Down, B. (2001) Educational science, mental testing, and the ideology of intelligence. Melbourne Studies in Education , 42 (1). pp. 1-23.

Abstract

The possibility of understanding the individual child according to the canons of science arises from the convergence of mass schooling and biological discourses in the late nineteenth century.

Those classed as 'feeble minded' will in general, be a charge upon the state and its institutions for life; 'borderline' will require specialised education and supervision; 'dull' will not benefit in even an average degree by ordinary education and are likely to show an unduly high proportion of social misfits.