| IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient. IQ tests have | | | | States, and it was not used properly. The |
| been known as the easiest way to measure a | | | | psychologists and educators that used the scale |
| person's intelligence since it began in France in | | | | did not heed Binet's concerns that the scale was |
| 1904. The French government commissioned | | | | actually limiting, and intelligence testing was soon |
| psychologist Alfred Binet to find a way to | | | | seen as being more important that it actually was. |
| separate children by their intelligence. The | | | | The unreliability of an Intelligence Quotient test |
| government wanted to put the intelligent children | | | | has been proven more than one time. Someone |
| in a separate school from the intellectually inferior | | | | may do exceptionally well during one testing |
| ones, this was to give these children the | | | | period, he or she could take the same test again, |
| opportunity to get individual attention instead of | | | | and do poorly or more poorly than they did the |
| grouped with children that were "smarter" than | | | | first time that they took the test. There is also a |
| they were as well, the government wanted to | | | | bias that should be taken into account when |
| give the intellectual children a chance to learn | | | | looking at test scores. One study showed that 99 |
| without disruption. This led Binet to create the | | | | school psychologists scored IQ tests taken from |
| Binet Scale, which he stated was to be used to | | | | the exact same records and they came up with |
| determine which children needed special education | | | | several different scores for the same individual. |
| and which children did not. It was not supposed to | | | | So the question is, what are Intelligence Quotients |
| be used as a general device for ranking all pupils | | | | really testing when they are given, and what is |
| at their mental worth. Intelligence could not be | | | | intelligence? Is it being able to do well in school or |
| considered by just one score, according to Binet | | | | is it more common sense? Just because someone |
| and therefore anyone trying to do so would be | | | | does poorly on an IQ test may not mean that |
| condemning a child to being thought of as stupid | | | | they are unintelligent at all. The facts as to what |
| and could negatively affect their educational level | | | | makes someone unintelligent have not really been |
| and experience. | | | | measured in the proper way, and intelligence like |
| The Binet scale was profoundly used in the United | | | | beauty is really in the eye of the beholder. |