A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test

By: Pepper Stetler

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Synopsis: In a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ test, leading her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence. When Pepper Stetler learned that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be required to take periodic IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple question: Why? The hunt for an answer set Stetler on a winding, often dark investigation into how the IQ came to be the "irrefutable" standard for measuring intelligence. Blending a mother's love and dedication to her daughter with incisive historical and cultural analysis, A Measure of Intelligence investigates the origins of the IQ test and its influence on our oppressive culture of high stakes testing. As she unravels the history of the IQ--exposing its roots in eugenics, racism, xenophobia, and ableism--Stetler realizes that the desire to quantify intelligence is closely tied to the desire to segregate society. A Measure of Intelligence is at once a mother's determined quest, a demand for a fundamental reevaluation of how we understand an individual's perceived potential, and a recognition of what we miss when we judge one another by this warped scale.