The idea of what we should be testing is a very hotly debated because there’s a certain
objectivity that we think we have once we standardize things.
We give the same test to everyone.
And there is some truth to that that the more you standardize a test the more you kind of
give everyone the same opportunity to perform on that test.
So there is some argument to be made towards standardization.
But we don’t have standardized minds.
I mean no one has a standardized mind.
There’s no such thing as an average mind.
So every one of us, every unique individual is a dynamic system of not just cognitive
processes but motivational processes, dreams, desires.
I formulated a theory and I called it the theory of personal intelligence because I
argued I wanted to shift our focus of analysis from taking one aspect that we are saying
this is the measure of intelligence whether it’s a standardized test or whether it’s
an IQ test.
We say well we’ve decided as a society that’s our measure of intelligence.
And then we compare everyone to each other on that one metric.
I wanted to move it to a personal level and recognize that well within a person every
single one of us has a combination of traits and we can compensate for lower levels of
one trait with higher levels of another trait.
For instance we can compensate with lower levels of IQ with grit or with perseverance.
So we’re capable of mixing and matching our own unique profile of characteristics
in such really fascinating exciting ways that make us who we are.
That’s what makes us a whole person.
So when it comes to testing I’m not necessarily against testing and not necessarily against
using standardized tests as a way of measuring learning outcomes.
But as a way of measuring human potential I’m not down with that.
A really great report came out recently called Talent on the Sidelines which found very clearly
that our ethnic minority students, ethnic and racial minority students are not being
identified in gifted and talented programs period.
And we need to call this out.
We need to make this – there are some wonderful researchers here trying to correct this.
Like Julia Lawson Davis for instance trying to figure out what is going on there, what
we can do.
You know when you have very poverty stricken environments for instance it’s not as easy
to get the opportunity to display your brilliance.
It’s not as easy to learn when people all around you are dying.
When you are not being fed, you know.
It’s very hard to show your intellectual brilliance.
It is a fact that there’s a huge underrepresentation of ethnic and racial minority students in
gifted talented education.
And I do not believe that ethnic and racial minority students are less gifted.
I mean who wants to make that argument.
It is not the reality of the matter.
And what you find there are some really neat programs.
For instance this one program called Project Bright where they taught gifted behaviors
to every student.
So they assumed well everyone in this school system was going to learn something from behaviors
that gifted students tend to have.
They kind of tried to distill how do gifted students think, you know, and can we teach
this.
And they taught every student in the school and they thought after teaching it like 25
percent or so more ethnic and racial minority students all of a sudden qualified for gifted
education once you gave them a chance to learn these behaviors and traits.
So I think we need to be very wary about treating these labels as though they’re an essence
of a person, you know, essentialism.
A gifted – there’s a key difference to me between saying that child is gifted and
that child was labeled as gifted.
To me the former is an essentialism argument.
You’re saying that’s the essence of that person.
And the other one is you’re saying well we recognize something in that person that
we are giving them a label so we can give them greater resources.
But it’s very important that we don’t fall prey to the idea that because someone
was labeled as gifted then therefore that is the essence of that person and it doesn’t
change.
And therefore those who don’t have that label the essence of their label is that they’re
ungifted.
We have to be very aware about falling into that trap if we want to maximize human potential.