SOURCE: "Bell Curve Liberals," in The New Republic, Vol. 212, No. 9, February 27, 1995, pp. 22-4.

[An American journalist, Wooldridge is the author of Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England 1850–1990. In the following essay, he favorably assesses The Bell Curve' s conclusions about the importance of IQ testing as society's primary means of identifying talented individuals. Wooldridge also discusses the evolution of IQ testing in Western society, America's political reliance on egalitarian educational programs, and the role of an intellectual meritocracy in the development of society.]

Opposition to the use of I.Q. testing goes back as far as testing itself. Its practitioners have been accused of, among other things, misusing science to justify capitalist exploitation; allowing their obsession with classification to blind them to the huge variety of human abilities; encouraging soulless teaching; and, worst of all, inflaming racial prejudices and justifying racial inequalities. To this school of...