WHY ARE PEOPLE DIFFERENT? Since the beginning of time, people have thought, acted and lived differently from one another. Obviously one would want to know why people were different-why some are smarter or more ethical-and whether there was anything that made them permanently different. This question has been viewed in two ways by scholars. Some claimed that there was a strong physical basis for the differences, which made them inevitable and unalterable. Over time, these alleged physical differences were compounded by cranial protuberances (phrenology), the size and shape of the skull (craniology), and, today, genes.two Others pointed to the great diversity of training of each person, their experiences, training or ways of learning. You may be surprised to learn that one of the great proponents of this view was Alfred Binet, inventor of the intelligence quotient (IQ) test.3 Is the purpose of this test to summarize children's unchanging intelligence? Not really. Binet, a Frenchman who worked in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, wanted to identify children who were not succeeding in learning in Parisian public schools, in order to enable the creation of new educational programs that would allow their recovery. Without denying individual differences in children's intellects, Binet believed that education and practice would be able to produce fundamental changes in intelligence. Here is an excerpt from one of his major works, Modern Ideas for Children, in which he summarizes the work he has done with hundreds of children who have learning difficulties: Some modern philosophers [...
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