Dissecting The Myths Of Merit And Meritocracy PART-IV

Merit, Intelligence and Geneticism Disclosed

“To get a high score on many intelligence tests, you must answer the test items the same way that most successful white, middle-class US males would respond. If a black person raised in the Detroit ghetto gets a score of 85 on the usual IQ test, can we say the score is a valid indicator that the black has less intellectual capacity than a white person raised in the Detroit suburbs who gets a score of 100? If blacks had made up the test instead of whites, might not the score be reversed? And if American Indians had devised the scale, might not blacks and whites both do poorly on it?” 4 This apprehension of a seasoned psychologist clearly marks the credibility and absolute reliability of IQ test which are often taken as the measure of merit? These tests are affected by the ethnic, gender and class relativity of IQ conception. They are very much foods of susceptibility and thus the major argument of merit based on such conceptions of merit or inherent abilities, as well. This understanding becomes even clearer when we see what Harvard psychologist David McClelland has to offer about intelligence and personality tests generally, “IQ tests tap those traits that are necessary for success in the “black board jungle”, but they have little or nothing to do with success in the non-academic world. In short , your IQ predicts what grades you will get (for instance) as a student in Harvard Medical School , but not how good a doctor you will be once you get your medical degree …..to succeed as a practicing physician , you must get well along with people and speak their language ( rather than book language ): you must be able to solve real-life (rather than mathematical problems): and you should have considerable respect for life” 5 , paraphrased by MacConnell . Am I wrong to stress the last part of the quote, ‘you should have considerable respect for life, what is much more valuable than other aspects?