Henry Goddard was born in Maine in 1866. His father died when he was 9 years old, and Henry was sent to live with an older sister. Two years later, Henry began studies at a boarding school. He would eventually graduate from Haverford College.
A trip to California to visit a sister led to a teaching position at the University of Southern California. He was also asked to coach their football team. He left after one year to return to the east coast where he eventually earned a PhD in Psychology.
After teaching for a few years, Henry became the director of research at an institution doing a psychological study of feeble-minded children. Henry took a two-month trip to Europe to learn about their work with challenged children. It was during this trip that Henry discovered the intelligence test developed by Alfred Binet.
Henry translated the test into English and began to promote it nationwide. This was the birth of IQ testing in America. What has now become a standard practice had a dark side to its beginning.
Henry was a strong advocate of eugenics. He felt that those with low intelligence should be isolated into segregated colonies. Henry also did intelligence studies of immigrants coming to America. According to his studies, 80% of the immigrants coming to America were feeble-minded. This study was highly influential in the Immigration Act of 1924.
Henry Goddard was a man with conflicted contributions to our society. His work to support eugenics was deplorable. His introduction of intelligence testing to America has had mixed results. It has led to special education programs in our schools, but it has also been used in fostering exclusion. He was the first person to testify in court in support of those with low intelligence levels who committed a crime.
The legacy of Henry Goddard and others who were the pioneers in intelligence testing is not a positive one. From its early connection to the eugenics movement, intelligence testing remains a way to make unwarranted assessments of a person’s potential. Every field of human endeavor has benefitted greatly from individuals who Henry Goddard and his colleagues would have dismissed as feeble-minded or unqualified based on a number on a test. But that number, as flawed as it is, remains a prominent factor in our assessment of intelligence and potential even today.
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“Your I CAN is more important than your IQ.”—Robin Sharma (author)