Shifting Schools: Conversations for K12 Educators

Rethinking the IQ test with Pepper Stetler

Jan 13, 2025

This week’s guest is Pepper Stetler, a Professor of Art History at Miami University and a thoughtful advocate for people with intellectual disabilities. She dives into her new book, exploring the complex implications of IQ tests in education. The conversation critiques traditional narratives around Down syndrome and stresses the importance of inclusive education. Stetler emphasizes the need for a compassionate approach that prioritizes individual learning over standardized assessments, especially in an increasingly tech-driven world.

30:45

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Episode guests

Pepper Stetler

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Quick takeaways

The discussion highlights the need to redefine intelligence beyond IQ scores, focusing on curiosity and diverse learning styles for all students.

Pepper Stetler advocates for inclusive education by sharing personal narratives that challenge dominant views on intellectual disabilities and parental identity.

Deep dives

Redefining Intelligence in Education

The discussion centers on the implications of IQ testing in educational contexts, emphasizing the need to rethink what intelligence means. The conversation reflects on how society often equates high IQ scores with success, contributing to a competitive framework that may not serve every learner well. This competitive view of intelligence is contrasted with the idea that learning should be rooted in curiosity and a respect for diverse learning styles. The speakers advocate for an educational approach that prioritizes inclusivity and recognizes the inherent value in the learning experiences of all students, regardless of their IQ scores.

Intro

2min

Rethinking Intelligence: The Impact of IQ Tests in Education

4min

Rethinking Down Syndrome Narratives

8min

Navigating AI and Personal Development in Education

5min

Rethinking Education for Unique Learners

5min

Rethinking Intelligence: Education in the Age of AI

8min

On the show this week Jeff and Tricia talk with author, Pepper Stetler about the new book

A Measure of Intelligence: One Mother's Reckoning with the IQ Test.

Pepper Stetler is a Professor of Art History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She writes extensively on issues facing people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, The Progressive, the Ploughshares blog and Gulf Coast.

Stetler also researches and writes about the art and photography of early twentieth-century Europe and the United States. In 2022, she was awarded an Art Writer’s Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation. She has written catalog essays for exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2022, she curated Craft and Camera: The Art of Nancy Ford Cones, the first museum scale retrospective of the Cincinnati-based photographer.

Stetler grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She received her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Delaware. She lives in Oxford, Ohio with her husband and her daughter, Louisa, whose general awesomeness inspired her to write A Measure of Intelligence.

Learn more about the book and connect with our guest.

https://www.pepperstetler.com/

Thank you to our show sponsor

https://www.neulight.io/?utm_source=shiftingschool&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=fallsponsorship&utm_id=1

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