Number of words: 246

Feeling an outsider because of his intellect, Terman grew to be fascinated by the whole idea of intelligence and how it might be measured. After drifting through careers and ending up on the West Coast, Terman took a teaching job at Stanford in 1910. Founded only nineteen years earlier, Leland Stanford’s school did not enjoy nearly the reputation it has today. Within a few years, Terman established himself as the university’s first star faculty member. Terman put Stanford, and for that matter the apricot-growing valley in which it nestled, on the intellectual world map.

He did this with innovative work on intelligence testing. Terman translated into English the pioneering intelligence test that had been devised by French educator Alfred Binet. As is often the case with translations, Terman put a different spin on Binet’s original.

The Binet test had been intended to identify mentally handicapped children for the Parisian school system. Terman was more interested in “gifted” children (he coined that term). Terman also wanted a test that could be used for adults. He therefore had to add “harder” test items than Binet had used. He ended up substantially revising and extending Binet’s test Terman gave his university a boost by naming his test the “Stanford Revision and Extension” of Binet’s Intelligence Scale (now shortened to Stanford-Binet). The first version was published in 1916. Greatly revised, it is still being used today.

Excerpted from page numbers24-25 of ‘How Would You Move Mount Fuji?’ by William Poundstone.