1. From Indiana to Stanford: Terman’s Early Life and Career
Lewis Terman came from humble beginnings in Johnson County, Indiana, where he was born in 1877. He was a farm kid with a sharp mind, and from an early age, it was clear that he was academically ahead of the curve. While most kids his age were out working in the fields, Terman was hitting the books hard—so hard that he racked up multiple degrees before most people even figured out what they wanted to do with their lives.
He started his academic journey at Central Normal College, earning not one but four degrees (because why stop at one, right?). Then, he took his talents to Indiana University Bloomington, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. in 1903. But he wasn’t done yet—Terman had bigger ambitions, and he made his way to Clark University, where he earned a Ph.D. in psychology in 1905.
Fresh out of grad school, Terman jumped into the education world. He spent time as a school principal in San Bernardino, California, where he got firsthand experience working with students of all levels. That gig led him to Los Angeles Normal School, where he became a professor in 1907. But his real breakthrough came in 1910, when Stanford University came knocking. Terman took the opportunity and never looked back.
At Stanford, he quickly made a name for himself in educational psychology, and by 1922, he became the chair of the psychology department—a position he held until 1945. His research on intelligence would make Stanford a powerhouse in psychology, and his influence would shape IQ testing for generations.
Oh, and if you’ve ever heard of Silicon Valley, you can partly thank the Terman family. Lewis’s son, Frederick Terman, became one of the key figures in the tech revolution, mentoring guys like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (yep, HP). Many credit him with planting the seeds for what would become the global tech hub we know today.
But while Frederick built the future of technology, Lewis Terman built the future of intelligence testing—for better or worse. His biggest impact wasn’t in tech but in psychology, where he helped define how the world measured intelligence, shaped gifted education, and stirred up more than a little controversy along the way.
2. The Stanford-Binet: How Terman Shaped IQ Testing
If Lewis Terman had a claim to fame, it was this: he made IQ testing a thing. Before him, intelligence tests were kind of loose and experimental—used in small academic settings but not really mainstream. That changed when he took the work of Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon, two French psychologists who had developed a test to identify struggling students, and gave it an American makeover. His version, called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, was released in 1916 and became the go-to measure of intelligence.
One of Terman’s biggest moves was introducing Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a standardized score. Borrowing from German psychologist William Stern, he refined the formula to be (mental age ÷ chronological age) × 100. This number gave educators, psychologists, and, later, the military a way to quantify intelligence and compare people based on cognitive ability. In short, IQ testing became a numbers game, and that number started carrying a lot of weight.
But IQ testing wasn’t just about academics—it got real-world applications fast. During World War I, the U.S. Army needed a way to sort through 1.7 million recruits, so they turned to Terman and his colleagues. They rolled out the Army Alpha and Army Beta tests, which categorized soldiers based on intelligence scores. If you scored high, you got leadership training. If you scored low, you were stuck with grunt work. Simple as that.
After the war, people started seeing the potential of intelligence testing beyond just the military. Schools adopted it to classify students—identifying kids for gifted programs or special education. Businesses started using it for hiring decisions. Policymakers even looked at IQ data when shaping immigration laws.
And here’s where things get complicated. Terman didn’t just see IQ as a neutral measure of ability—he believed intelligence was largely inherited, which fit right into the era’s eugenics movement. He supported the idea that society should be structured based on intelligence scores, which meant that certain racial and ethnic groups—those who tended to score lower, often due to cultural and language barriers—were labeled as less capable. His work became ammunition for biased social policies, from school segregation to immigration restrictions.
So while Terman’s IQ test revolutionized psychology and education, it also played a role in reinforcing inequality. The Stanford-Binet is still in use today, but modern psychologists approach intelligence testing with a more critical eye—something that Terman, for all his influence, didn’t always do.
3. The “Termites”: His Long-Term Study of Gifted Kids
Lewis Terman wasn’t just obsessed with measuring intelligence—he wanted to track it in action. In 1921, he kicked off one of the most ambitious psychology studies ever: Genetic Studies of Genius. His goal? To follow more than 1,500 children with IQs above 135 for their entire lives and prove that gifted kids weren’t just smart—they were destined for success.
These kids, soon nicknamed “Termites” (not the most flattering name, but hey, it stuck), became the longest-studied gifted group in history. Terman wanted to dispel the myth that geniuses were socially awkward, sickly loners. And based on his data, they weren’t. His research showed that high-IQ kids were generally healthier, taller, better socially adjusted, and more successful than their peers. They thrived academically, landed solid careers, and had lower divorce rates than the general population. In many ways, they were living proof that intelligence was an asset in life.
But here’s where things got interesting: not all of them became wildly successful. Despite their high IQs, some of the Termites led pretty average lives, and a few even struggled. Terman was shocked—he had assumed that raw intelligence was the key to greatness, but his own research told a different story. Turns out, success also depends on personal drive, opportunities, and even just dumb luck.
Terman didn’t live long enough to see the full arc of his study—he passed away in 1956, but his colleagues kept it going. Even today, Stanford University still maintains the research, making it one of the longest-running psychological studies ever.
What’s the takeaway? Terman proved that high intelligence can set kids up for success—but it’s not a guarantee. Grit, environment, and opportunity matter just as much.
4. Terman and Eugenics: The Darker Side of His Work
Alright, here’s where things get really uncomfortable. Lewis Terman wasn’t just a guy who refined IQ testing—he was also deeply involved in the eugenics movement, a disturbing chapter in history that promoted selective breeding and forced sterilization to supposedly “improve” the human race.
Terman wasn’t just casually interested in eugenics—he was all in. He was a member of several major eugenics organizations, including the Human Betterment Foundation and the American Eugenics Society. His belief in inherited intelligence lined up perfectly with eugenics philosophy, and he used IQ testing as a tool to push racist and classist agendas.
In his writings, he openly claimed that certain racial groups—particularly Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans—scored lower on IQ tests because of genetic inferiority. And he didn’t stop at just labeling them—he actively advocated for their segregation into separate educational tracks and suggested they should be discouraged from having children. In his mind, IQ scores didn’t just measure intelligence—they determined who was “fit” to contribute to society and who wasn’t.
And here’s the really messed-up part: Terman’s influence helped shape real policies. His work played a role in justifying racially biased immigration laws, educational segregation, and forced sterilization programs in the U.S. Eugenics-driven sterilization laws were passed in California and other states, leading to thousands of involuntary sterilizations of people labeled as “feebleminded” or “unfit”—many of them from marginalized communities.
Terman saw IQ testing as a way to engineer a “better” society, but in reality, his work fueled long-standing discrimination, systemic racism, and social inequality. And while eugenics has (rightfully) been discredited as pseudoscience, the damage it caused—including policies rooted in his research—lingered for decades.
So, while Terman made undeniable contributions to educational psychology and gifted education, there’s no ignoring the harmful legacy of his eugenics beliefs. Science isn’t just about data—it’s about how that data is used, and in Terman’s case, it was used to justify injustice.
5. Did Terman’s Work Help or Harm? A Complicated Legacy
So, was Lewis Terman a visionary or a villain? The truth is, it’s complicated.
On one hand, Terman revolutionized psychology. His work on IQ testing laid the foundation for modern intelligence research, shaped gifted education, and gave educators a tool to identify students who needed extra support—both those who were advanced and those who were struggling. The Stanford-Binet test is still in use today (in a much-evolved form), and his long-term study of high-IQ kids (the Termites) showed that intelligence alone isn’t a guaranteed ticket to success.
But then there’s the ugly side. Terman didn’t just study intelligence—he used his research to push deeply racist and classist ideas, backing eugenics policies that promoted segregation and even forced sterilization. His belief that IQ was largely inherited and fixed reinforced systemic inequalities, and his work was used to justify harmful immigration laws, school tracking, and racial discrimination.
And people have started to take notice. His legacy has been quietly erased from public honors—most notably in 2018, when Palo Alto’s Terman Middle School was renamed due to his ties to eugenics. While his contributions to psychology are undeniable, the way he used intelligence testing to reinforce social hierarchies leaves a lasting stain on his reputation.
Even today, the conversation around IQ testing is still messy. Psychologists debate cultural bias in standardized tests, the role of genetics versus environment in intelligence, and how these tests might reinforce educational inequality. In many ways, we’re still dealing with the impact of Terman’s work—both the good and the bad.
So, did Terman help or harm? The answer isn’t black and white. He left behind groundbreaking research and serious ethical baggage—a reminder that science, no matter how well-intended, is never just about the numbers.
6. Final Thoughts
Lewis Terman was a psychologist of his time, for better or worse. His work laid the foundation for IQ testing, gifted education, and intelligence research, but it also fueled harmful racial and classist ideologies that had real-world consequences.
His story is a reminder that science isn’t neutral—it’s shaped by the beliefs and biases of the people who conduct it. While his contributions to psychology are significant, they come with a complicated and, at times, troubling legacy.
So the next time someone mentions the Stanford-Binet IQ test, just know—there’s a whole lot of history behind that number.
