ABSTRACT
People have not explicated clearly and unequivocally what it means to be intelligent, and then proceeded to draw out logical implications for teaching and to conduct empirical inquiry in the light of that definition. People have adopted practices in the light of no single clear concept of intelligence, with the result that a critical examination of the topic uncovers a number of implicit but unrecognised, distinct, and not always compatible, assumptions about the concept itself, and a number of questionable claims relating to it. As with giftedness, the underlying assumption, when faculty psychology was in the ascendant and work on intelligence testing took off at the turn of the century, was that intelligence was an innate quality. One was bom with a certain potential degree of intelligence, as one was born with a certain potential stature. The subjects that should form the core of the curriculum for all students are: literature, history, natural sciences, ethics, aesthetics, geography, philosophy, and mathematics.
