ABSTRACT

This chapter considers what it might mean to 'optimize' humans and looks in detail at examples of research and interventions that might be charged with 'optimizing humans'. Through the orientation to biosocial education, it makes a case for a careful optimization, showing how this is a longstanding part of what societies do, especially in relation to children. Some critical commentators have suggested that biological optimization appears as the future into which we are arriving, even where policy and interventions may be pushing further than the science they are built on allows. Education researchers committed to social justice argue that there is no such thing as innate intelligence, only differential resources, opportunity and treatment. Whereas cognitive psychologists and behavioural geneticists argue that intelligence is a real, measurable trait and that a large proportion of variation in intelligence is hereditary. Insights into the mechanisms of reading have been used to develop computer assisted reading interventions that are showing cross-language effectiveness.