Sir

'Eugenics' is a word that most people believe has been consigned to history (see Commentary 'Should scientists study race and IQ?' Nature 457, 786–788; 2009 and Nature 457, 788–789; 2009). The term makes us think of the horrors of Nazi Germany, or perhaps the sterilization of disabled people in places such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Sweden (see T. Shakespeare et al. Genetic Politics: From Eugenics to Genome New Clarion Press, 2002).

However, eugenic thinking also survives in contemporary education policy, in the belief that some children are simply 'brighter', 'smarter' or 'more able' than their contemporaries. In the US and UK systems, this assumption finds expression in schools' use of 'tracking' and 'setting by ability', which separates children (from as early as the age of five in Britain) and sets them on very different paths.

Yet there is no way of measuring the limits of capability. Every test ever invented (whether an IQ test or a driving test) assesses only how well a person is currently able to perform certain tasks. Measured 'intelligence' is a product of social processes, not a determinant of them. The results often become self-perpetuating. Black children and their white peers from poor backgrounds are consistently over-represented in the lowest-ranked groups, where they cover less of the curriculum, are taught by less experienced teachers and make slower progress.

It is time that we were liberated from the racist and regressive ideas that have become so intrinsically bound up in the notion of intelligence. By finally having the courage to admit that contemporary patterns of class, race and gender inequity are wholly a product of our own policies and priorities, we might finally begin the urgent business of dismantling such injustice, rather than seeking to excuse it as an act of nature.

See also: The belief that genes cannot be changed is now outdated Identifying adaptive differences could provide insight The arrogance of trying to sum up abilities in a number Is poverty better explained by history of colonialism? Would you wish the research undone? Don't fan the flames of a dead debate A useful way to glean social information