'Destined to Fail': Carl Seashore s World of Eugenics, Psychology, Education, and Music

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Description of 'Destined to Fail': Carl Seashore s World of Eugenics, Psychology, Education, and Music

A little-known fact about the prominent US psychologist and educator Carl E. Seashore (18661949) is that he was deeply involved in the American eugenics movement. He was among the US academics to support eugenics long before German Nazis embraced it. A titan in a host of disciplines and a proponent of radical education reform, Seashore used his positional power to promote a constellation of education reforms consistent with central precepts of eugenics. Many of these reforms, including tracking, gifted and talented programs, and high-stakes standardized testing, were adopted and remain standard practice in the United States today. He promulgated the idea that musical talent is biologically inheritable, and he developed the first standardized tests of musical talent  these tests were used by early-twentieth-century researchers in their attempts to determine whether there are race differences in musical talent. Seashores ideas and work profoundly shaped music educations research trajectory, as well as enduring commonsense beliefs about musical ability. An intersectional analysis, focuses on the relationship between eugenics and Seashores views on ability, race, and gender. Koza concludes that Seashore promoted eugenics and its companion, euthenics, because he was a true believer. She also discusses the longstanding silences surrounding Seashores participation in eugenics. As a diagnosis and critique of the present, identifies resemblances and connections between past and present that illustrate the continuing influence of eugenicsand the systems of reasoning that made early-twentieth-century eugenics imaginable and seem reasonableon education discourse and practice today. It maps out discursive, citational, and funding connections between eugenicists of the early twentieth-century and contemporary White supremacists  this mapping leads to some of Donald Trumps supporters and appointees.