Binet’s school tests included number. Terman treated high IQ as proto-maths genius. Stanley’s 1971 SMPY finally measured maths itself above the grade ceiling.
The timeline below follows dated arguments and institutions, not a national myth of genius and not a group ranking.
Origin
1900s–1971 · France tests to Johns Hopkins — Binet’s school tests included number. Terman treated high IQ as proto-maths genius. Stanley’s 1971 SMPY finally measured maths itself above the grade ceiling.
Timeline
- Euclid’s Elements
Proof as a public talent display in Alexandria’s orbit.
- Hardy–Ramanujan letters
A jagged, self-taught profile enters Cambridge.
- Terman study
High IQ as a stand-in — too global, too Californian.
- SMPY founded
Stanley’s above-level SAT-M search at Johns Hopkins.
- IMO coaching industrialises
Socialist физмат schools and later East Asian camps.
- Gagné DMGT
Maths “gift” versus developed talent becomes a usable school diagram.
- Benbow & Lubinski follow-ups
SMPY adulthood: the tail still predicts some STEM paths.
- Dehaene number-sense work
Early magnitude skill as a cognitive starting point, not a caste.
- Mirzakhani Fields Medal
A public counter to the “who looks like a mathematician” filter.
- Macnamara education band
~4% — a warning about homework-as-conservatoire.
Eras
- Proof culture — Euclid to universities — Talent as written argument.
- Exam culture — Tripos, gaokao, SAT — Speed and syllabus as proxies.
- Search culture — SMPY / CTY — Above-level tests.
- Contest culture — IMO / olympiads — A sport with coaches.
- Imaging culture — Number sense labs — Starting points without racial stories.
Shifts
- From IQ to SAT-M 1971 — A domain test at last.
- From lone genius to camp 1980s– — Coaching became visible.
- From male default to open file 2000s– — Mirzakhani, Johnson, Kovalevskaya as ordinary syllabus, not tokens.
Mathematical talent: keep the dates visible. Names of talents are younger than the work they try to capture.