Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and DevelopmentHollingworth, Leta Stetter
Science
Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development
Hollingworth, Leta Stetter
Gifted children; Stanford-Binet Test
[2] This section is an abbreviation of an account courteously
provided by Dr. Miriam C. Pritchard, who made a follow-up study
of L's first-term adjustments in high school.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SUMMARIES OF HEREDITY AND EARLY BEHAVIOR
It is of course obvious that no very general conclusions can be
drawn from data relating to a dozen instances of exceptional mental
endowment such as those reported in this monograph. Such data may,
however, be added to information in process of accumulation from
similar studies, the whole providing a respectable basis for
judgment. The facts concerning the group of individuals presented
in this book are, therefore, summarized in the form of the
following brief review. [1]
FAMILY HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
The racial and national ancestry of the twelve children whose
records have been presented in preceding pages may be chiefly a
condition arising from the population in which they were found.
Comparison with results from other population areas may serve
to check certain implications suggested herein. All these cases
were found and studied in New York City and about half of them in
the public schools.
Among the ancestors whose origins are mentioned, in the endeavor
to go behind the simple statement of "American parents," the
nationalities are given as Jewish, 13; British, 9; German, 2;
French, 2. In most cases the ancestors are individually compound--
as Austrian-Jew, German-American, etc.
The activities of the more remote ancestors cover a wide range,
from farming and small-town storekeeping to the learned professions,
large business, and political activity. On the whole, the remote
ancestors appear to have been fairly successful people, with the
majority of them in the professions. No cases of mental deficiency
or total incompetence are recorded among them.
A few of these children were from families in economic distress.
These cases were largely instances in which the father was dead
or incapacitated and the mother was struggling to carry on with
slender resources. But on the whole, as in earlier cases cited
from the literature of gifted children, the socio-economic status
was moderate.
The father's occupations are in 10 of the 12 cases in the
professions. They may be classified as:
Engineer 1 Lawyer 1
Army officer 1 College teacher 2
Accountant 2 Electrician 1
Journalist 2 Jeweler 1
Insurance 1
The occupations of the mothers, either before or after marriage,
when stated, were:
Advertising 1 Teacher 2
Housewife 3 Secretary 2
Statistician 1 Dressmaker 1
Scientist (M.D.) 1
All but 2 of the fathers are known to be high school graduates;
5 went beyond this point in business or trade school; 4 are
college graduates.
As for the mothers, all but 2 are high school graduates, and 5 hold
college degrees.
Ages of parent at time of birth of child, when given, are as
follows:
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