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
Between the ages of seven and thirteen years, the minds of these
children are occupied primarily with exploration of the world
in which they have recently arrived. They are full of questions
of fact, not yet being distracted by the emotional and dynamic
interests that come with adolescence and adulthood. This is the
golden age of the intellect. Why? How? When? Who? Where? What? are
constantly on their tongues, as any parent of a child in our
classes will testify.
Now, in accordance with the philosophy and psychology which we have
tried all too briefly to indicate, a series of "enrichment units"
is being worked out at Speyer School day by day in our classrooms.
These are being published in the form of teachers' handbooks, in a
series designated "The Evolution of Common Things," the first
numbers of which have been published. It will take five years
to complete the series, at the end of which time we shall know
_from experience_ how much knowledge along the lines indicated
can be organized and learned by children above 130 IQ in the years
of the elementary school.
The handbooks, as they appear in published form, will represent
the actual work of _the pupils themselves_, guided by the teacher.
The teachers did not discover and assemble the materials of
instruction, and "give them out." The children did this work.
In the end, the teacher organized the total work into an orderly
sequence, and verbalized it in final form for presentation. But
no teacher would have the time or energy to carry on the work of
the school and also collect and compile the materials contained
in one of these units.
When an area of knowledge has been circumscribed by the children as
one chosen for study by class discussion, the teacher participating
in the thinking but not leading it, the pupils (there are twenty-five
in each class) divide themselves into "committees." These various
groups of three to five children each bring special knowledge
to the class periods, and all share in the sum total of facts
and ideas thus assembled. Libraries are thoroughly utilized
in this process. Ninety-five per cent of the pupils who were
admitted to our classes in February, 1936 (they were then between
the ages of seven and nine), had and were using "library cards"
from the New York Public Library. They are taken by their teachers
to the nearest branch of the Public Library on days arranged for,
and they "look up" their own materials, following the topics listed.
Librarians were at first skeptical as to the wisdom of admitting
these very young children to the card indices and other facilities
of the library. But librarians are an open-minded group, and they
were persuaded to let the children try. No difficulty at all has
been experienced. Stedman showed long ago that elementary school
children of IQ above 140 can use a library and consult reference
books as well as students in the normal school do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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