G was brought for mental tests because she did poorly in the school where she was attending, receiving good marks in music and drawing only. The difficulty in keeping up to grade in general was readily explained, when the facts of school history were elicited. G was in a very exclusive private school, where the median IQ of the pupils is about 120, instead of 100 as among unselected pupils. This child, on account of the social status and educational traditions of her father’s family, had been competing all her school life in a highly selected group of children, and was now considered dull by teachers, by parents, and by herself. All were astounded to learn of G’s average intellectual capacity. [Illustration: FIG. 25.—Psychograph of G, showing special ability in music and drawing. (Percentile values for speed in tapping, and strength of grip have been approximated by estimate.) ] It may be remarked in passing that this is the school history of many an average child, born into a group where the family median is above the average. The problems of the son of an eminent man, who fails to inherit superior endowment and is but average in capacity, are especially acute, for he is usually expected to undertake tasks for which he is unqualified by original nature. The miseries of a boy of average ability, expected from babyhood to pass through Harvard or Yale, the distresses of a girl of ordinary intelligence, destined openly from childhood for a college of very high standards, are peculiarly poignant to the person who sees human nature in the light of all the facts which we have been recounting. The case of G, and scores of others like it in this respect, should lead parents to a policy of reticence concerning their expectations of their children, until it is certain that these expectations have a chance of being realized. Fortunately, the great majority of children of very successful parents never have a problem of this kind, because of the tendency to selective mating and the laws of heredity. Most of the children of gifted parents are themselves sufficiently gifted to perform the expected tasks as a matter of course. Not all children of gifted fathers are, however, gifted, because other ancestors, some of whom may be but average persons, are likely to contribute to the mental status of the child. Yet according to the customs of our country, it is usually the ability of the father that determines the social _milieu_ and the educational tradition to which the children are subject. Thus, the son of a corporation lawyer, who has inherited the intelligence of a stupid but handsome grandmother and the educational traditions of a brilliant father, is in a sorry plight, unless the facts of human nature are expertly and sympathetically understood in his family.