For the Gifted Child 



367 



Normal vSchool students assist in the 

 personal help of the pupils. Some 

 cities have one or more unassigned 

 teachers, who go where their efforts 

 are expected to prove most helpful. 



Only eighteen cities make use of 

 psychological tests in the selection of 

 pupils for special training. Most of the 

 students are selected simply on their 

 school records, sometimes with the 

 recommendation of the principal or 

 superintendent. Thus, most selections 

 are made on what the pupil has done 

 with no special incentive to unusually 

 good work, rather than on what he 

 could do under more avorable condi- 

 tions. 



The psA'chological tests used include 

 the Binet-Simon, Healy, Yerkes Point 

 vScale, Woodworth-Wells, Whipple, 

 Thorndike, Courtis, Ayres, Stone, Uni- 

 v^ersity of Nebraska and some others. 

 Many of these tests are educational 

 rather than psychological, and except in 

 one city they are administered by the 

 principal or superintendent; although 

 many cities employ trained psychologists 

 to make sj^ecial tests of defectives. 



SUMMARY 



To sum up the results arrived at, 

 every city in the United States of over 

 8,000 population was reached; 549 

 out of 766 cities answered, or more than 

 71%; 402 or 73% have elastic promo- 

 tion systems or other aids for the 

 exceptionally bright children; 31% or 

 124 of these cities consider their present 

 provision entirely inadequate. 



Of those reporting, 174 or 31% have 

 made some provision other than elastic 

 promotions for the atypic child ; 45 cities 

 have classes for gifted children only; 

 77 cities have classes including both 

 gifted and other "irregular" children; 

 36 cities have divided their regular 

 classes according to mental ability; 16 

 cities have teachers whose entire time 



is given up to the personal training of 

 either defective or superior pupils. 



Less than 0.5% (3) of the superin- 

 tendents answering the questionaire 

 disap])roved of the separation of the 

 mentally superior ; more than 24% were 

 emphatically in lavor of it, while many 

 others who made no definite statement, 

 must approve of it in view of the work 

 they are doing. 



As yet there is little attempt made to 

 determine the special gifts o the un- 

 usually bright students — ^they continue 

 the work of the regular grades, perhaps 

 more intensified. A few schools permit 

 the ekction of art, science, language or 

 business by bright students of the higher 

 grades. But sentiment appears to be 

 growing more and more in favor of 

 develo]3ing the child according to his 

 particular aptitudes. 



The change in the attitude of educa- 

 tors is evident. Soon, it is to be hoped, 

 the principal attention will be centered 

 no longer on the inferior, who can rarely 

 be brought up to par, but upon the 

 superior child, who with additional 

 opportunities can develop into a far 

 greater vSphere of usefulness to society 

 than if forced to take the same mental 

 foods and stimulants as the dull or 

 even the normal. 



Eventually every well-equipped school 

 system will provide expert psycholo- 

 gists who will diagnose and classify 

 the students and will recommend suit- 

 able training and opportunities for 

 the mentally superior. Then will the 

 rate of advancement be for each 

 student that which he individually is 

 capable of sustaining. Then will the 

 children above the average ability have 

 ample chance to satisfy their thirst for 

 knowledge, and children with special 

 aptitudes or decided bents in particular 

 directions will not be denied, as hereto- 

 fore, an opportunity to make the most 

 of what they have in them. 



