MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE THE FERTILITY OF THE GIFTED 



J. SANDERS 



Rotterdam, Holland 



Before proceeding to discuss the various measures calculated to encourage 

 the fertility of the gifted I should like to preface them with a few considera- 

 tions. 



1. Those subjects are described as gifted who excel or could excel in the scien- 

 tific, artistic, technical or organized sphere. The eminence of those who show 

 a special aptitude for scientific study is probably due to their intellectual 

 superiority. Others whose technical skill is above the average have no 

 doubt an intelligence of a particular kind, whilst artistic endowment is due 

 to the influence of other factors. 



2. Intelligence is inborn and so are special aptitudes. This intelligence can 

 be measured by the well known intelligence tests of which one of the oldest and 

 best known forms is the Binet series, with its ramifications, such as the standard 

 Binet tests and also, in a wider sense, the National Intelligence test. 



Intelligence is expressed in the intelligence quotient (I.Q.) i.e., the mental 

 age divided one hundred times by the chronological age of the subject tested. 



3. Superior intellects are desirable for society. 



The nation's progress depends, to a large extent, on what is achieved by 

 its gifted subjects. They are the source from which issue great discoverers 

 and inventors; they supply the leaders in the various spheres. And in these 

 days of cosmopolitism and great international problems, the full extent of 

 which cannot possibly be compassed by one person alone, the community, 

 now more than ever, has need of intellectually gifted individuals. Tech- 

 nique in its highest stages and its extensive specialisation — the complication 

 and differentiation of social life — has need of a large number of gifted people. 

 A nation's prosperity very largely depends on the number of its intellectually 

 gifted. 



4. Talent is not equally distributed between the several classes of the popula- 

 tion. 



According to many of the investigations made, the number of intellectu- 

 ally gifted subjects is proportionately larger in the higher social classes than 

 in the lower strata. We would mention the investigations carried on by 



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