December S, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



643 



that the institution recognizes individual dif- 

 ferences both in regard to quantity and quali- 

 ty; that those having given evidence of un- 

 usually high powers will be expected to show 

 unusually high achievement through the col- 

 lege course; that they will be watched with 

 hopeful interest by members of the faculty; 

 that an effort will be made to give them such 

 personal direction and stimulation as they may 

 need; and that eminent leadership is charac- 

 terized by modesty and service. 



At the beginning of the second year, the 

 Dean of the Graduate CoUege summons them. 

 Each one is asked to bring three ratings on 

 the blank you have seen; one by himself, one 

 by a student friend, and one by an instructor. 

 In the light of these analyzed ratings and the 

 achievement of the freshman year, wo talk 

 over the situation with them individually in 

 preparation for the selection of their major 

 at the beginning of their junior year. This 

 usually leads to an early introduction to the 

 most inspiring men in tlie major subjects which 

 they are to elect. The selection of a major is 

 then a distinctive step in the finding process, 

 and the selection of an adviser ceases to be a 

 mere form or a mere tool of administration. 

 This procedure has served also to give .mem- 

 bers of the faculty, who are interested in re- 

 search, a fresh interest and a clear point of 

 view in the effort to discover in their classes 

 other persons who show evidence of talent for 

 research; because the gifted students do not 

 necessarily fall in the highest group in mental 

 tests. 



But even this approach in the freshman and 

 sophomore years has revealed to us the ad- 

 vantage of beginning still earlier. As was 

 shown by Book in the Indiana survey, dull stu- 

 dents are as likely to go to college as bright 

 students. In the interest of scholarship it 

 would be extremely wholesome if those who are 

 interested in college entrance could reach down 

 into the high school and inject into that atmos- 

 phere the sentiment that the more gifted a 

 student is in the secondary school work, the 

 more desirable it is that he should go to col- 

 lege. It is only by the cultivation of a personal 



sentiment of this kind that we can draw into 

 the college those high school students of su- 

 perior attainment whose education is now cur- 

 tailed. 



What I have attempted to say so far is that 

 it is in the interest of creative soholarship as 

 well as culture in general that we should frank- 

 ly recognize the enormous magnitude of dif- 

 ferences in the individual capacity for achieve- 

 ment, and that this principle should be asserted 

 early in the course; flret, that students may be 

 found in the adolescent period of enthusiasm 

 and generous aspiration and wisely protected 

 from the machinery which is set automatically 

 to grind high and low to a common grade; and, 

 second, that instincts of curiosity, criticism, 

 collecting and comradeship which blossom in 

 the early adolescent period may be fostered in 

 an atmosphere of freedom, encouragement and 

 opportunity for achievement. 



Having thus entered upon a program of do- 

 ing what w-e can to discover the gifted student, 

 what can we do to follow up this discovery in 

 the undergraduate course? This question has 

 been answered by a very elalboimte report pre- 

 pared for the Association of American Uni- 

 versity Professors by Professor Wilkins point- 

 ing out sixty-seven varieties of things that may 

 work to this end. I shall not here attempt even 

 to summarize or classify these as they will 

 undoubtedly appear in a formal report of his 

 committee. 



The Division of Educational Relations, with 

 Dr. Vernon Kellogg as chairman, in the Na- 

 tional Research Council, has made a special 

 project of this problem of the gifted student. 

 It has various committees at work and aims 

 to collect and disseminate information on this 

 subject. I desire to acknowledge my obligation 

 to this Division for inspiration and facilities 

 in the work, but the suggestions I am now 

 about to make are not official; they are purely 

 personal convictions gained in my own experi- 

 ence and observation. 



In the proposals I am about to make, I shall 

 scrupulously avoid the recommending of any 

 procedure which shall in the slightest detract 

 from the present actual privileges and oppor- 



