Children Above 180 IQ Stanford-Binet: Origin and Development

276 Pages·1942·2.31 MB·English

by  Leta Stetter Hollingworth

CHILDREN ABOVE 180 IQ
STANFORD-BINET: ORIGIN AND
DEVELOPMENT
FOREWORD
Shortly after the year 1924 Leta S. Hollingworth prepared a manuscript on
"Children above 180 IQ (Stanford-Binet)" in which she surveyed the material on
the topic available up to that date and added accounts of five cases which she
had studied individually.
[1] As the years went by she held back the manuscript from publication and one
by one she found seven more cases to be included in her list. At the time of her
death in 1939 she had begun to revise this manuscript, bringing the survey up to
date and adding the new cases. The present book gives as much of this revision
from her own hand as is available. The Preface and Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are as
she wrote them. The accounts of the first five cases are given just as she
originally wrote them up, but to them "editorial supplements" have been added
in which an endeavor has been made to present for each case such data as have
been found in her files, with little in the way of discussion or interpretation.
The seven new cases which the original author had intended to include in the
manuscript she had not yet written up. For these, therefore, it has been necessary
to study the data she had accumulated for each child, to secure additional data
when and where possible, and to present such an account of each as she might
herself have written, patterned after her reports of the earlier cases.
Much is lost that would have been contributed had the author lived to complete
Much is lost that would have been contributed had the author lived to complete
her project. She knew these cases intimately and at first hand. Some of them she
had followed for as long as twenty years, taking a personal interest in the
individual children and their problems, advising them, assisting them,
continuously observing them, and frequently testing and measuring them.
Particularly inadequate must be the accounts of the later development of the
individuals herein described, for many of the details well known to the author
she not committed to paper, since she fully expected to complete the manuscript
herself. It is to be regretted that a follow-up study of these recent developments
could not have been undertaken, and a hope is expressed that this may yet be
done.
The chapters summarizing the group of twelve new cases are wholly without
Leta S. Hollingworth's touch. It seemed desirable, however, to give such a
summary as could be made under the circumstances.
Had the original author been able to complete her book, we know that
penetrating light would have been thrown on many of the more personal
difficulties of these children of rare intelligence. This experience and insight can
no longer be recovered. It must suffice to put on record chiefly the factual data
now available, leaving it for future workers to follow up, if it should seem
desirable, the subsequent career and destiny of the individuals whose early
development and background are herein reported. Identification of these children
is not made in this book, but the necessary facts for this purpose are on file and
identification can be made at any time in the interests of educational research.
The third section of this book as originally outlined by Leta S.
Hollingworth was to have dealt with general principles and with the social and
educational implications of the study of children of very high intelligence. Up to
the time of her death nothing of this character had been written by her explicitly,
but throughout the years in which her projected book was developing she wrote
a number of papers and reports bearing on the subject, and these were published
from time to time in technical journals. It is well known that the content of these
papers was dictated by her study of such cases as are herein reported, by her
familiarity with the reports of other students in this field, and by her own very
concrete and long experience in the organization and conduct of two
experimental projects in the schools of New York City.
It is, in fact, likely that the final chapters she had in mind for this book would
It is, in fact, likely that the final chapters she had in mind for this book would
have been a reorganization of the conclusions set forth in these articles.
Consequently, the last five chapters of this book, instead of being an attempt to
guess at what the author might have said in them, are all from her own hand.
They are either selections from or complete reproductions of papers she had
published on what she considered to be the implications of her observations of
children of rare intelligence.
The publication of this book has been made possible by funds granted by the
Carnegie Corporation of New York. That Corporation is not, however, the
author, owner, publisher, or proprietor of this publication, and it is not to be
understood as approving by virtue of its grants any of the statements or views
expressed herein.
Harry L. Hollingworth
Barnard College
Columbia University, New York
[1] Chapter 9 of Gifted Children, published in 1926, bears the title "Children
Who Test above 180 IQ (Stanford-Binet)." Some of the cases described more
fully in the monograph manuscript are also sketched in that chapter.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
PART I: ORIENTATION
1. THE CONCEPT OF INTELLECTUAL GENIUS Concepts of the Ancients,
Dictionary Definitions, Concepts of Genius, Miscellaneous Observations
Tending to Define Characteristics of Genius, Speculation and Comment
Concerning Genius
2. EARLY SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF EMINENT ADULTS Origin of Eminent
Adults, Yoder's Study, Terman's Inferences from Biography
3. PUBLISHED REPORTS ON TESTED CHILDREN Modern Approach to the
Study of Ability, Binet's Method, The Range of Intellect above 180 IQ, Children
Observed before the Era of Binet, Children Who Test above 180 IQ by Binet-
Simon Tests, Children Who Test above 180 IQ by Stanford-Binet Tests,
Generalizations
PART II: TWELVE CASES NEW TO LITERATURE CONCERNING
TESTED CHILDREN
4. CHILD A
Family Background, Preschool History, School History, Judgments
of Teachers, Mental Measurements, Traits of Character, Physical
Measurements and Health, Miscellaneous Characteristics
5. CHILD B
Family Background, Preschool History, School History, Traits of
Character, Judgments of Teachers, Mental Measurements, Physical
Measurements, Miscellaneous Characteristics
Measurements, Miscellaneous Characteristics
6. CHILD C
Family Background, Preschool History, School History, Traits of
Character, Mental Measurements, Physical Measurements, Later
School History
7. CHILD D
Family Background, Preschool History, Traits of Character, Mental
Measurements, Physical Measurements and Health, Miscellaneous
Characteristics, School History
8. CHILD E
Family Background, Early History, School Achievement, Mental
Measurements, Social Habits, Tastes, etc., Later Mental Measurements,
Later Physical Measurements, Later Scholastic Records, Extracurricular
Activities, Teachers' Comments, Summary up to 1921, Eventual
Scholastic Records, Researches of E, Summary of Development
9. CHILD F
Family Background, Preschool History, Early School History, Early
Test Scores, Home Rating, Miscellaneous Characteristics, Later
Educational Career
10. CHILD G
Family Background, Educational History, Early Mental Tests,
Later Test Records, Traits of Character, Physical Measurements,
High School Record, G's Brother's Record
11. CHILD H
Family Background, Preschool History, Mental Measurements, Physical
Measurements, Intellectual Ability
12. CHILD I
Family Background, Preschool History, Early Educational History,
Mental Measurements, Physical Measurements and Health, Miscellaneous
Characteristics
13. CHILD J Family Background, Childhood Characteristics, Later Mental Tests
14. CHILD K
14. CHILD K
Family Background, Early Development, Mental Measurements, Physical
Measurements, Later Educational Progress
15. CHILD L
Family Background, Early History, Achievement at Speyer School,
High School Record to Date of Writing, Later Tests and Inventories
16. SUMMARIES OF HEREDITIES AND EARLY BEHAVIOR Family
History and Background, Physical and Behavioral Development
17. SCHOLASTIC ACHIEVEMENT AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY Scholastic
Achievement and Educational Adjustment, Creative Work, General Statement
PART III: GENERAL PRINCIPLES AND IMPLICATIONS.
18. ADULT STATUS AND PERSONALITY RATINGS.
Adult Status of Highly Intelligent Children, Critique of the
Concept of "Genius" as Applied in Terms of IQ, Application of
Bernreuter Inventory of Personality to Highly Intelligent Adolescents
19. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY IN HIGHLY INTELLIGENT
CHILDREN General Considerations, The Part Played by Physique, Problem of
Leadership, Problems of Adjustment to Occupation, Learning to "Suffer Fools
Gladly", The Tendency to Become Isolated, The Concept of "Optimum
Intelligence", Conclusion
20. THE CHILD OF VERY SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE AS A SPECIAL
PROBLEM IN SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT The Quality of Gifted Children, The
Problem of Work, The Problem of Adjustment to Classmates, The Problem of
Play, Special Problems of the Gifted Girl, Problems of Conformity, The
Problems of Origin and of Destiny, General Considerations
21. THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLING OF VERY BRIGHT CHILDREN
Considerations in Planning the Curriculum, Enrichment Units at
Speyer School, Special Work, Emotional Education, Matters of
General Policy
22. PROBLEMS OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ELEMENTARY AND
SECONDARY
SECONDARY
SCHOOLS IN THE CASE OF HIGHLY INTELLIGENT PUPILS
The Elementary School, Transition from Elementary to Secondary
School, Consideration of the Questions Arising, What about Genius?
PREFACE
This study is founded upon the work of Francis Galton, on the one hand, and of
Albert Binet, on the other. It goes back to Galton's Hereditary Genius, read as a
prescribed reference in the courses of Professor Edward L. Thorndike, in 1912;
and to the publication in 1916 of Professor Lewis M. Terman's Stanford Revision
of the Binet-Simon Scale for Measuring Intelligence. It comprises observations,
measurements, and conversations covering a period of twenty-three years,
during which acquaintanceships and friendships, every one of them delightful,
have been formed and maintained with the twelve individuals who form the
basis of the study.
It was in November, 1916, shortly after taking appointment as instructor in
educational psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University, that I saw for
the first time a child testing above 180 IQ (S-B). I was teaching a course in the
psychology of mentally deficient children, and it seemed to me that my class
should if possible observe under test conditions one bright child for the sake of
contrast. Accordingly, I asked whether any teacher present could nominate a
very intelligent pupil for demonstration.
Miss Charlotte G. Garrison and Miss Agnes Burke, teachers in the Horace Mann
School, Teachers College, New York City, thereupon nominated the child who is
called E in this monograph. E was presented at the next meeting of the class. It
required two full classroom periods to test this child to the limits of the Stanford-
Binet Scale, which had just then been published. E
exhausted the scale without being fully measured by it, achieving an IQ of at
least 187. He was on that date 8 years 4 months old.
This IQ of at least 187 placed E in Galton's Class X of able persons; i.e., more
than six "grades" removed from mediocrity.
Taking 1 PE#dis# as one "grade," it placed him at least plus 11
PE from the norm; for 1 PE (Probable Error) equals 8 IQ, according to Terman's
original distribution of 905 school children. [1]
This appeared as sufficiently striking to warrant permanent recording, since it
would rate E as one in a million for statistical frequency, assuming "zeal and
power of working" to be also abundantly present.
I did not at that time have any expert knowledge of highly intelligent children. I
had been working for some years in the hospitals of New York City with persons
presented for commitment to reformatories, prisons, and institutions for mental
defectives.
I had tested thousands of incompetent persons, a majority of them children, with
Goddard's Revision of the Binet-Simon Scale, scarcely ever finding anyone with
an IQ rating as high as 100. This thoroughgoing experience of the negative
aspects of intelligence rendered the performance of E even more impressive to
me than it would otherwise have been. I perceived the clear and flawless
working of his mind against a contrasting background of thousands of dull and
foolish minds. It was an unforgettable observation.
I then began to look for children like E, to observe them with reference to the
principles of education. This search has been conducted in a desultory manner,
in "odd" moments, ever since 1916.
At times, as in 1922-1923 and in 1935-1936, when pupils were being sought for
special classes at Public School 165, Manhattan, or at Public School 500,
Manhattan, the search has been systematic.
Usually, however, the quest has been quite otherwise, for in the course of long
searching I have learned that it is nearly useless to look for these children,
because so few of them exist. In twenty-three years' seeking in New York City
and the local metropolitan area, the densest center of population in this country
and at the same time a great intellectual center attracting able persons, I have
found only twelve children who test at or above 180 IQ (S-B). This number
represents the winnowing from thousands of children tested, hundreds of them
brought for the testing because of their mental gifts. Of course there were and
are others who have not been found, since [this] search has never been
exhaustive.