Special Talents

the last years of the elementary school, to articulate with the higher schools. Both boys and girls participate in these special advantages, but in some cities only half as many girls as boys are permitted to be chosen. The psychologists, Peter and Stern, have pointed out that in the tests used for selection, the girls equal the boys in performance, and that this raises questions of policy concerning the education of girls, which are, perhaps, especially distressing in view of German traditions of education.

Countries abroad other than Germany seem to be doing little or no class-room experimentation to find the best education for the gifted. At any rate, such experiments are not reported in their literature.

It was said previously in this chapter that the multitude of man's abilities for performance cohere as regards amount; there is no biological law of compensation, whereby a person who is gifted in one respect is usually inferior in other respects. People like to suppose that there may be such a law, because if there were, the human idea of fair play in nature would be satisfied. Biological nature, however, does not behave according to our ideas of justice. The mentally superior person tends to be superior in all respects (even in physique, as shown in preceding paragraphs in this chapter), but there are a few exceptions to this rule of coherence among abilities. Psychologists have discovered at least two talents which do not seem to have much relation to ability in general. These are talent for drawing and talent for music. A child stupid in other respects may excel in music or in representative drawing, and similarly a child who is very bright may be specially defective in these respects. Talent in representative drawing apparently arises from a happy combination of a great many variable functions which are specialized. Likewise, musical talent arises from a fortunate combination of highly specialized abilities, which may occur in children otherwise dull, or may be deficient in children of superior intelligence.

Few surveys have been made to show how ability in drawing and ability in music are distributed among school children. Such as have been undertaken in music yield the familiar form (see Figure 1, page 279), and show a very great range of musical sensitivity. The most extensive work in this field has been done in the State of Iowa, by Seashore and his students.

A few surveys of ability to draw have also been made. In Berlin, at the present time, when the semi-annual Begabtenprüfung is held, a test of talent in drawing is also made, so that children gifted in this special way may receive training in the school of design.

Problems in the Education of the Gifted

The most conspicuous problem of those interested in Present rational education for exceptionally intelligent children is now, perhaps, that of the curriculum. What should they be taught? By whom? With what goals in view? The problem is no longer one of selection primarily, but of instruction. Should all children who test very high as regards intellect, be educated for science, for the professions, and for the direction of industry? Should society induce some of them to join the manual trades, as hand workers? Should unskilled labor be drained by educational policy more thoroughly than it now is drained by competition, of all first-rate intelligence? These are disturbing questions of consequence, which affect the educator.

Questions somewhat more immediate, and less completely philosophical in nature, concern the relative claims of rapid advancement as against enrichment of curriculum for the gifted. These questions are in some of their aspects susceptible to experimentation, but they have not been so approached as yet. Educational speculation seems, on the whole, to favor enrichment of the

Summary

curriculum, but there is no agreement as to what the additional subject matter should be. In 1923 a report appeared (see reference 1, bibliography) of the selection of a class of young children, organized for the purpose experimenting in the class room with curricular material adapted for the needs of the very intelligent. This class is being continued at the present time.

of

The objection is sometimes raised that special education for the bright is not suitable in a democracy, where all are equal. The obvious reply to this is that all are not equal in capacity. The biological truth is that all are unequal. Schools cannot equalize children; schools can only equalize opportunity. It may well be thought to be highly undemocratic to provide full opportunity for the exercise of their capacities to some, while to others the same offering means only partial exercise of their powers. It is hard for a psychologist to define democracy, but perhaps one acceptable definition might be that it is a condition of affairs, in which every human being has opportunity to live and work in accordance with inborn capacity for achievement.

For convenience, we may now recapitulate briefly the important facts which have been established during the past twenty years, concerning intellectually gifted children. Mental tests, given to large numbers of unselected children, yield always a few who attain superior rank. In various localities studies have been made of those ranking in the highest percentile, that is, of "the one child in a hundred," by test. These studies show that such children are usually youngest in their classes, though still much below the point where they could readily function, in the ordinary graded school. They learn very rapidly, and progress more than twice as fast as average children can, when they are segregated in special classes. They are large and strong for their age, as a group, and are superior in character and tempera

ment. They maintain their superior status, as they develop, and do not tend to become mediocre, as has been popularly supposed. The majority of them originate (in America, where social-economic competition is relatively free for all) in families where the fathers are professional men, clerical workers, or business executives, and they have many more distinguished persons among their relatives than chance would allow. Very few extremely gifted children originate among manual laborers, in cities where investigation has gone forward.

Educational policy in the United States at present gives scant consideration to these children, because the current social philosophy of the people denies the existence of innate, permanent, hereditary superiority. To them are assigned, in general, the same tasks as are assigned to average children; with the result that they manage, on the whole, to win an occasional extra promotion, though practically never to an extent that would permit them to work at full capacity.

As the new knowledge gleaned from mental tests becomes gradually diffused, the social philosophy which disregards the existence of the superior will undergo changes. Already progressive educators here and there are applying the new knowledge in educational administration. They are experimenting with new methods of teaching the gifted, and are trying to formulate additional studies for them,-trying to provide genuine opportunity for these children. As a result of such psychological and educational research, we shall soon have as much accumulated knowledge about the gifted as we have about the deficient, and shall be in position to do justice to the competent as well as to the incompetent.

The Onset

of

Adolescence

XV

THE ADOLESCENT PERIOD; ITS PROBLEMS, REGIMEN,
AND HYGIENE

TH

HE period of adolescence is the period during which a child is developed into an adult. This period is variable in length and in the age of its onset or beginning. Some children manifest the beginnings of adolescence as early as the tenth year, while others show no signs of the onset until they reach the fifteenth or sixteenth year; but these are extremes. A great majority of children show the beginnings of adolescence at twelve, thirteen or fourteen for girls; or at thirteen, fourteen or fifteen for boys.

There is a marked difference in this matter of the time of onset of adolescence in different races. The Mediterranean nations show a distinctly earlier beginning of adolescence than is found among the Nordic nations. For instance, girls of Italy may enter puberty as early as nine or ten years of age, and usually begin adolescence definitely as early as the eleventh year; while girls of the far north in Europe seldom enter adolescence before the age of thirteen, and most of them do not become adolescent before fourteen or fifteen.

In America there is such a mixing of peoples through intermarriage of Nordic and Mediterranean nationalities that one is not surprised to find that a large proportion of girls the country over enter puberty during the thirteenth year.

As to boys, there seems to be a similar difference in the age at which puberty begins in those of Mediterranean as compared with those of Nordic nations. However,