Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-18
BRAIN FORCED TO ACT
Training System Develops Boy
Wonder in Boston.
NOW STUDENT AT HARVARD
Plan Exploited in Education of Son
by DR.. Boris Sidis.
SPELLS WORDS WHILE INFANT
Operates Typewriter as Expert When
But Four Years 0ld-other
Achievements.
SPELLS WORDS WHILE INFANT

BOSTON, Mass. October 1s.-Some de-
| tails of the achievements of William
James Sidis, the eleven-year-old prodigy
| who has just entered Harvard with the
| highest honors are published here. and go
| to show that the youth, who is gravely
| declared to be the most learned under
graduate that has ever entered the Cam
bridge institution. is a wonderfully sue
| cessful result of a scientific forcing eX-
| pertinent, and as sulh furnishes one of
| the most interesting mental phenomena i'll
| history. His precocity is the fruit of
parental theory of mind growth put into
practice from the very beginning of hi
| life.
Young Sidis is the son of DR.. Boris ST.
dis. Boston psychologist, who years be-
fore the boys birth had developed very
advanced ideas on the subject of child
| training. On the basis that as soon as
child begins to grow its brain begins to
| grow also, and that the brain is less and
less sens tive to training as age increases.
Dr. Sidis had planned and developed an
| elaborate system, which he applied to his
| son:
The childs training was begun with
| set of alphabetical blocks when he was
little over year old When his young
son. sitting on the nursery floor. said "Ba
ba.'' DR.. Sidis took two of these blocks.
| denoting A and B. respectively. held them
before his ewes and showed him first the
| b. block and then the a. block.
Order Reversed.
Later DR.. Sidis reversed this order and
showed him the other sound that was rep
resented by these two letters. In little
while, on being shown first the "a"
block and then the 3D. block, the child
would say "Ab.' Thus. not yet two years
old, he learned to talk, read and spell all
| at once.
Before he was two and a half years old
| precocious William James would sit on
the floor In the midst of his blocks and
spell out various words. This was his
way of playing. He was next taught to
count Then. because he wanted the child
to know something about the idea OF
| time DR.. Sidis gave him some calendars.
explaining to him the meaning of them.
| For weeks he played with these.
One day he startled his parents by an
nouncing that he was able to tell on what
fall It was first thought that in his play
with the calendars he had memorized
some of the dates. Upon investigation.
however, It was found that he had
worked out all by himself method OF
counting enabling him mentally to CAL
culate any date demanded of him.
Typewriter at Early Age.
! When William James Cor Jimmy was
| shree and one-half years old he could use
a typewriter, and at four he was an
expert operator. He was also much in
| terested in fairy stories, learned them by
heart. and was soon studying elocution
and learning how to recite them to the
| best advantage
| BY the time he was five years old he
was not only able to read, write and
| speak English and to use a typewriter.
| but he was an expert accountant had be-
| gun to study French and Latin, and had
| written a textbook on anatomy and an
other on English grammar-presumably
| for his own use.
years old, he moved up several grades in
| six months. and entered Brookline High
School at eight years. In six weeks there
| he had completed the mathenati teal
course. and began writing a book on as
tronomy. Then he plunged into the study
| Of German. French. Latin and Russian.
Studies Mathematics.
| On leaving school he began the study
! Of mathematics In real earnest. Integral
| and infinitesimal calculus became his hob
bes, and in addition he invented sys-
! tenn of logarithms based on the number
IL instead of the number 10. This
| was inspected by several we'll known
| mathematician and pronounced perfect
| in every detail.
| Much has already been made of the
| story of the three years spent in endeav-
| oring to secure admission to Harvard,
| Sidis' age being an obstacle which the
| university authorities could not see their
way clear to override till this year.