Daily Kennebec journal., 1912-02-23
MODERN EDUCATION.
How to Make Genius of Boy-Carefui
Training the Secret.

We are drifting into national de-
Seneracy. We are becoming Il crowd
of we'll drilled. we'll disciplined, COM
nonplace individuals. with strong
philistine habits and notions OF gen.
eral mediocrity. We have clever
business men, cunning artisans. re-
sourceful politicians. adro.t leaders of
new cults. but no artists. no scientists,
lo philosophers, no statesmen, no gen
uine talent, and no true genius
Boris Sidis, one of the leading
PSYCHOLOGISTS of the times. SAYS we
are blind to the barbaric evils of our
|enyironment-in fact. he calls Us bat
blind, stock blind mole blind. and
stone blind.
And what are the underlying causes
of this state of affairs?
Our Vicious system of education and
cur drunken optimism. declares this
writer IN no moderate terms. Our
educators are owl wise, narrow
minded pedants. ignorant of the real
vital problems of human interests
What can be expected. he asks, of Il
nation that intrusts the fate of its
oung generation to the care or care
lessness of young girls, to the ire Of
old maids, and to pettifogging officials
with their educational red tape, dis
cipline and routine-petty bureaucrats
animated with a hatred toward talent
and genius?
In his essay, "Philistine and Ge-
MUS recently published, Sidis APP
peals to the fathers and mothers of
the country to wake up to these evils
nT n Str tGI A.
tion of genius, and not the training of
Philistines. AS the father of William
James Sidis the f2-year-old boy stu
dent of Harvard whose amazing pre-
cocity has startled staid educators the
world over he is peculiarly qualified
to speak with authority on systems of
education, since he claims that the
boys remarkable development is not
in the least due to heredity or abb
normality, but is entirely result of
careful training. Here is what he
says of him:
AS fathers and mothers ii may i'm
terest YOU to learn of one of those
bows who We're brought up in the love
and enjoyment of knowledge for its
own sake. At the age of Il, when
other children of his age are hardly
able 20 spell and read. and drag q mis-
cradle mental existence at the apron
strings of some antiquated sehooI
dame. the boy is intensely enjoying
courses in the highest branches oi
mathematics and astronomy at one ol
our foremost universities. The lilao
and the Odyssey are known to him by
heart and he is deeply interested II
the advance work of classical phlloso'
ply He is able to read Herodotus
Eschylus, Sophocles. Euripides, Aris-
tophanes, Lucian, and other Greer
writer's with the same zest anu eas'
as oEr school boy reads his 'Rooihsoi
Crusoe' or the productions of cooper
and Henty.
| '"Fhe boy has a fair understanding
comparative philology and mythology
| He is we'll versed in logic ancleh
history. American history, and mas
! general insight into our politics ah'
into the groundwork of our consutu
ton. At the same time he Is Oh ai
extremely happy disposition, Driin
ming over with humor and 1un. III
physical condition is splendid, M
checks glow with health. Many sir
would envy his complexion Beili'
above ! feet 4. he towers above III
average boy of his age. His plysica
constitution, weight. form. ana hafdi
hood of organs far surpass that
the ordinary sehoolboy. He looks NIX
a boy Of 16 He is healthy strong AM
sturdy
AT the time that the Sidis boy, thei
II years old, gave his lectures ol
-Four Dimensional Bodies eeiof
Harvards Mathematical club wne'
70 erudite professors saped at IN
youngster in knickerbockers gllpl.
|, wrestling with Euclidian theories nj
father gave out a few interesting tact
1