Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-18
bright CHILDREN
+. OFTEN MISERABLE
Director of Child Research
Center Tells of Trials of
Being Misunderstood.

Bright children often lead miserable
lives, according to DR.. Mandel Sherman.
director of the National Child Research
Center. at 1919 Columbia road.
A worried father the other day
brought to Or, Sherman 1O-year-
boy who was doing poorly in school, had
started to stutter badly and was nick
named "Dumbbell" by his playmates.
The child acted peculiarly and the
father was afraid he actually was
dumb"
When DR.. Sherman tested the child
he found, he says, one of the outstand-
ing child geniuses'' of his long expert
ence with children. The boy was given
o tentative intelligence quotient of $50,
but this is not final, because DR.. Sher-
man is confident that he failed on some
of the tests not because he was too
dumb, but because he was too bright
for them.
He missed some of the simplest prob
lens in the 12-year- level tests, passed
all of the l4-year level, rs per cent of
the 16-year level and several of the
18-year level calling for considerable
degree of abstract reasoning. Yet this
child is in the fifth grade in public
school and apparently can't keep
up with the other children. He has
brother IA years old, rather ordinary
boy. who constantly twits him for being
so dumb" and calls him hateful names.
Loses Confidence, He Feels.
The result, DR.. Sherman feels. is that
the child has lost confidence, is afraid
to speak his mind. and the stammering
Is the logical result. The best way TO
deal with such case, DR.. Sherman
feels, is to promote the child who is
failing in the fifth grade three or four
grades at once and put him on his metal
among children of his own mental age.
Such nicknameS as "rumbbell," low
brow Ounce" ETC.. among children
are suspicious in themselves, DR.. Sher-
man says, and children who suffer
from such names are apt to be ex-
tremely brilliant naturally, but need
the right surroundings to bring out
their brilliance.
The child who fails in simple sums,
Dr. Sherman feels, may be quite COM
petent in elementary algebra, If his
mental age indicates such study.
Ordinary children, he says, are quick
to recognize and resent superior intelli-
gence and prosecute the child they
think is brighter than they are in an
Under such conditions the child be-
comes fearful, withdraws into himself,
and actually may appear very dumb in
deed to teachers and parents. This is
defense reaction on the part of the
child, who wishes to appear normal"
and may be the basis of serious mental
troubles later.
Intensive Study Made.
So widespread is this resentment
against bright" children, Dr. Sherman
points out, that in a study undertaken
at Stanford University involving hun
dreds Of such boys and girls many
parents were extremely loath to have
their offspring appear unusually bril-
liant because of the common tradition
that bright children always go insane.
This Is far from true, DR.. Sherman
says, unless they are driven insane by
misunderstanding Brightness and neu-
rotic tendencies are not born together,
but often are put together by the
worlds treatment of the budding
genius" The case of this boy, he
points out, shows how little dependence
can be placed on school progress in de-
termining a child's real ability.