Evening star., 1937-11-21

yCoIS
Now, what has become of these 116 gifted
youngsters? They are now % to Is years old
and Doctor Lorge has recently given many
tests to sixty-two of them and investigated
their history. He finds the promise of child
hood is being abundantly fulfilled in youth.
Out of the sixty-two there were five who
tested above 1870. which goes through the
ceiling" of the best intelligence tests. Of these
five, Doctor Lorge says: Every one is note
worthy among contemporaries. Before age %
one had prosecuted research in history; one
in mathematics; one in chess. Two had be-
come established in learned professions. A
long list of medals and prizes had been won
by them. They hardly looked like bunch of
neurotics and failures.
Child A got through college at IL. He got
his doctors degree in theology and became an
ordained clergyman at 81 - the average age
for doctors degrees being 80. At 81 he is a
professor of the classics, few men achieving
professorships in top colleges before 36 or 40.
Now. as side line, he is getting his doctors
degree in music and appears to be on his way
to musical distinction. Hardly freak or
mental breakdown! The publicity about him
was immense.
Child B, fortunately, was never publicized.
We managed to conceal him, although he
made the highest score on our standard cul-
ture test ever recorded - 713 points out OF
a possible 8O8. This test covers every major
field of human thought and knowledge. My
own score is 525 and that of world famous
I,o10 oil ho at
q, is an inferno in hospital - the age when
most men enter medical school. think be-
yond question he is destined to become great
research leader in medicine.
Child c, girl, graduated from Barnard
at l6 She married early, and did not 60
on into professional intellectual work, except
that she is now writing occasionally for
magazines. Incidentally. she is very beau
tiful woman In fact, all these ll6 brilliant
children are above the beauty average.
Child D broke the highest previous records
except B's) on our general culture test,
making 636 points out of 8O8, before he entered
college! At the age of 20 this boy went through
one of our great universities in one year. He
got his master degree at 81 and is now going
OH Will every p4OilloC VI OCNOllAAiS oAIS VI ooA
truly great lawyers He looks like handsome
football star, not like freak, and has re-
ceived publicity all over the world.
''Child E, boy, is now 26 years old, and
we knew years ago that he was a true genius.
He is now famous research physicist in the
field of acoustics, and is doing distinguished
work in sound motion pictures
These are fair samples, think, of what
becomes of all true child prodigies. provided
they are discovered and intell,gently educated.
But to give them publicity is terribly un-
fortunate talked recently to a group of
these now distinguished scholars who had
been exploited as child prodigies. They we're
all intensely angry; they felt it had robbed
them of their true childhood. They said that
everywhere they went people expected to find
them looking like freaks out of side shoW
and doing extraordinary mental stunts"
You may ask how this explains what hap
pens to most child prodigies. Well, in the
first place, we see that children with any
degree of 10. do not often deteriorate in
mental power Doctor Lorge has shown in
other researches that true mental power nerer
declines, eren With age. We lose in mental
speed as we grow older but not in mental
power.
In the second place, many children in the
past have been hot-housed and pushed beyond
(Continvsd on po0s 1o)