Milford chronicle., 1962-11-09
She's Banking On
Young Bruin Trust
BY JEAN SPRAIN WILSON
AP Newsfeatures Writer


Mrs. Fetsch, is a plump, motherly
woman with wispy gray hair, rim
less glasses and three precocious
youngsters who has spent much OF
her life dreaming of doing some
thing constructive about gifted
children.
This fall, after eight years o I
pilot study, she has opened a year
round school for geniuses. 1t is
non profit, and non-sectarian.
Part of Mrs. Fetsch's dream was
stimulated by her experiences with
her eldest son Tom. Now 25, he's
getting his doctorate in mathemat-
les at Johns Hopkins. But when
he was a youngster Tommy's rest
lessness and inattentiveness prom
pied his teachers to want to put
him back.
Articles by DR.. Benjamin F n e,
an educator, also inspired the not
at all school ma'am-ish looking
woman to see to it that as she
says ''the gifted child, our greatest
national resource is not wasted" :"
DR.. Fines articles confirmed
what she knew from young Toms
troubles that unless high 10
youth is challenged to work h s
fullest capacity he is utterly bor-
ed. Such child resists run, Dick
run" books and bead stringing as
silly. Eventually he disguises his
intelligence because he is ashamed
of it.
This does not happen at E m
Courts school for gifted children.
Happy Smarties
Now the magnificent two mil
lion dollar waterfront mansion
that once echoed with the gaiety of
society parties is noisy with the
natural, happy exuberance of 31A
to Is year olds who no longer have
reason to hide their 140 to 10
los. 600 is considered average.)
In the kindergarten class are s.
year olds who rattle off chemistry
formulas and read world history
instead of nursery rhymes. In the
science lab trailer, a 6-year-o d
demonstrates solar energy by ro-
tating a globe with a fan.
An 11-year-old girl without pre-
tention discusses George Orwell
and Aldous Huxley And the vast,
paneled ballroom hung with mai
estic paintings reverberates with
the music of Chopin and Shumann
played from memory by a 9-year-
old lass at the grand piano.
Long, Hard Fight
Mrs. Fetsch's determination has
cost $4,000 and seven years of
litigation to obtain an appeals de-
cision reversing alegal viewpoint
that schools devaluate properties.
And each year, she and her hus-
band, Joseph, a retired electronics
specialist of the Navy's Bureau of
Ships, dig deep for 100000 to
keep the school going.
Half that pays the tuitions of
u sually talented youn gsters
whose parents can't afford the 5000
to $1,000 fees. I'VE can't, keep do
ing this. though, ''frets the gentle,
unprepOssessing woman. But it's
hard to turn these away. Who can
tell how much their expanded abil-
tiles can be worth to the future?'
Wives Tales
She hopes that industries, who
nay profit from their talents, will
provide scholarships for
little geniuses from the other side
If the tracks.
You know, there are just as
many born to poor, uneducated
parents as to intellectual Ones"
points out Mrs, Fetsch's mentor,
DR.. Fine. who is now serving as
her education director.
He says that the idea that such
children are always born to book
ish families is one of many fall
lacies about geniuses. The stereo-
type of an egghead pale,
5crawny child in thick lensed
glasses who has no athletic inter-
ests Is another
Proof of this misconception are
.he leaping, tearing, s h r | king
on the ball fields and
tennis courts scattered among the
IS acres of lawns, woodlands and
sandy beaches
Book Hungry
Still, except in athletics, Mrs.
Fetsch dislikes competition be-
.ween children. A child's challenge
should only be to his capacity to
earn, she explains, opening a door
to a store room. "Our challenge
here is keeping ahead of tn Ell
demands for more books"
Prospective students are given a
battery of tests measuring h r
present 10, and potential
10. OF the 500 who applied. 100
we're admitted and 200 were placed
On a waiting list.
Don't Rob Childhood
Phones ring necessarily through
,ut the 40 room house as parents
inquire at all hours about h e r
young. Nobody minds. 4,
II encourage their interest,"" in
sists the school mistress with old
shoe comfortableness. But she op-
poses the parents who pushes. II
say, don't rob him of his child
hood"
She waves at her youngest son
Fred, driving an electric lawn
mower over the rolling hills. The
athletic blond 19 year old is so
,usy gardening, chauffeuring, SER
ring the children in the school
cafeteria that he has temporarily !
postponed his own higher educa-
ion.
Her daughter Gloria, 20, was
graduated with honors from Hol-
ins in Virginia. Working at h e
school off and on is son, T o m.
Toms teachers of along time
sgo don't know what they started. |