Salt Lake Telegram | 1932-09-14 | Page 7 | Daily Health Service

Daily Health Service Special Cla Classes e Recommended for r fr Gifted Children By DR MORRIS l FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical l A Ass s a s o 0 c e 1 l a lion aud and of lInda the Health Magazine l In all schools there arc children who never s seem m to study but always have their lessons It has been b believed believed be be- that this was primarily due duenn to an nn especially retentive memory Sometimes the children who learn so easily are troublesome because they have time energy and imagination tion enough to get into mischief Sometimes they are so exceptional that even their teachers in the elementary elementary ele ele- grades recognize that these children arc are likely to rise it in irk the world A survey made in connection with the White House conference on child welfare indicates that such gifted children constitute about 6 per cent of the school population There are children in the schools of the United States and approximately of at them are so exceptional that they ought to have special training train train- training ing in school There seems to be about an even number of ot girls and boys among them and there are just as many Inthe in inthe inthe the rural d districts as in the cities and towns These children do not have any special genius for Cor music art or literature lit lit- they h have he e merely exceptional exceptional intelligence It is realized of course that the curriculum in mos most schools is adapted to the average so that it is not easy for the child who Is not quite as smart as the others or for the one who is much smarter t to get along with the group The modern point o of view tends oward grouping the gifted children 1 and the backward ones in special cl classes and in adapting the work that they are to do to their special abil abU The result of ot placing children in such special claSses is to keep them constantly interested and to permit them to progress much more rapidly than do the average classes It has been argued that such grouping grouping grouping group group- ing is undemocratic and that it is not practical because these children when they come out in the world will mix with all the others However such an argument is illogical since it il would also be in order under the circumstances circumstances cir cir cir- to abolish grades altogether altogether alto alto- gether and to put all the children in one grade grad Those who are especially interested in the behavior of children feel that special grouping may make these children children chil chil- dren conceited It would seem howe how how- e eyer that c conceit is a trait of character character char char- acter most likely to be developed when such a child is surrounded with witha a a great many who arc are not up to him himIn himin himin in intelligence than when he is put putIna putina in Ina a group in which most o of the others are Just as smart as he is In the average class the especially Intelligent child is a leader in a class of especially gifted children leader ship is to be won only with struggle and stud study