Show I 11 Too Toor Bd c u r L r J r rc A Prod 0 c 6 c e 1 Was the remarkable brain this head bead once bel help almost t com com- co B OW S Science Clence A Answers t-h t the e r Puzzling D Ie Q ues- ues ruined mined by being reached overworked manhood 1 before Sim lions tion Raised by the Fact That Some Boy and Girl Wonders of Learning Grow Up A L 1 To Be Geniuses While Others Amount jI 11 to Little or R i a When only k b s tt f R v r 1 f dv rk r s tf l 4 r al and at atten do aN i r r t a r Y L ten months he astonished his iy b to 4 a ak SF 1 LS S 5 faA F bY in ILin IL mom of it and other k t tv R v r rbY 4 words with hi e t t ash W F L figr rc 1 Y I I M d t A n I a H Hr i it ia f 4 r F r j r Y k kA z za i tt A v ct i y e 1 kr l t t 4 a i a a at Y A Y y 4 1 j 0 c c I Io rR R s aMb ts 1 He began using e typewriter o r tr r n r r u r x t a a F a y S a h rod when he was th years i Hu qA tr Aa kb tUv l iS t t ti w t Ja i g all z a 1 9 yh lessons on it A e t tr r 1 a o jj William J Si who J has bas strangely foaled failed to fulfill v o the theLis brilliant expect to- to vr lions the his Lis boyhood raised L r i h fi 4 f fi i l t a r y 1 g w t F Ff Z aXE aXEr aXES i A S aSlA r i f g di i l 1 J fi IS J I Marjorie MarJone and Thelma Thelina White two interesting mg young prodigies of the American stage 7 pA r rs OST parents are highly pleased pleased 4 MOST J L when a child of theirs proves quicker to learn leam and generally brighter than other children of h his age They may protest that they would just justas justas justas as soon have hare their clever youngster quite like other boys and girls times out of ten they are arc secretly proud proad of his precOCIty and do all they can caa to encourage encourage age it it The Parents parents of less brilliant children are correspondingly discouraged to see sea cc their little Johnnie Johnme or Mary struggling over the multiplication table wh while e the prodigy already is 13 mastering the ms- ms inks mas masteries tenes teries of fractions or decimals They cannot rid themselves of the popular Idel ide i that a cb child d who outstrips hb schoolmates school school- schoolmates school mates mates like I this Is sure enre to forge cn c-cn e c en further ahead of them when he be grows up tip But Bat scientists who have bave studied the subJect of precocious children from froni many dIfferent angles are not at all sore rare li Ie that It is rs sucha such a desirable thing Hung to have havo a boy or girl show extraordinary intelligence ce Many of them think that the child whose whore little brain bram absorbs knowledge as a sponge does water really stands less chance of success m In later life lire than the tho theno no normal l one who learns more slowly and with much more difficulty According to one theory the little Tittle pro brain bram is liable to over overwork ork it it- it self belf in m early life and to peter out when It comes time for far it to put its astonish astonish- astonishing astonishing ing store of knowledge to some soma brilliant use Perhaps there then never was a more striking striking ing mg example of the th way vay a prodigy can dISaPPOint all aU the great e expectations hu bia childhood achievements achievement have hav raised for him than is furnished by William The way he crammed his head bead with knowledge as 83 a boy by made him the won won- wonder wonder wonder der of world the world But now at nt the age of six twenty sir he h is 18 earning 23 23 a week in ina ina Ina a New York office office operating an adding machIne He Ho seems perfectly content with this largely mechanical work work-work work work which any person of If average intelligence and very little IrttIe education cap p can work perform perform where where- familiarity WItha with a dozen languages and his mastery of hIgher mathematics count for far absolutely noth noth- ing irig nothing It 1 Is hard to believe that this young man is the tha same sam one who long before he as old enough to put pat on n long trousers had bad acquired more knowledge than the great majority of men flea acquire in iu a lIfe lIfe- lIfetime time Still Stall harder is 13 it to believe that he chose chO O this Ibis almost menial memol job because It would not think The world first heard beard of young Sidle his s father the late Professor Dam B of ens Jf Harvard of-Harvard I that the boy then theD only six months old had bad learn learned learn d the alphabet Cy Dy the time the baby was ten months old he could spell mamma and several other words At seven years he re was WIS a master of the principles of physics and anatomy When he be was cle eleven en he ho amazed an audience of Harvard professors with a brilliant ex- ex expoSItion exposition ex exposition position of the th fourth dimension a branch of higher mathematics which only the most expert scholars scholar can grasp If what everybody expected had hId come true William would now b be at least leasta a great mathematician if not one of the th scientific geniuses of the age Ige slut tut he only punches the keys kes of an adding machine for eight hours every day The arts and sciences s in which he promised to shins have lost all interest for him and he seems to have no r beyond earning the barest 1 necessaries of life y 1 Is Wit brain bram only restIng after its amazing ae- ae activity ac activity during his boyhood Will WIIl Willit Willit It some diy day get busy buoy bu y again agam and astonish the world Or havet havethe have t the cells that thIt form this brain bram been d imaged beyond repair by bythe bythe bythe the severe seveN strain that was im ini imposed posed on them by the boys boy's pre- pre precocity precocity It is alla all a mystery and the th psychologists find Ita It li a still one because of William bitterness toward to ird tho the father who supervised his ills education education edu- edu cation and mide him one of the sh greatest prodigies CS of learning the world has bas ever seen The son was estranged from his father for several years year be- be before be before fore the latter's death When a friend telephoned him lum a few months ago that thit Professor wa was dead the young man said aId he did not con con- consider con consider sider eider the information interesting IIo He no longer sees sc his mother For Var Harvard the tie university from which he was the tho youngest man eser eer e cr graduated he ha ex- ex cx the th deepest hatred and con con- contempt con contempt tempt From the time tune when William W l was wasa a baby his dIstinguIShed father studied his mental development as carefully as asa asa asa a bacteriologist studies the germs under his microscope As 13 soon coon as a new in- in interest in interest terest terest- budded in the little brain it was seized upon On U and turned to good account before it withered or gave place to some new interest At just the psychological cal moment when the childs child's mind was most mo receptIve to ideas ofa of a certain kind the father gave ga it all of them it would hold This Thi was how bow the ch childs child's child ds d's head bead became filled with so o much knowledge before he was of ont his baby clothes and bow bow- how how-bo ho bo On the right E Ira Iraa Iraa a t a Lucas the i child marvel of knowledge and below little Gloria Caruso who may be better bettera P f off if she shows tI a t I no early signs of f her fathers father's genius d b h a e 1 7 t 1 r e P Pe tj v 4 s y 4 r d s A 6 continued to add stillmore still more amounts throughout his Jus boyhood It seemed teemed to be b a n perfectly natural and barD harmless ess process PsychologISts could see in it none of the dangers of the artl artificial stimulation which many children receive through gh fear of punish punish- punishment ment or disgrace if they tiny tan fail to do well wellIn w in tn school Hut But William Si lS's bitt bitterness toward his father father his refusal to attend the old professors professor's leads funeral funeral leads to the suspicion suspicion I- I cion that be he regards hay his parents parent's method of educating him a sad cad mistake Ho He H seems to feel that ho be would be infinitely happier and more moro successful if each cach budding interest of his hia child brain bram bad hadnot not been BO so quickly seized upon and so abundantly fed with ideas Another child prodigy whose mind was trained by her mother muchas much as ai William Wilham Sid ISS IS'S was by his tua father was Winifred Stoner A 1 At seven eTen seven i z j he be beS i years q S A could wild discuss s anatomy 1 s more intelli 4 gently then than many physicians physicians phy phy- Ly Lya a t When six months old little Winifred WinifredA 1 could talk and dis- dis disA A 4 colors She J passed the examina examina examinations F bons for entrance to a Western university at J aj I Ithe the age of nine mac years pears years t J j Yet she like Sum has bas 1 4 4 i scored no remarkable t she the thet i Ii 1 achievement since t tt t t 1 1 i grew has bas has r made de 9 d none of the remarkable k r contributions to they the th W y worlds world's store of knowl knowl- knowl sl 1 f I edge which many ex- ex ex v petted from her early 4 3 precocity she the surely rF J would y ff if On Ou the other ether band hand handt i- i B science c i ie e nee can pOInt point to a great many child prodigies who grew up to achieve real great great- greatness greatness ness andrender and render lm- lm important im-h im t service to man man- mankind mankind kind One of the most notable is John Stuart Mall the great political economist He Ho could read Greek at four and two years later could have havo entered o college if the authorities would have bave permitted He was the tho product of a fathers father's care care- careful careful careful ful training traming following much the same methods used by Professor and Mrs Mra Stoner But But instead of SInking into failure or me mediocrity when he breached reached manhood he be h became one on of the beacon lights m in the Ur field of political economy An instance of ax as entirely different sort is furnished by bythe y the career of ot Charles Darwin Aaa As Aa a boy he was quite hill dulL His teachers thought him hIDI rather below the average in intelligence Yet by the lime Darwin was a grown full man hIS has brain had developed such auch power that he became one of the worlds world's greatest schol schol- scholar scholars scholars ars ar and evolved the Ole theory of f evolution which the Fundamentalists and und the Mod Mod- Modernists Mod Modernists are aTO ar ISO so o angrily arguing about day day to-day Is Ia it then useless to try to t predict from the promise boys and girls show aho w what they will be b able to accomplish as men and women Does the sort BOrt ort of education they receive make snake lithe difference with their future Is the extent to which theIr brains will develop and the use they will bo be able ablo to make mak make of them all nD a gamble 1 Science does docs not t fJ hi so se a It It believes it d T- T 3 61 I 1 I Entering Harvard when s eleven be he lectured before the professors on the very very highest branch of mathematics cs that prodigies will wm stand a better chant e of becoming outstanding geniuses s and an d children ch dren of normal and subnormal minds minda WIll mil become more useful citizens than they otherwise would if they receive the proper education Most educators are pretty thoroughly agreed that very early m in their lives the tho children who show signs of exceptional e mortal mertal ability those who are of only normal intelligence and those e who are arc m lD many any way below normal should be sepa- sepa separated sepa separated rated from one another and educated by entirely different methods When all three classes of children are arc poured together into one educational hop hop- hopper hopper hop hopper per to be b schooled according to the same sarno ironclad method regardless of their dIf dIf- dIfferent different dif different ferent mental ab abilities it is 18 not believed the best results can ever be attained What is u good for the prodigy is not DOt good for the average child and the things that help the subnormal child to greater progress are often worse worse than useless for forthe forthe the tho other two classes of children If parents and teachers 3 are to bring out the tho best there is in any given child they first must mast understand just what mental capa capacity nature has bIS given him or orber her ber The education of children must be regulated in accordance with their m- m in individual needs as IlS indicated by their na- na natIve native na 0 tIve brain bram power Otherwise very few of them will develop the best of whIch they are ar capable and a great groat many gen gen- geniuses geniuses will be lost to the world In one ono of the th crowded tenement house boo districts York City where most of th the population is of foreign birth or parentage an interesting effort is being made to separate the valuable wheat of human brain bram power from the th worthless or far less valuable chaff In a settlement house house bous a psychologIcal laboratory has been opened H Here He ex- ex ex will analyze and measure the intel intel- intelligence of thousands of children in the neighborhood and try to decide deade hw how they should ber bho educated and for what ham of work FIrst First a group test is given to clan das my airy in a II broad general way tho the genee and aDd natural aptitude of all the tb children Those who are arc most success success- successful successful ful are set aside to undergo more search searching ing lag individual tests Tho The results of af t these individual tests r I Now twenty-six twenty years old he insists on a job that does not require too much thinking and earns 23 a week running an adding machine a are judged in connection with reports furnished by teachers on the childrens children's work in rn school When the tests are ar completed all the children of this densely populated and polyglot neighborhood will have been divided dl- dl di divided vided into three classes the classes the possible prodigies and future geniuses the chil chil- children chil- chil children children dren of average intelligence and those who are below the normal in mental abil abd ability Y ity Then their theU education will be directed direct dIrect- dIrected directed ed edwith with a view to lilting lifting the possible prodIgies into geniuses and raising the th normal sad a id subnormal children consid consid- considerably consid- consid considerably considerably above the marks they set m lD their tests Not only onty do we hope hops to aid in tiro tho discovery of genius explain those who are in m charge of this novel novel experiment but we desire also aIso to prevent failures a ures Hundreds of young people start out In the tho world thinking they are arc genIuses only to be disillusioned when they find that they have not even mediocre tal- tal talents tal talents In making the tho tests both voca voca- vocational voca- voca vocational vocational and educational wo hope ope to set these young people on the th right path Sciences Science's advice to parents is 13 not to tobe tobe tobe be unduly worried when children show SIgns of being prodigies like lile Willlim William Sid IS or when they show no moro more sIgns of great intelligence than the boy Dar Dar Dar- Darwin Dar win did Nor should they be bo worried about I r children who show sided one-sided develop develop- development development ment especially if that development is 13 isalone along artistic lines Such children should be brought as nearly as possible up to the average as IlS fast as II they are able abl to togo togo togo go without strain and given every chance to follow fonow their chosen bent Even the average child has certaIn marked inclinations toward certain lInes of development and alf will suffer sutTer if of their Interest is u |